Open Discourse for Change

As "Writing 'Race' and the Difference it Makes" involves a discussion of people of different races writing about their experiences, clearly correlations are made to Johnson and Cooper. All three articles demonstrate how authors can take control of the ideas surrounding, and representations of, their communities.

The introduction to Johnson reads, "[Johnson] laments the ways that Native American women had been stereotyped in literature, suggesting that voices like her own were needed to correct false impressions that had a damning effect on "the Redman [who] has suffered enough" (Johnson 385). Similarly, Gates discusses how black people responded to the severe allegations about their "nature" by writing books (Gates 11). "Text created author; and black authors, it was hoped, would create, or re-create, the image of the race in European discourse. The very face of the race was contingent upon the recording of the black voice" (Gates 11). Gates says that "... black writers wrote as if their lives depended upon it--and in, a curious sense, their lives did, the 'life of the race' in Western discourse" (Gates 13).

I love when people and communities feel empowered and act to take control of their lives. It's imperative for people to stand up against wrongful, detrimental representations because they do affect the lives of real people. When Native Americans are depicted as wild savages and black people as child-like barbarians, it is easy to justify their mistreatment in life. Therefore, I entirely agree with the call for more discourse about the experiences of people of different races from the people themselves. I do believe that nobody can entirely understand exactly another person's experiences. Cooper explains, "At any rate, as our Caucasian barristers are not to blame if they cannot quite put themselves in the dark man's place, neither should the dark man be wholly expected fully and adequately to reproduce the exact Voice of the Black Woman" (Cooper 380).

However, I think all of the authors would agree that there is another important piece to the solution of more authentic and positive discourse and representations of diverse peoples--awareness and genuine, heartfelt understanding among all. Last night my roommate informed me about a discussion in her gender studies class about how white feminists often shy away from talking about talking about feminist issues regarding women of color because the white feminists do not feel qualified to speak on their behalf. In this circumstance there is a lost opportunity of discussion about feminist issues regarding women of color, and that is unfortunate. People need to inform themselves and others about such issues in order for progress to be made. I understand that people may feel that it is not their place to talk or they may feel vulnerable and in danger of offending someone from the community about which they are speaking, but there needs to be open discourse in order for change. Cooper says, "The art of 'thinking one's self imaginatively into the experiences of others' is not given to all, and it is impossible to acquire it without a background and substratum of sympathetic knowledge" (Cooper 382). Those who are knowledgeable and sympathetic towards a particular cause must use their voices to inspire others to react in the same way.