Muppets (was Re: BK on Identity)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Wed Mar 7 22:38:35 PST 2001



> > >>I treat nameless characters in anecdotes exchanged on e-lists as
>> >>"muppets." I'm not against muppets, however, if they are used well.
>> >>
>> >>Yoshie
>> >
>> >i fail to understand what it has to do with what i typed?
>> >
>> >kelley
>>
>> Discussion on race & class tends to deteriorate when anecdotal
>> muppets (my black neighbor, my black friend, etc.) appear. Let's
>> stick to exploitation & other structural oppressions instead as you
>> argued yourself.
>>
>> Yoshie
>*******
>
>What, let's understand structure without agency and if we admit
>agency let's not
>construct structur[ation] out of a rich phenomenology of individual's
>experiences? Big tales anti-racits learning and action will do a lot more for
>our side than Marxian inspired econometrics, even though we need that too even
>if it doesn't give some the knockdown argument they dream of in
>their quest for
>certainty.
>
>Ian

Anecdotes -- especially un-representative anecdotes -- allow you to grasp neither structure nor agency, much less agency rooted in structure. Everyone has anecdotes -- including neo-conservatives who can also trot out black muppets (my black neighbor, my black friend, etc.) in their anecdotes.

Yoshie



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