the way we educate people in Arabic is deeply problematic

Just stumbled across a man arguing that Arabic is not a hard language, it is just taught poorly. It was like stumbling into enlightenment.

Beyond what he writes, Arabic teaching entails a wide variety of (problematic! even dangerous!) assumptions -- both with the content that is taught, as well as the manner it is taught. Arabic is taught as:

• frozen in time (nothing recent is worth discussing; we read excerpts from things written 1600 years ago and from the Qur'an)
• irrelevant and non-relateable (which goes alongside "frozen in time": there is almost never any room for self-study into realms of personal interest; if you don't care about ministers meeting at a summit to discuss that dossier or about Arab history, you're bored the entire. time.)
• without child-level concepts (the very first lesson teaches you how to say "my father works for the United Nations" and "I am desperately lonely" -- not, say, how to say your colors, how to count, or how to describe people; additionally, those lessons, which come up after you can read paragraphs of media prose, are not even emphasized)
• passively inferior (nothing assumes you will be interacting with real people on an equal/low level; for instance, the --very short-- dining lesson was on how to read a menu -- not on, say, how to participate in setting a table or doing dishes)
• receptive (watch them, explore their cultural products through reading newspapers, no more is needed -- in the grand history of Orientalism)
  
• patriarchal (the very textbooks themselves have this problem: once in a while there is an article from an oh-so-enlightened man on how X, Y or Z event by a woman was really wonderful; I can't recall anything written by a woman)
• rose-tinted (all the pieces that are chosen are there to illustrate a very specific positive understanding of dead Arab culture. I never encountered any information about how women are pinched on the street in Cairo, for instance, or the pros and cons of having a police state -- though there have to be people writing on these subjects whose work could be used)
  
• depressing (despite the positive understanding of Arab culture, there is also a strong vein of victimization. I read an interesting article on the negative focus of Arabic instruction last year; I'm still not sure what the article is even arguing for, but its characterization of the Al-Kitaab series as "an indoctrination into misery" is right on the money)

Arabic instruction as it happens in English-speaking regions does not prepare its students to engage appropriately in personal relationships with Arabs. But personal relationships are everything when it comes to really understanding a different culture.

gay bar...

I was shocked at the extent to which people warmed up when I came out to them at the gay bar. Classic case of boundary forming, I suppose -- I could tell they weren't happy I was there and felt awkward and constrained, and then an hour later, everything was much more cordial and I was being included.

Two things learned: I look really damn straight. And, border work sucks when I'm perceived as the wrong side of the border. (But not enough for me not to want to engage in it myself in the future....)

Meatless.

Hillshire Farms commercials indubitably rub me the wrong way.

The perfect gender roles is part of it.

The unironic "Go Meat!" punchline is part of it. Go on, eat meat -- but cheering about it strikes me a bit too much in the vein of a straight pride cheer. You're celebrating something that people already happily do without any question (just to rub it in the face of those who don't live in that world?)

As I think about it, my big problem with these ads may be the blatant association of sausage with men and manliness. The company's celebration of meat is tantamount to celebrating the essence of men (more or less explicitly just for having penises -- look at the camera work in some of those ads!).

Sorry, no. Even if you are successful in getting me to associate kielbasa with "everything manly including Certain Parts", they still won't have a nice edible shape.

Race v. Class -- And in this ring......

Successfully baited by white men....

A white person changing a conversation to talk about class rather than race is a (racist) cliche. I am in no way well-educated on subjects of race, but I do know that. Please, recognize it as a cliche and own it.

Also? A dejected "Well, now I won't ever express my opinions again" is just more passive aggressive privileged bullshit.*

Censorship is not the goal of challenging white approaches to race. Censorship is the antithesis of the actual goal, which is encouraging education in an area that is vastly important but utterly neglected by the school system. The goal is to accept that as white people, to understand (much less to talk semi-intelligently about) how race affects anyone -- but especially people of color -- we need more background on the issue, so that we can better interrogate and understand how whiteness influences us subconsciously. That's basic race literacy. Grah.

FTR, race and class are separate and confounding issues.... I want to call out that first link on the intersectionality of race and class a second time.




*(the underlying motivator: when I/someone like me expresses an opinion, even on a topic I/s/he has no background in, that opinion should be automatically accepted as valid)





(And Glee? Was astonishingly non-offensive... but not engaging. Perhaps I've just grown to love it because it gives me a soapbox on which to bloviate? Yeah... >.< )