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Finally. No more Ramage. Moving on.
I was a bit put off by the lengthy introduction. I felt that Lakeoff spent too much time trying to explain the point of her book as opposed to just diving right in. I was ready to dismiss the book as a Ramage-esque piece. But then I began chapter 1. Lakeoff made some really excellent points and brought up many interesting aspects of society. I’d like to focus on the section about apologies. I know that we discussed this at length during class; however, I would like to make one last point that was somewhat touched upon near the end of the class. Apologizing for things that happened in the past - I’m sure we can all agree that yes, it’s the nice thing to do. But I also think that it’s just a ploy to gain audience support. The prime example being the apology for slavery. I think that it is a crucial tactic on the part of any middle-aged, upper class, white politician. What better way to gain ethnic support than to apologize for the wrong doings toward their race? Sure, there are people who are genuinely sorry for slavery, but it seems that politicians are really sorry around election time. It just seems that whenever a person wants to gain the support of a group of people from a different race, the appropriate thing to do is to apologize for something that happened solely to that group of people.
Moving on to chapter 2, I’d like to point out two very important points from this section. First, dealing with a passage found on page 71. Lakeoff points out Croce’s sentence in parenthesis “showered with Oscar nominations while the Serbian genocide goes on…” and questions the importance of that statement. I think it’s important to note Croce’s attempt to take something innocent and attempt to create guilt in an audience. I feel that this happens on the regular. Often, someone who is trying to persuade an audience to agree with their position will use guilt. Let’s think back to the days of our childhood. How many times have we heard from parents “there are starving children in China/Africa/etc who would love that pot roast! Now eat it!” parents would attempt to make us feel guilty for wanting to waste food, and try to guilt trip us to finish the last few bites. Perhaps that’s a crazy example, I don’t know. BUT it does [at least, I think] get my point across. Croce’s statements about the ongoing genocide are meant to make the people who watched/attended the Oscars feel bad. They could have been saving the world; instead, they were getting trophies for movies.
I think I am beginning to confuse myself, so I will move on to my next point. Page 80 contains a passage discussing black people who are ok because they seem white. I found this to be very interesting. I just wanted to throw in, that along with OJ Simpson and the Cosby family, there is also Will Smith. I find it interesting that The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is appealing to both white and black audiences. The formula is simple. The Banks family is “white” enough to be accepted by white society – the family consists of a Judge, a college prof., a talk show host, a model/singer and a butler. Will smith adds the right amount of blackness to the show. He is from the “hard streets” of Philly and occasionally will say “ethnic” statements. [What up G, That honey be bangin’, etc.]
Its 2:30am, I am tired. Take my post for what its worth.