Do you really want to make me cry?
I don't believe you'd like to hurt me, and I certainly hope you wouldn't want to make my cry! But how would I know where your intentions lie if you were not able to express your true intentions to me? What if, when you mentioned in a meeting that my ability to do math in my head is sub-par, you really weren't trying to embarrass me? What if, when later on I shut myself in the bathroom to cry, I was completely overreacting because I now fretted that everyone will look at me and think, "Oh let's not talk to Jess because she can't multiply 45 x 3 in her head?"
We're talking about sharing messages and interpreting messages. I sometimes think that this is, in part, what understanding culture is all about: taking into consideration our way of interpreting messages and interpreting others' messages to derive a new meaning that is unique to the individual. If I'm locking myself into a bathroom stall as a result of a innocuous seemingly jovial statement, then perhaps both parties need some "time to realize [their] crimes." How? And...what does this have to do with writing and cultural studies?
I see two things happening within the discourse regarding cultural studies and teaching writing:
1) the interest to introduce students to a discourse which allows for them to investigate the devices of culture, the role in which culture plays in creating individual identity, how student texts can be seen as individual reproductions or representations of culture, and how culture shapes the production of individual texts (George & Trimbur, 83).
2) fear that “cultural studies” may be elitist. In other words, the course maintains dominant values, allowing teachers to instruct the course based upon traditional, majority only experience, minimizing the significance and voice of the minority experience. Thus, “cultural” is a term reserved for “this culture” and allows for negative stereotyping and Othering. Indeed this creates a problem in a diverse classroom or in any classroom, for that matter.
My fear for “cultural studies” is that it falls within the hands of situation #2. What do I mean by this? Isn’t culture about “multiple voices” instead of one, predominant voice? To an extent, I would not hesitate to argue that cultural studies should involve an array of view-points, critical analysis, styles of interpretation, controversy. I can best explain my apprehension regarding the integration of cultural studies in terms of my Ed. Psych prof who repeatedly referred to a population of people from Asia as “orientals,” rather than “Asians.” I would hesitate to call this professor unqualified or ineffective. In fact, his breadth of knowledge about educational psychology was quite vast and helpful. My problem with his aforementioned classification oversight stemmed from the situation that followed. I approached him privately after class to ask him if he had been aware that some people prefer to term “Asian” to refer to their ethnic heritage. He responded, “Well, yes, but Oriental people prefer to call themselves Oriental.”
This is not a joke, people. This is a true story.
He then referred to PDE’s website if I’d like to follow up with my inquiry. I did. In fact, PDE specifies “Asian” as the more “correct” terminology. Words are token, Boy George.
The lesson to be learned, here, is that neither of us is right or wrong (although I’d like to believe what I’ve heard about people saying “ ‘Oriental is for a rug or a piece of furniture than it is to describe people’”).
There should be a place for us to discuss these issues, understand each other’s points of view, and then to move forward and adopt different ways of saying things instead of deeming our one way right and absolute. We need to be able to be conscious of our word choice, which is I think precisely the benefit of cultural studies may introduce within an inclusive classroom environment. Also so that I know that a joke is a joke, but that I do have the ability to react in the way that I choose to react even if it's crying to "words that burn me."
I feel this tension within the argument for cultural studies in the classroom. If it is to take place, it must be done as a place where various viewpoints are welcomed, discussed, debated, and thus interpreted with the consideration of all players at stake: tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge, outside forces, and the individual who plays a part in re-presenting his or her own culture. Cultural studies should not be introduced as a passive “this is this, this is that,” manner; it should be an active exchange (just like any other class!). So I guess the question begs, if the approach to cultural studies is similar to the way in which a teacher already manages his or her class, then it’s up to the individual instructor to figure out how cultural studies fit into his or her curriculum. Some would argue “In every way possible!” and some may argue “When you feel confident to tackle those subjects as they arise within your course.”
I guess this is one of the loveliest and most difficult things about teaching: it is never static, never placid. It is all rocking waves and changing routes—the course, of course, being determined by the influential breath of wind and strength of sails.
I've been talkin, but believe me: the Culture Club is not only reserved for Boy George, Mikey, Roy & Jon. It's reserved for teachers who are willing to continue the cultural dialogue, to contribute to it and to honor where it has come from.
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