The Implications Has Got Me Nervous

Gena Haskett — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:12:06 -0500

When I get time I will post more of his speech on my blog. If PR/media people are some of the folks that are setting the tone for national conversations no wonder we are in the trouble we find ourselves.

If a basic human instinct is routinely manipulated as a means of demonstrating power/control then how do we connect with other groups to say you have been chumped?

The good news is that PR/media power can only extend so far, there is a limit where the society will set up and say "No, this is not acceptable."

Wish this could have happened seven years ago.

Gena - Out On The Stoop

Gena, you bring me to reflection

Kim Pearson — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:51:30 -0500

First, yes, indeed to what T said.

Second, I am reminded of Toni Morrison's amazing and controversial 1993 Nobel prize speech, which is worth reading in its entirety, but which says, in part:

Oppressive language does
more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than
represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether
it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless
media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the
academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it
is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language
designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist
plunder in its literary cheek - it must be rejected, altered and
exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps
vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of
respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the
bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist
language, theistic language - all are typical of the policing
languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or
encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.

Thanks for the dimension that you have contributed to this discussion.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

BlogHer - speech - Comments

The Implications Has Got Me Nervous

Gena, you bring me to reflection