U2Bama said:
Thanks.
But I guess my point is that my "evidence" is simply dismissed as "anecdotal pieces" of such. Perhaps you don't consider it relevant or worthy of consideration in the bigger picture, or perhaps you simply consider it the exception to the rule. I cannot convince you other wise. But it does disturb me when people choose to ignore such "evidence" because they don't want to acknowledge such accounts of progress (there's that word again) in the status quo (and I'm not talking about the Katrina crisis/aftermath). Personally, I value the diversity of my community and I think it's a cussess story.
~U2Alabama
and this might be where we simply differ.
i find that these anecdotal pieces of evidence often function as excuses rather than examples of success. when you're dealing with politics, by its very nature, it forces you into making generalizations and looking at things in aggregate. politics forces you to sacrafice what makes you an individual and asks you to see how you align yourself with a particular social class, or race, or group, or whatever is being discussed at the time. one example, which comes easily for me, is that i can name you a million-and-one ways in which i feel distanced from what might be labled as "gay culture." however, this doesn't matter in the eyes of the body politic, because by virtue of being gay -- no matter how ill-fitting the lable -- there are certain rights that i am denied and cetain social stigmas that i will always have to put up with.
the same thing with, i think, being part of any minority culture. Kanye West is very talented, very wealthy, very arrogant, and the son of a college professor. in many ways, he's more "white" than i am -- however, because his skin is black, there are certain political and social realities that he is always going to have to deal with and he will always feel a closer connection to the poor black folk who died in New Orleans than you or i ever will. just like i will feel the executions of gay teenagers in Iran (have been several over the month of August) probably more profoundly than a straight person will. why? because it's simply easier for me to put myself in their shoes, through virtue of the connection that exists between people who are treated as somewhat different, in the same way, by politics and society.
i do think these pieces of anecdotal information might help to underscore a point, or provide evidence that complicates a situation. life is exceedingly complex, and we need personal stories to complicate the grand narratives that politics produces. however, a single story does not a counter-narrative make. that's really my point.
i also think it ties into something deeper that i find frustrating in American society. while our individualism is in many ways our greatest strength, and having lived abroad and visited over 30 different countries including lengthy homestays with "natives" (as it were ... in France, the UK, Germany, and Slovenia), i do think that we are a much more self-empowered group of people. it's what makes me want to live here rather than abroad, because i feel more in charge of the direction of my life. however, the downside of this is that i think the individualism gives us an out when it comes to collective responsibility, and this is where i think European nations (if i might be so sweeping) do a great job of putting the needs of the community -- especially on a micro level, as in environmentally responsible purchases, for example -- ahead of their own individualist whims. and the justification-by-anecdote plays into this.
so that's a long-winded explanation, but i felt as if i should give you some background so you know where my comments (and the inappropriate sarcasm) came from.
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