Month: November 2018

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JTPrGUTlE86qGSK8wRicV-be4JuaQsYOwJxxuhsrpXc/edit?usp=sharing

A lively discussion between Kenji Yoshino, author of the book “Covering,” and Kwame Anthony Appiah, who wrote “Go Ahead, Speak for Yourself” for the New York Times.

In Appiah’s article the reader is informed speaks about a phrase that calls back stereotypes and certain ways that people are forced to act. This phrase is “as an X” X represents an identity. Like a black person saying “As an African American” to inform the people they are speaking to that they are making a point relative to an expertise that comes from their heritage or experiences. This statement implies that every person from these groups have similar experiences are expected to act in certain ways: This calls back stereotypes that are harmful. The biggest fault of this phrase is that it forgets about something called intersectionality.

Intersectionality is the belief that there are many ways that different identities interact, so no one person can be fully characterized by one trait.  Appiah believes that “While identity affects your experiences, there’s no guarantee that what you’ve learned from them is going to be the same as what other people of the same identity have learned.” Everybody is different, regardless of one identity and “As an X” completely forgets this and blocks the conversation in a way. It asks the listener to see the person how they see every other sharing that identity. Don’t let others skew your viewpoint because of their often negative assumptions.