Ek het reeds inleidend geskryf (SêNet 17 deser) oor Bruce Bawer se The Victims' Revolution: The rise of identity studies and the closing of the liberal mind (New York: Broadside/HarperCollins, 2012, 400p; Amazon Kindle $11.99). In my huidige skrywe gee ek aandag aan die verskillende identiteitstudies. Bawer noem hulle "victimologies" (Kindle 739), dus letterlik kennis van slagofferskap. Naas deeglike kennis van die literatuur, steun die outeur op sy persoonlike ervaring van die Amerikaanse universiteitswese en sy bywoning van byeenkomste soos konferensies. Hy het ook onderhoude met van die bekendste voorbokke gevoer.
Daar is veral twee fundamentele akademiese besware teen identiteitstudies. Eerstens, in die tradisionele kernleergang het die humaniora en sosiale wetenskappe groot vormende waarde gehad. Deesdae kan studente egter vir identiteitstudies registreer ten koste van sulke tradisioneel erkende dissiplines. Vir die student is dit (baie) makliker om krediete in identiteitstudies as in ander vakke te verwerf, gevolglik word baie studente daarheen getrek.
Tweedens gaan identiteitsudies mank aan 'n gebrek aan wetenskaplikheid en feitelikheid. Die waarheid word nie noodwendig nagejaag nie; eerder dogma. Die studente word ge-"zombified" (1180). Objektiwiteit word vir "self-preoccupation" verruil (1216), oftewel "delicate-flower navel-gazing" (1614). Studie ontaard in narsistiese belydenisse en terapie. Waarna gestreef word, is "consciousness-raising" (1106) met die oog op "self-congratulatory feel-good" (1610). Dit gaan eerder om persoonlike ervaring as idees. Emosie word hoër as rasionaliteit geag. Die propagering van 'n standpunt neem die vorm van 'n kruistog aan, want slagoffergroepe, die onderdruktes en minderbevoorregtes, moet bemagtig word. Aktivisme, radikalisme en anargie word aangemoedig. Die tradisionele standaarde vir grootsheid en voortreflikheid moet glo hersien word. Pogings word aangewend om die geskiedenis te herskryf en die samelewing te verander. Hierdie propagandiste wil nie net Amerika nie maar die hele wêreld hervorm.
Grondliggend is daar 'n gegriefdheid by baie van identiteitstudies se dosente en studente. Hulle probeer (tevergeefs) 'n antwoord vind op Saul Bellow se vraag: "Who was the Tolstoy of the Zulus?" (SêNet 3 deser) of Camille Paglia se stelling: "There are no female Mozarts" (1202). Ek skenk agtereenvolgend aandag aan Women's, Black, Queer, Chicano, Diability en Fat Studies. Daarna word Cultural, Male en Whiteness Studies kortliks genoem. Hierdie oorsig is weens die ruimtebeperking hoogs veralgemenend. Slegs die hoogte- of laagtepunte word aangestip.
Women's Studies "'interprets' men's lives in the light of the doctrine that men are by definition oppressors, warmongers, potential rapists and the beneficiaries of patriarchal social structures" (1166). Hoe on- of eintlik anti-akademies Women's Studies kan wees, blyk uit die volgende: "The field is antagonistic not just toward men themselves, but also toward a wide range of traditional academic phenomena that are considered 'masculinist' or 'patriarchal' or 'phallocentric.' Among the elements of academic life that are widely reviled as relics of outdated, male-identified ways of thinking are the bestowing of grades [puntetoekenning], the setting of deadlines, the presentation of logical arguments, the enforcement of prescriptive language rules and regard for the scientific method. Some women in the field are uncomfortable with the power they wield as professors, because the very idea of being in positions of authority seems to them uncomfortably masculinist, and for this reason they refuse to make up syllabi or reading lists, to lecture, to take a leadership role in the classroom, or to admit to being more knowledgeable about anything than their students; instead, their classrooms become settings for undirected discussion about one's feelings" (1286).
