http://www.theadjunct.net/2009/02/05/echoes/ FULL-TIME THOUGHTS FROM A PART-TIME PROFESSOR Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:06:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 http://www.theadjunct.net/2009/02/05/echoes/comment-page-1/#comment-22 Stephanie Han Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:14:42 +0000 http://www.theadjunct.net/?p=66#comment-22 Forgot to add that the discussion should center around giving the WORD power...and that we the readers and writers have power OVER words and that you cannot let a word dictate your behavior, but rather, you dictate how the word is used. Controlling words. Purpose of writing...etc... Forgot to add that the discussion should center around giving the WORD power…and that we the readers and writers have power OVER words and that you cannot let a word dictate your behavior, but rather, you dictate how the word is used. Controlling words. Purpose of writing…etc…

]]> http://www.theadjunct.net/2009/02/05/echoes/comment-page-1/#comment-21 Stephanie Han Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:07:04 +0000 http://www.theadjunct.net/?p=66#comment-21 I think that further discussion on when and how the word is used (within the context of the classroom) would be good prior to the story. I have also faced this situation, although obviously as an Asian American female, it's probably not as charged. I set the tone of a discussion on racial slurs prior to any reading of material that contains "the n-word" by eliciting a series of racial/ethnic/homophobic/religious slurs. So, people start volunteering--spic, chink, nigger, chief, wop etc...and as the stuff is called out (I might volunteer 'gook', for example, or 'whitey') people actually start laughing because the list can go on and on and then there's always the one person who has an extremely LARGE offensive-word vocabulary. This leaves some wondering, how does X know all this, and does X use these words, but nonetheless,once all the words are spoken, written down in the class, it kind of cuts tension. Sometimes there are slurs that I've never heard and people have to explain them or spell them out. Maybe I tell them a bit about how one word, like 'gook' originated (in Korean war, and means something like 'people/country' so that when people are screaming 'gook' they are really screaming 'country' which sounds ridiculous anyway.) Usually the word list covers half the board and people really get into it. Then, when we read some work, I think we did a Maya Angelou piece, we can use the word in the context, and I point out before discussion that we will use the word while discussing it. We ocne read that piece Chink by Christine Leong and I even mentioned how it was a generational use because in my age group, I might have had a heart attack if a friend called me a chink--no matter his or her ethnicity. Anyway, it is a complicated situation, but above is how I managed to solve the class tension and complication issue with a little humor. I think that further discussion on when and how the word is used (within the context of the classroom) would be good prior to the story. I have also faced this situation, although obviously as an Asian American female, it’s probably not as charged. I set the tone of a discussion on racial slurs prior to any reading of material that contains “the n-word” by eliciting a series of racial/ethnic/homophobic/religious slurs. So, people start volunteering–spic, chink, nigger, chief, wop etc…and as the stuff is called out (I might volunteer ‘gook’, for example, or ‘whitey’) people actually start laughing because the list can go on and on and then there’s always the one person who has an extremely LARGE offensive-word vocabulary. This leaves some wondering, how does X know all this, and does X use these words, but nonetheless,once all the words are spoken, written down in the class, it kind of cuts tension. Sometimes there are slurs that I’ve never heard and people have to explain them or spell them out. Maybe I tell them a bit about how one word, like ‘gook’ originated (in Korean war, and means something like ‘people/country’ so that when people are screaming ‘gook’ they are really screaming ‘country’ which sounds ridiculous anyway.) Usually the word list covers half the board and people really get into it.
Then, when we read some work, I think we did a Maya Angelou piece, we can use the word in the context, and I point out before discussion that we will use the word while discussing it. We ocne read that piece Chink by Christine Leong and I even mentioned how it was a generational use because in my age group, I might have had a heart attack if a friend called me a chink–no matter his or her ethnicity.
Anyway, it is a complicated situation, but above is how I managed to solve the class tension and complication issue with a little humor.

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