Hello listers,
Its time for me to say goodbye from this list.
The space has become toxic, noxious, and the last straw has broken for me.
But before I hit the unsubscribe button, I will briefly outline why I am
leaving.
A pattern has emerged and is fixed. A pattern where any young/female/PoC
dissenting voice is disciplined by usually old/white/male voices.
Disciplined by terming the dissenting voices as rabble rousing, badly
behaved, (uncouth?).
Disciplined by demanding for 'objective' and 'rational' argumentation. What
is the problem in this you ask? Well, by now it is fairly established that
knowledge cannot be objective, even in the sciences. It cannot be removed
and isolated from the politics of its situated production. An individual
experiences cannot be undermined by generalized common-sense. By not
acknowledging and listening to the individual, situated experiences, and
demanding objectivity, you are imposing the hegemony of sciences, as if you
are stuck in the 60-80s.
Disciplined by talking down to only the dissenting voices, but not to
others, mostly because a) they are senior, b) they are your friends, or c)
you are scared of the implications.
Disciplined by demanding knowledge labor. Don't know what I mean by
knowledge labor? It is a typical trait by the oppressor. When an oppressed
person mentions an oppression, the oppressor demands knowledge (usually of
the objective rational kind) that will term / define their actions as being
oppressive. Another form of this phenomenon is also seen when the oppressor
demands to be educated in knowledge presented by the oppressed, without
taking the efforts to be educated. Case in point: When Teena raised the
issue of gender, the male profs / researchers demanded her to establish the
connection between gender and design research. So that the discussion can
be edible to them. If as researchers, researching the present and emerging
relations between objects and things and people you do not understand the
role of gender, then please go and do your homework before demanding from a
woman to take time off her day work to summarize to you in couple of
paragraphs how gender is related to design and design research. You know,
after all it is not just we males who have day work to do!
These and other modes of disciplining are acts of colonizing.
If you do not see that as that, then you are blinded. By your privileges
along the race, gender, geographical power axes. When the debate around
decolonizing design turned ugly sometime last year, I among others had
urged the members on this list to recognize our own privileges along these
axes, and be aware and sensitive (and empathize) by assuming that the
others on this list (particularly the dissenting ones) do not have these
privileges, and hence attune and attend to the difference in experience. By
not doing so, you the founders and / or gate-keepers of this list, are
colonizing.
And silencing. You wonder why the younger folks on this list do not discuss
and debate. Well, here is the answer: You colonize by your acts of
disciplining. The 'violent' outbursts you see here, and more on the social
media are nothing but the acts to reclaim a space for hearing. The violence
is not against you, but against your actions, which you seem not to
acknowledge.
If I have to continue on this list, I cannot remain silent, and I will have
to call-out each and every instance of colonizing, and that's just too much
of time and effort off my day work.

So, goodbye and thanks for all the fish!

Naveen


-- 
Naveen L Bagalkot, Ph.D.
Researcher & Faculty Member
Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology.
Bangalore
http://srishti.ac.in/ <http://labs.srishti.ac.in>

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