"Women's Studies has been less about education in any traditional sense than about political indoctrination ... the founders of Women's Studies were not celebrated thinkers ... but ideologues with backgrounds in civil rights and New Left activism" (1080). "The first teachers of Women's Studies believed in alternative styles of learning," bv "this education will not be an academic exercise; it will be an ongoing process to change the ways in which women think and behave. It must be part of the struggle to build a new and more complete society" (1087). "Some Women's Studies practitioners actually profess to reject the entire edifice of civilization out of hand as a product of male culture" (1293). Klastyd word eerder aan "touchy-feely personal exchanges" gewy (1617). "The workshops are 'hands-on' affairs at which you can learn 'how to find your g-spot" (1259).
"We're not teaching course content. We're teaching human beings" (1634). "I am my content" (1648). "The very concept of merit, whether aesthetic or intellectual, is often viewed with suspicion as offensively masculinist and as a threat to communal harmony and universal self-esteem" (1296). Lesbiërs is prominent in Women's Studies. Heteroseksuele vroue word met agterdog bejeën, want hulle "are sleeping with the enemy" (1687). Die geval van 'n feministiese aktivis wat nie melk wil drink nie word genoem. "'Dairy is a feminist issue. Milk comes from a grieving mother.' Comparing the physical abuse of cows and calves to abuse of women, she intones: 'No human can be free while other species are oppressed'" (4529).
Black Power vind uitdrukking in Black Studies: "We wanted our own separate departments, we wanted to grant degree, we wanted our own curriculum" (1835). "It's all about ethnicity and racism ... It's part of the larger affirmative-action culture" (1898). "Ice people" (wittes) word gekontrasteer met "gentle, warmheated sun people" (swartes) (1867). 'n Ander kontras is "vanilla suburbs and chocolate cities" (2264). "There is so much white guilt that you could just go into these places and they'd give you everything you wanted" (1832). "That's how you move ahead: you keep trading on your race" (1902). Die doel is "decolonizing the minds of black people ... African-American Studies is an intrinsically politicized unit of the academy whose objective is to overcome the false consciousness (a Marxist term) created by white supremacy" (1983).
Black Studies "seek to transcend traditional notions of 'legitimate' academic work" (2055). "Objective pedagogy" word verwerp, "preferring classes that would communicate the recognition, respect, even reverence for Black culture" (2068). "A crucial event in the backstory of Black Studies ... was the establishment at San Francisco State College of something called the Experimental College, which allowed students to teach their own courses and even turned informal rap sessions into formal courses" (1995). Daar was 'n behoefte aan "Black Studies' 'therapeutic' effects as a counter to the sense of 'inferiority' into which they'd been 'brainwashed'" (2019). "The ultimate solution is black revolution" (2058); "the liberation of the people and building of a new world" (2116)."African people are the fathers and mothers of both humanity and human civilization" (2040). Een van die teorieë/mites is: "Egyptians originated in black Ethiopia" (2289). 'n Ander is "that Africans traveled to America in ancient times and founded the Olmec civilization" in Meksiko (2313). Sommige beweer dat Jesus swart was en/of dat God swart is. Swartes word as "God's Chosen People" beskou (2354).
"Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant" (2858, 3054). In Queer Studies word "otherness" beklemtoon (2692). en die dekriminalisering daarvan word verlang (2717). Diskriminasie teen homoseksuele moet uitgeroei word. Dit is uitvloeisels van die "gay rights movement" in die 1950's (2738). Een van die slagspreuke is: "Gay is good" (2850). "Just as Women's Studies is not about women but about gender ... Lesbian and Gay Studies is not about lesbians and gays but about sex" (2926). 'n Ander mening is: "Queer ... isn't about sexual orientation at all ... but about ... marginality, radicalism and differentness" (3043). Wit mans word in hierdie opsig na bewering minder as andere onderdruk: "A lesbian ... cannot disguise her gender, and a black man cannot hide his color, but a gay white man can keep his sexual orientation a secret and thereby function smoothly as a member of the oppressor class" (2955). "There was no single 'right' way to be gay" (2990). Daar is "Queers on Wheels, an organization for gays in wheelchairs" (4405). Deesdae word daar soms van LGBT gepraat: naas lesbiërs en gays is daar biseksuele en transgenders.
