Interesting quote Daphne - I think an important characteristic that is left
out - and often left out in talk of oppression, is disability - physical,
intellectual, and emotional forms of disability - there is so much
oppression around these areas that we still think people are less than human
who are severely disabled - if we try mapping some of the attitudes about
those who are disabled onto other characteristics such as race or gender it
is easy to see how much oppression and exclusion we (that is those of us in
the we who do not live with daily oppression around disability) or perhaps
we as a mainstream society, accept as "normal" for those who are seen as
"abnormal." I think it is that struggle to see not walking as just as good
as walking for example that makes it easier for those of us who are not
disabled to see disability as a horrible state and offer charity rather than
equality - and of course that's the problem! 

If anyone is interested in a couple of resources I found amazing around
disability - one is the new documentary by Bonnie Klein a brilliant
filmmaker who became disabled herself - called Shameless: the Art of
Disability - it reveals the play and possibility of a different way of
understanding disability as she and several others who live with disability
reflect on images and stereotypes of disability. The other an essay by
Catherine Frazee (one of the people featured in the film who has always used
a wheel chair and never walked using her own body) - a powerful disability
rights activist and university professor - Still Life: Reflections on
Running, Walking and Standing (in To Arrive Where you Are: Journalism form
the Banff Centre for the Arts, Eds. Echlin, Moon, and Obe, Bannff: Banff
Centre Press 2000) - both shift the discourse about disability in ways I
found compelling and fascinating - and I find it quite disturbing how much
ableism is still often off the feminist radar when we reflect on
oppressions. 

Now after that long rant I should quickly introduce myself - I've been on
the women and literacy and race and poverty lists for ever and a day - so
it's interesting to see them combined - though not what I would have
originally chosen I'm enjoying see the intersections of the two - as I think
it is very valuable to look at the way oppressions intersect. I am sorry to
say I mostly lurk as there never seem to be enough hours in the day to do
everything I want to do - but for some reason this question drew me in -
especially when I've kept meaning to jump in and introduce myself - to those
of you who often put your voices - thanks for all the reflection - I always
read and am often fascinated, and full of thoughts and reflections in
consequence!

My work as some of you may know has been for many years now about the impact
of violence on learning and how to address and counteract some of the
negative impacts through the ways we carry out all educational practice (not
just the classroom, and not just adult literacy). I come out of adult
literacy work (rather than the counselling side), have been involved since
the early 70s when like many others I began as a volunteer tutor and then
began to turn around many stereotypes I had when I saw realities - I realize
now that I thought everyone should learn to read because I couldn’t imagine
how they could survive without - because I couldn't imagine surviving
without reading - that is reading fiction as an escape from reality!! 

I've taken long and windy paths to explore in practice, research and writing
literacy, ESL, job training, women and literacy and finally violence and
learning - and there I expect to remain obsessed to the end of my days - I
do believe it's such an important and often overlooked issue!! 

When I think of "violence" I include the full range of violences we may
experience in our lives - and believe it is important both to recognize the
complex interplay of individual experience and systemic underpinnings of
violence and the ways in which oppressions both are violent and foster
violence - for example the exclusion and put downs of people with
intellectual disabilities is violent and exposes people with such disability
to repeated violence - I remember well when a literacy student I was working
with said she could not stand at the bus stop alone because she would be
attacked - and as I stood beside her at the bus stop and cars slowed and men
yelled I suddenly realized that the street was a more dangerous place for
her than for me because the ways in which society diminishes, excludes and
devalues who she is make her an easy and sort of "acceptable" target... 

OK I must stop I have a million and one things I should be doing - I hope I
will be seeing some of you in Boston next march at the seminar Daphne so
kindly announced here - so that we can muse about violences and how they
affect  learning - and how we can address them and so support learning and
broader educational change.... 

Ah now I see why I don't often post - what was going to be a few lines
becomes an essay - apologies for going on.... !!!
Jenny  


-----Original Message-----
From: povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Daphne Greenberg
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 9:51 AM
To: povertyracewomen at nifl.gov
Subject: [PovertyRaceWomen 100] quote

I came across this quote and wondered if people on this listserv agree:

Merriam and Caffarella (1999), pg. 342 state: "Among the
characteristics of people that engender prejudice and oppression in
American society, race, class, and gender are three of the most powerful
and pervasive."

Do you agree with the above? Do you think that there are other
characteristics that engender oppressions that are as powerful and
pervasive as the ones listed above? 

What about the ABE classroom, the ESL classroom?

Daphne

Daphne Greenberg
Assistant Professor
Educational Psych. & Special Ed.
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3979
Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3979
phone: 404-651-0127
fax:404-651-4901
dgreenberg at gsu.edu

Daphne Greenberg
Associate Director
Center for the Study of Adult Literacy
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3977
Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3977
phone: 404-651-0127
fax:404-651-4901
dgreenberg at gsu.edu
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