HELLO ALL
I joined the list sometime ago and did introduce myself. So the next line
is a refresher. Born in Haiti/US resident. Anthropologist/performance poet
Diss on the political economy of subjectivity among Informal Commercial
Importers (modern higglers, if you will) in Jamaica.
I felt compelled to reply to Mimi's message partialy in solidarity with
her and mostly out of fear that her challenge would fall into the abyss.
Indeed, of what point is this medium if we (who have access to it) don't
use it to its full capacity.
As i have mentioned here before, the most difficult task that we have to
face and overcome is acknowledgement and acceptance of our positions as
experts/professionals/bystanders with interest in a region that we also
affect in multiple ways, especially those of us who live outside of it.
That is one of the ways in which we all pass to follow up on the current
theme of conversation. And ignoring or not responding to the challenge is
yet another form of passing isn't it? We know that the silence will
eventually swallow the issue and it will seem to dissapear. We know better
Issues only go on to a virtual world and soon return in another form.
Virgil Storr's question about the Guyanese PM's assessment of the current
state of the Caribbean is a case and point.
I can confidently speak on Jamaica and Haiti. The situation in both
islands have been dire for quite sometime. Whereas the Haitian condition
is more visible because of a particular history. Jamaica has been passing
as a democracy when in fact it has only had a brief historical moment as
such. Jamaica passes for multiple reasons. The truth of what has occured
and is occuring on the ground there remains unknown to the outside world
because of the potential impact of its outing on hegemonic dollars that
the tourist industry is built on. This brings to wonder about what are
the links tourism to democracy and liberalism. Yeah Yeah Yeah of course
we know and we have talked about this before but should we be worrying
abour recolonization or continue the discussion on neocolinization......
peace
g
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Gina Ulysse Ph.D.
Asst Prof African-American Studies
Bates College Lewiston, Maine 04240
(207) 786-6436 FX (207) 786-8338
[log in to unmask]
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We like trashing on the weak
because too often
we don't have the courage
to confront the powerful
--Cornel West
On Wed, 31 May 2000, Sheller, Mimi wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> As one of the 'silent' academics reading this mail list, I just want to thank
> Alicia and Haidee for breaking the silence about what the purpose of this
> medium is. I know some of you are very busy with examinations at the moment, so
> please read no further if you haven't the time.
>
> I don't think I properly introduced myself when I joined the list, so let me do
> that first. I am from Philadelphia and am currently a lecturer in sociology at
> Lancaster University. I am interested in questions of freedom, democracy,
> gender, race and power in the Caribbean (and the wider Atlantic world), issues
> which I have approached through the history of post-slavery societies. I did my
> Ph.D. at the New School for Social Research, in New York, and the thesis will
> soon be published under the title 'Democracy After Slavery: Black Publics and
> Peasant Radicalism in Haiti and Jamaica' (Macmillan, in press for Sept. 2000).
> I am now working on a new project called 'Consuming the Caribbean: From Arawaks
> to Zombies', which will be about the relations between Europe and North America
> and the Caribbean region over the last 500 or so years, in terms of the
> consumption of tropical food, land, and landscapes, but more importantly the
> consumption of people's bodies, labor, and cultures -- and how this has been
> resisted.
>
> So, what I really wanted to talk about was passing and privilege. We just held
> a very interesting conference here at Lancaster, called
> 'Uprootings/Re-groundings: questions of home and migration', and these very
> questions were raised by some of our speakers (who came originally from
> Trinidad, Haiti, Nigeria, South Africa and Israel via various other places in
> Europe and North America, while those of us who organized the conference came
> to England from the US, Canada and Australia, but have family roots in various
> other places). I feel compelled to respond to Haidee's comments on this list in
> part because the conference compelled me to think about the unequal power
> relations involved in sitting back as an 'academic' and listening to others (in
> this case Black women) do all the hard work of dealing with the lived
> experience, theoretical questions, and political praxis of 'passing' in an
> academic world which has been set up by and for a white male power structure.
>
> We all have an obligation to disrupt those proceedings wherever possible, and
> if making us stop and think about the purpose of this mail-list is one way of
> doing it, then let's take up the challenge. How does 'Caribbean Studies' fit
> into the larger academic and political scene? How is it produced and how is it
> consumed? For whom and for what purposes? How do academics studying the
> Caribbean, whether they are from the region or from elsewhere, engage with
> other kinds of people 'interested' (in the widest sense of the term) in the
> Caribbean?
>
> Those are some of my thoughts today...I hope to hear back from some of you who
> have taken the time to read this far. As you may have gathered by now, part of
> my interest in these questions relates to the book I am working on which will
> in part consider how 'Caribbean Studies' is consumed in locations of power
> elsewhere.
>
> With respect,
>
> Mimi Sheller
>
> Mimi Sheller
> Department of Sociology
> Lancaster University
> Lancaster LA1 4YL
> England
>
> tel: +44-1524-65201 ext. 93442
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 6:22 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Intorduction
> >
> > Hello Everyone,
> >
> > About three weeks ago Alicia Carson introduced herself to us
> > through this medium. In her introduction she told us that
> > she has a "passion for issues related to the Caribbean."
> > She went on to elaborate that her interests lie in current
> > events, educational issues and relations between the
> > Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba and the USA. I was struck by how
> > she is so eager to interact, as a matter of fact she said she
> > feels she has come across a good resource.
> >
> > As a result, it made me realise how lax we are regarding the
> > purpose of this mailbase. We have not really discussed
> > Caribbean issues (past or present), and have turned the
> > mailbase solely into a message board. Please do not
> > think that I am excluding myself for I am just as
> > guilty.
> >
> > Suppose I said that to pass into a forced whiteness begs
> > amnesia, how would you answer? What if I were to say
> > that Sir James Mitchell of St. Vincent needs to step down?
> > Or Dr. Eric Williams spoilt his people like an over-indulgent
> > parent? How about God bless Michael Manley?
> >
> > Walk good,
> > Haidee.
>
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