I'm actually uncomfortable with the "what topics are you fluent in, what are you comfortable talking about, what are you familiar with but not really sure of, and what are you totally lost about if they come up?" concept.
Not in general, but in particular. I've seen cases where people feel like if they've done enough study, even if they're not insiders in that group, they can speak with authority. And certain kinds of authority assertion are really hard to deal with. (In my own experience, it really bothers me to encounter experts in Japanese culture or history who are not Japanese, if they're saying things that I think are incorrect. Because I am not a scholar of those things, I'm not in a position to assert that they're wrong. And they may be right. I may be wrong. But it's disconcerting, and feels like erasure and colonization.
I'm hoping that goodwill and fellow-feeling (empathy, I guess) and an awareness that we will *all* screw it up at one time or another, that we're all products of the culture(s) we grew up with, and that apologizing and learning will help a great deal, will get us through the difficult topics. What I'm seeing is a potential collision between wanting to feel "safe" and wanting to learn things. I respect the desire for "safe", but that can end up precluding a place where one is challenged to grow.
Our first major hurdle as a community seems to be to figure out what we really want.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-10-13 08:13 am (UTC)I'm actually uncomfortable with the "what topics are you fluent in, what are you comfortable talking about, what are you familiar with but not really sure of, and what are you totally lost about if they come up?" concept.
Not in general, but in particular. I've seen cases where people feel like if they've done enough study, even if they're not insiders in that group, they can speak with authority. And certain kinds of authority assertion are really hard to deal with. (In my own experience, it really bothers me to encounter experts in Japanese culture or history who are not Japanese, if they're saying things that I think are incorrect. Because I am not a scholar of those things, I'm not in a position to assert that they're wrong. And they may be right. I may be wrong. But it's disconcerting, and feels like erasure and colonization.
I'm hoping that goodwill and fellow-feeling (empathy, I guess) and an awareness that we will *all* screw it up at one time or another, that we're all products of the culture(s) we grew up with, and that apologizing and learning will help a great deal, will get us through the difficult topics. What I'm seeing is a potential collision between wanting to feel "safe" and wanting to learn things. I respect the desire for "safe", but that can end up precluding a place where one is challenged to grow.
Our first major hurdle as a community seems to be to figure out what we really want.