Ryan--as to your last post, I don't think it was so much racist as "true." Honestly, I've TAed and I have had tons of students in my tutorials exactly like the ones you and your friend Jess described in your post. I know it may not be fair to label them all as "Asian students" but really--Vancouver is full of Asian immigrants and a large part of those students have difficulty speaking and writing English. I don't blame them; I would have difficulty speaking or writing Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, or what-have-you if I was in their native countries and I'm often astounded that they can communicate as well as they can considering I'm pretty sure I'd be basically helpless if the situation were reversed. It can still get quite frustrating, however, if you're a native speaker forced to listen to several fellow students butcher the language, and then do so in a quiet, barely audible voice, to boot. (Now imagine that same experience being repeated three more times that week, and you have the life of the TA--and you don't even
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I think the big question for me is what having that post up says about me. I can think about my TAs--or anyone else for that matter, students included--that they can't speak the language, but shelovesjurgen is right, I mean... what do I take away from the class?
Then again, Magazine Publishing seems to have a unique group of students who are in the class because they think it's an easy A, do absolutely no work, and don't really care about magazines, and that puts a huge amount of stress on the group. If people cannot deal with group dynamics, I have no problem pulling ridiculous stunts to get them to do their work (like last year, where I threatened to call a group member's workplace and have a nice chat [read: FIRE THIS GIRL] with her boss after she tried to blow us off after we had all arranged our work and school schedules for a time she said she was free).
im glad you took it down because it was not funny at all unless you take the so-called critical perspective of "oh, its racist, but oh wells, lets lol"
racism is not just racial prejudice. its prejudice + power. that 'power' aspect changes everything because its what makes it "different" when someone like dave chappelle or margaret cho or russell peters makes a race-based comedy routine. on the other hand, chappelle/peters gay jokes suck so much ass. of course this is also a matter of a) taste and willingness to accept that as part of a majority group like whites (no matter which minority groups you are *also* a part of) people benefit from privilege and no matter how much of a liberal or progressive they think they are (or in the case of jeff foxworthy, dont care to ever be).
this bingo sheet is a fun way to see examples of privilege-laden statements we all make, because hey, everyone likes bingo
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and speaking of CHO... are you going to her show tomorrow?
btw, the reason why i'm not directly commenting on the post you wrote is because i think that what you say speaks volumes by itself. it's right, and just, and i agree with you. and i have lots to learn from you about myself. :)
bah im really sorry about today. you will be completely unsurprised to learn that i finished my paper a whole 1.5 hours before it was due, resulting in no sleep. bah. i was waiting for my sister to do some admin stuff at the pool where she works and while waiting i dozed off. she ended up taking someones shift who went home sick while she was there and i slept in the bleachers at stupid ubc pool for... seven hours!!! hahaha all the parents there must have been so weirded out by me. i thought i was taking a 20 min nap surrounded by students and all of a sudden theres some kind of swim practice full of lil kids and families.
i gotta admit, i'm pretty proud of you for being able to sleep for 7 hours on a set of bleachers. that's really impressive! congrats!
i napped a bit this evening, then i was at a friend's house and i fell asleep there, and now i'm home and it's 409am and i have to work on a project at 9am. i think i'm crazy. :(
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Then again, Magazine Publishing seems to have a unique group of students who are in the class because they think it's an easy A, do absolutely no work, and don't really care about magazines, and that puts a huge amount of stress on the group. If people cannot deal with group dynamics, I have no problem pulling ridiculous stunts to get them to do their work (like last year, where I threatened to call a group member's workplace and have a nice chat [read: FIRE THIS GIRL] with her boss after she tried to blow us off after we had all arranged our work and school schedules for a time she said she was free).
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racism is not just racial prejudice. its prejudice + power. that 'power' aspect changes everything because its what makes it "different" when someone like dave chappelle or margaret cho or russell peters makes a race-based comedy routine. on the other hand, chappelle/peters gay jokes suck so much ass. of course this is also a matter of a) taste and willingness to accept that as part of a majority group like whites (no matter which minority groups you are *also* a part of) people benefit from privilege and no matter how much of a liberal or progressive they think they are (or in the case of jeff foxworthy, dont care to ever be).
this bingo sheet is a fun way to see examples of privilege-laden statements we all make, because hey, everyone likes bingo
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and speaking of CHO... are you going to her show tomorrow?
btw, the reason why i'm not directly commenting on the post you wrote is because i think that what you say speaks volumes by itself. it's right, and just, and i agree with you. and i have lots to learn from you about myself. :)
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bah im really sorry about today. you will be completely unsurprised to learn that i finished my paper a whole 1.5 hours before it was due, resulting in no sleep. bah. i was waiting for my sister to do some admin stuff at the pool where she works and while waiting i dozed off. she ended up taking someones shift who went home sick while she was there and i slept in the bleachers at stupid ubc pool for... seven hours!!! hahaha all the parents there must have been so weirded out by me. i thought i was taking a 20 min nap surrounded by students and all of a sudden theres some kind of swim practice full of lil kids and families.
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i napped a bit this evening, then i was at a friend's house and i fell asleep there, and now i'm home and it's 409am and i have to work on a project at 9am. i think i'm crazy. :(
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im going to ed's house next tues night
you shall come
or i can come see you
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Stereotyping is one aspect of my deeply flawed and horrible sense of humour. And it effing cracks me up.
I would have probably killed myself by now if I didn't find something humourous about 99% of the situations I'm in.
And really, it's not one particular ethniticy/sex(although men bear my brunt)/SEC class/gender etc. that I dislike.
I pretty much hate everyone! Yay!
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