Thanks to Kingsley and Aneesa who sent me copies of our class notes (I'd lost mine).
I have augmented them and will add them here. Remember, these are abbreviated notes and are best made sense of in the context of our discussions in class.
Please come having read the story of the day and with one question and one comment on it. You will work to prepare your own additions to our theme notes going forward. You will do this in teams and then report out. I'll take notes based on those reports and post them here as well.
Please review the preceding post as it has links, due dates and additions made (in red) since we saw each other last.
“The Other” Notes
Suitcase
Lady:
·
Othering’- Where the homeless are concerned,
loss of humanity in population’s eyes.
o Lack of eye
contact
o Avoidance
o Conflicted
(Guilt/fear/responsibility)
o Thoughts/guesses
about why “they” are there
o Physically
different (on ground/ less kempt)
·
Disconnection/blame
·
‘alienation’- S.L from self
o -she doesn’t
acknowledge her state/fantasy
o We imagine
it can’t happen to us even though stats. suggest otherwise
o Blame/fear=
entrenched homelessness
Ex. ’Tent Cities’
The Danger
of a Single Story:
·
Foreign/alien/other
o Stereotypes
(broad strokes stories we tell about others)
o Presumptions
(a cognitive tool to organize a disparate and complex world)
o Distance
(physical and cultural) /media/stories and art perpetuate
o Feelings of
– strangeness, pity, dominance over
o ID-‘alienation’
from ( don’t see myself as present in stories/sense of what can and cannot be )
Ex. Normalized difference (gay parents in stories where that is
not the topic. /A black president in the U.S)
Identities:
·
The environment= “Suburb” static/same/safe”=
White neighbourhood?(we presume = bias/stereotypes)/ Stereotypical American suburbia
·
‘Fences’- delineating areas- tax brackets=
kempt or unkempt. ( notions of protection) aesthetic difference
·
first neighbourhood is Orderly/tidy/linear/bland/uniform (identifiable as a group/safe?)
Is this why it is of note that he has chosen not to shave this day? A small act
of rebellion?
Orderly
versus ‘disorderly’:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=disorder
Etymology theme order vs. Disorder
late 15c., from dis- "not" (see dis-) + the verb order (v.). Replaced earlier disordeine (mid-14c.),
from Old French desordainer, from Medieval Latin disordinare "throw into disorder," from
Latin ordinare "to order, regulate" (see ordain). Related: Disordered; disordering.
late 13c., "to
appoint or admit to the ministry of the Church," from stem of Old French ordener "place in order, arrange,
prepare; consecrate, designate" (Modern French ordonner)
and directly from Latin ordinare "put
in order, arrange, dispose, appoint," from ordo (genitive ordinis)
"row, rank, series, arrangement" (see order (n.)). The notion is "to confer holy orders upon."
Meaning "to decree, enact" is from c. 1300; sense of "to set
(something) that will continue in a certain order" is from early 14c.
Related: Ordained; ordaining.
People’s appearance- disparate expectations- shaved/not
o Matching
clothes/origin of clothes(cost$)/fancy car
o Context
matters (where he feels/is thought to fit or not fit
o ‘Others’
wore: slick hair/leather jackets (insignia), sunglasses in evening (to look
cool/intimidate/hide) = useful/protection= hide intention and emotion
o Effect:
fear/death/erred judgement/stereotyped
o The
protagonist and the officer both erred in their pre-judgement of one
another.+/-
