[KS] Re: the "white males" question

[michael Robinson]

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__________________________________________

Dear Ms. Oum:

thank you for the bibliography, but I'm not that behind on things as we
have
reconstructed our categories.  However, the point remains if that is
what
you meant, then use it, but mark it.  Remember this is a list with a
varied
membership.  We have different terms and areas of reference.  We are
trying
to speak to a wider audience.  so when we get into such discussions as
this
thread which can be very tricky....we remember that we are not
conversing,
nor are we reading and commenting on carefully crafted papers that have
terms defined and assumptions spelled out.  In the heat of such
exchanges
qualification would be helpful to de-personalize such issues.  We are
all
negotiating between our smaller communities of interest with their
implied
understandings of various issues, and wider audiences that necessarily
do
not share those assumptions immediately.  Wasn't this the point of the
discussion of language and the issue of the use of the word "boys."

Best Wishes,

MR

----- Original Message -----
From: Young Rae Oum <youngrae at ma.ultranet.com>
To: <korean-studies at iic.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2000 11:57 AM
Subject: the "white males" question


> At 11:07 AM 10/18/00, michael Robinson wrote:
>
> >But in the midst of deconstructing for clarity purposes the stereotypes
> >and essentialized useages about such groups why does the use of the
> >common and undifferentiated sobriquet "white males" remain in use?
>
> (snip)
>
> >Mike Robinson
>
> The "white males" (as a group and as an identity) is a social
> construction,
> which means it is powerful, thorough, and profoundly and pervasively
> instilled in social realities in the form of privileges and power and
> control.  I would like to suggest a few readings to the "why white
> males?"
> question rather than respond to it at length.  Please see some of the
> following. These provide eloquent and complex answers to this question.
>
>         Aida Hurtado, The Color of Privilege. Ann Arbor: The University
> of
> Michigan Press.  1996. (esp. chapter 1)
>         Gayatri C. Spivak, Feminism and Critical Theory, in Spivak, "In
> Other Worlds" (pp. 77-92) New York: Routledge. 1987.
>         Gayatri C. Spivak, A critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a
> History of the Vanishing Present.  Harvard University Press.  1999.
> (esp.
> the "philosophy" chapter)
>         Ruth Frankenberg, The Social Construction of whiteness.
> Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press. 1993.
>         Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double
> Consciousness. Harvard University Press.  1993.
>
> Regards,
>
> Young Rae Oum
>