CCBC-Net Archives
Re: Bitterness and purity
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:17:21 -0500 (EST)
There is a hostility in this discussion that, on reflection, I can understand. As I have written both here and in print, in my feelings, in my emotions, I cannot forgive the Germans. I cannot. I do not accept their flourishing economy, their leadership in the councils of Europe, their skill in sports and science. Those are my deep bitter feelings. So perhaps Debbie, Christine, others feel that way towards "white" people, towards the power structure, towards the enslavers and murderers of their ancestors. Those feelings endure -- which is exactly what President Obama so powerfully and brilliantly spoke about in his "race" speech after the Reverend Wright blow up during his first campaign.
But feelings are not knowledge. I know modern Germans are not their grandparents. I know that there were Jews who were complicit in the Holocaust (the subject of Hannah Arendt's famous commentary on the Eichmann Trial, which is still controversial today); I know that African kings sold Africans into the slave trade; I know that the Seminoles decided to un-enroll African Americans. I know that we each as individuals make moral choices -- not as members of oppressed or oppressing races, nations, cultures, or ethnicities, but as individuals.
And so I urge everyone to shift the discussion from purity or knowledge particular to one group or another to the talent, sagacity, insight, wisdom, skill, of individual authors -- such as Tim. Artistry matters -- bitterness between groups should not.
Marc Aronson
-----Original Message----- From: Christine Taylor-Butler <kansascitymom_at_earthlink.net> To: CCBC-Net Network <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu> Sent: Sat, Feb 22, 2014 4:13 pm Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] By, For, About
Debbie,
Well said! Amen!….Christine
On Feb 22, 2014, at 2:38 PM, Debbie Reese wrote:
Actually, Mark, I've had nonfiction in mind, too, because the nonfiction about American Indians on most library shelves is especially troubling. So much of what is out there puts us firmly in the past.
Some of it is sloppy, too. A good case in point is a book that got lot of twitter-land play last month: Children of the Tipi, by Michael O. Fitzgerald. In it, the sloppyness was in mixing of different tribal nations on a single page, with no information provided to point to the different nations BEING different. Details here: http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2014/01/children-of-tipi-life-in-buffalo-days.html
And I have concerns about Floca's book, too. So I'd say that the issue of bias is not different from what I see in fiction. And, you suggest that research, evidence, and knowledge is free of bias, and it isn't. Sources have bias.
Debbie
__________________________________________________________ Debbie Reese, PhD Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo
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Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:17:21 -0500 (EST)
There is a hostility in this discussion that, on reflection, I can understand. As I have written both here and in print, in my feelings, in my emotions, I cannot forgive the Germans. I cannot. I do not accept their flourishing economy, their leadership in the councils of Europe, their skill in sports and science. Those are my deep bitter feelings. So perhaps Debbie, Christine, others feel that way towards "white" people, towards the power structure, towards the enslavers and murderers of their ancestors. Those feelings endure -- which is exactly what President Obama so powerfully and brilliantly spoke about in his "race" speech after the Reverend Wright blow up during his first campaign.
But feelings are not knowledge. I know modern Germans are not their grandparents. I know that there were Jews who were complicit in the Holocaust (the subject of Hannah Arendt's famous commentary on the Eichmann Trial, which is still controversial today); I know that African kings sold Africans into the slave trade; I know that the Seminoles decided to un-enroll African Americans. I know that we each as individuals make moral choices -- not as members of oppressed or oppressing races, nations, cultures, or ethnicities, but as individuals.
And so I urge everyone to shift the discussion from purity or knowledge particular to one group or another to the talent, sagacity, insight, wisdom, skill, of individual authors -- such as Tim. Artistry matters -- bitterness between groups should not.
Marc Aronson
-----Original Message----- From: Christine Taylor-Butler <kansascitymom_at_earthlink.net> To: CCBC-Net Network <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu> Sent: Sat, Feb 22, 2014 4:13 pm Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] By, For, About
Debbie,
Well said! Amen!….Christine
On Feb 22, 2014, at 2:38 PM, Debbie Reese wrote:
Actually, Mark, I've had nonfiction in mind, too, because the nonfiction about American Indians on most library shelves is especially troubling. So much of what is out there puts us firmly in the past.
Some of it is sloppy, too. A good case in point is a book that got lot of twitter-land play last month: Children of the Tipi, by Michael O. Fitzgerald. In it, the sloppyness was in mixing of different tribal nations on a single page, with no information provided to point to the different nations BEING different. Details here: http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2014/01/children-of-tipi-life-in-buffalo-days.html
And I have concerns about Floca's book, too. So I'd say that the issue of bias is not different from what I see in fiction. And, you suggest that research, evidence, and knowledge is free of bias, and it isn't. Sources have bias.
Debbie
__________________________________________________________ Debbie Reese, PhD Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo
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Received on Sat 22 Feb 2014 06:17:43 PM CST