In Chicano Studies beweer die Latynse (Latino, Hispanic) Amerikaners, veral Meksikane, dat die weste en suide van die VSA aan hulle behoort en van Amerika behoort af te skei. Dit gaan hier om 'n etnies-nasionalistiese burgerregtebeweging. Die onafhanklikheid van die mestizo-nasie en 'n "People's Republic of Aztlán" (3470) word geëis. Daar word na "occupied America" verwys (3488, 3652). Hulle romantiseer die "great civilizations that the Spanish explorers found in the New World" (3669). "This is standard Chicano Studies practice: the Aztecs and other pre-Columbian [Inca, Mayan, Toltec] civilizations are routinely depicted as having been highly developed and essentially peaceful - and are routinely contrasted with their European conquerors, who are almost consistently portrayed as ignorant and bloodthirsty" (3669). Dit kan 'n "salvation narrative" genoem word (3868). Die wittes word as vreemdelinge op hierdie brons of bruin kontinent beskou. "Objectivity ... had to be rejected." Die klem word op "subjective testimony" geplaas (3445); op "developing knowledge that heals, liberates and transforms" (3477). "America is portrayed consistently as racist, aggressive, corrupt and violent, and Mexico ... as a helpless, virtuous victim" (3693). 'n Chicano is al gedefinieer as "a Mexican American with a non-American image of himself" (3807).
In Disability/Cripple Studies word daar met vrae soos die volgende geworstel: "Are crip bodies queer bodies, and can we say that queer bodies are crip bodies?" (4397). Daar is 'n "disability rights movement" (4415). Die tegniek van "cochlear implant" is besig om dowes as 'n groep uit te wis. Dit word "committing a genocide of deafness" genoem (4441). Bawer: "Just think of not healing a child who can't hear because it's an offence against deaf culture!" (4971). Daar word verwys na "deaf individuals' aptitude to not hear" (4444). Gestremdheid word dermate verheerlik dat "disability envy" ontstaan (4455). "What disables disabled people isn't their disabilities but white men, capitalism, and all the other usual suspects" (4462).
Fat Studies is een van die identiteitstudies wat die vinnigste groei. Dit is 'n uitvloeisel van die "obesity epidemic" (4468). Daar word op groot skaal van ander identiteitstudies geleen. Byvoorbeeld, daar is "thin privilege" (4486), "fat oppression" (4490), "fat activism and fat pride" (1255) en die slagspreuk: "Fat Is Beautiful" (1259). "Diet Soda Oppresses" (1259). "Size acceptance" word bepleit (4468). Die tegniese terme is "sizeism" (4497) en "fatism" (4508). Die F-woord is "fat" (4504). Daar is 'n "National Association to Aid Fat Americans" (4504) en 'n "Fat Underground" (4508). "What matters isn't slimming down but staying healthy" (4468). "By preaching health at every size, she is pushing healthism" (4533). Dit kom neer op "ableism" (4519). Michel Foucault (1926-1984) "argued that encouraging people to watch their health is a coercive and potentially fascist act linked to capitalism, racism, and Nazi-style eugenics" (4536).
Al die identiteitstudies word soms as Cultural Studies saamgevoeg. Dit maak dit vir studente moontlik om te praat oor "their own personal experiences, hobbies, enthusiasms, and grievances" (4337). "Cultural Studies ... has less in common with traditional studies in the humanities that with today's TV talk and reality shows and online social networks" (4337). Hierdie studente "haven't been educated in anything - they've only been trained to mimic their teachers' jargon and given licence to pronounce on things about which they know next to nothing" (4351). "Identity studies are becoming so far removed from any hint of academic or intellectual legitimacy that even teachers of more established and only moderately asinine disciplines are reacting to the far more extreme asinity of newer ones" (4472).
Male Studies as 'n teenhanger vir Women's Studies is deurgaans deur universiteite afgekeur. Whiteness Studies is wel in uitsonderlike gevalle ingestel. Dit mag nie witheid verheerlik soos Black Studies swartheid verheerlik nie. Whiteness Studies handel oor "racist oppression" (4622). "The key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race - in other words, to abolish the privileges of the white skin" (4636). Whiteness Studies is beskryf as 'n "case of academic decadence, a new low in moral vacuity and civilizational self-loathing" (4646). Witheid word "a kind of original sin ... eternal victimhood for nonwhites, eternal guilt for whites" (4649).
Johannes Comestor