Vent.
It is a rare moment, indeed, that I feel the best and safest way to express myself is by typing frenzied rants into a piece-of-shit Dell in the computer lab, but given the object of my frustration, I am left with no other choice. Today, I'm thinking: Liberal arts is turning me into a neoconservative. I'm thinking: Fuck Race and Ethnic Studies. I'm thinking: Fuck political correctness and bureaucracy and carbon copies and petition forms in every color of the rainbow. I'm thinking: Get me out of here.
I don't want to learn about the systematic oppression and marginalization of women, Blacks, Chicano/Latinos, Asian American/Pacific Islanders, the fat, the handicapped, feminists, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trans-gendereds, transvestites, or anyone else, anymore.
No, fuck you. I'm a woman and a feminist and, according to the United States of America, an Asian American. But I'm also tired of "the best and the brightest" I'm supposedly surrounded by following a script that runs something like this: "We know. We have it rough, just like the others in our marginalized group. If we don't tell you what it's like to be us--if we don't put you in line--then no one will." Well, I'll be. Isn't it funny that the same rhetoric, as detailed by the scholarly books and journals that said "brightest" love to cite, of essentialism, tokenism and stereotyping, that served to marginalize certain groups of individuals in the first place, has been appropriated and recycled by purported anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-prejudiced and heroically marginalized equal opportunists?
Race and Ethnic Studies. Clearly, I am learning a lot about how to appreciate diversity and value individuals' identities. Clearly, others are learning to do the same. What a crock of shit. But because my skin's White and my hair's blond, the response I get when I question the efficacy of this "learning process" is: "You're just ignorant/old-fashioned/a Republican/a White supremacist/a bigot/an asshole." What critical thinking skills! Fellow students, I am truly impressed. You're right, I should have joined the Ku Klux Klan years ago, along with my South Asian boyfriend, HIV-positive best friend, divorced parents, two beloved lesbian aunts, and both sets of grandparents: two militant Democrats (my dad's parents) and two ESL immigrants (my mom's).
I don't want to learn about the systematic oppression and marginalization of women, Blacks, Chicano/Latinos, Asian American/Pacific Islanders, the fat, the handicapped, feminists, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trans-gendereds, transvestites, or anyone else, anymore.
No, fuck you. I'm a woman and a feminist and, according to the United States of America, an Asian American. But I'm also tired of "the best and the brightest" I'm supposedly surrounded by following a script that runs something like this: "We know. We have it rough, just like the others in our marginalized group. If we don't tell you what it's like to be us--if we don't put you in line--then no one will." Well, I'll be. Isn't it funny that the same rhetoric, as detailed by the scholarly books and journals that said "brightest" love to cite, of essentialism, tokenism and stereotyping, that served to marginalize certain groups of individuals in the first place, has been appropriated and recycled by purported anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-prejudiced and heroically marginalized equal opportunists?
Race and Ethnic Studies. Clearly, I am learning a lot about how to appreciate diversity and value individuals' identities. Clearly, others are learning to do the same. What a crock of shit. But because my skin's White and my hair's blond, the response I get when I question the efficacy of this "learning process" is: "You're just ignorant/old-fashioned/a Republican/a White supremacist/a bigot/an asshole." What critical thinking skills! Fellow students, I am truly impressed. You're right, I should have joined the Ku Klux Klan years ago, along with my South Asian boyfriend, HIV-positive best friend, divorced parents, two beloved lesbian aunts, and both sets of grandparents: two militant Democrats (my dad's parents) and two ESL immigrants (my mom's).