Thursday, June 5, 2008

Common marginalization

Modernity's assumption of a "transparently clear, culturally neutral, coherent language" (38) marginalizes everyone somewhat in that there are infinite perspectives with all of the cultural, social and individual constructions possible in the human experience. Modernity's grounding in white Western capitalism marginalizes many more than others, but affects us all. My experience has been one of pull/push, similar to how I read Rebecca's, in that it seems I have always been on the edges of communities with which I wanted to interact and struggled to hear my own voice amidst their inevitable social constructions. It sometimes surprises me, therefore, when I realize that others are "pushed" out to even further edges. I see Grimm as calling for us to use this common marginalization as a way to inquire about, understand, and encourage the voices of those whose experiences are different than ours, but the same in our location outside the myth of neutrality.

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