October 2, 2015 - 16:03
Alison
ESem Paper #5
October 2, 2015
Different Background and Slippage
My understanding of slippage is doing or saying something unconsciously, but causing an unwanted result by bringing up a subject that people don’t want to see. Slippage is caused by many different reasons. Just as the “custom and conventions slow the pace of legal change, making abolition more difficult” (Dalke, Part I. “A form of thinking unfettered from its own intentions”), the different culture and background are the most important reasons that cause slippage. By analyzing the students’ experience about the class in “Arts Of the Contact Zone," my own story and the example in “The White-Savior Industrial Complex," I concluded that slippage is mainly a result from the lack of awareness about the background of the other party. As people cannot understand or think constellationally about the issues in others’ perspectives, the unconscious behavior without bad intention or with good wills generate bad influences.
Slippage happens in everyday occurrence when people having the different backgrounds meet. In “Arts Of the Contact Zone,” Mary Louise Pratt describes a course that centered on the intersection of Americas and multiple cultural histories. The student body was highly diverse in this class, which created a contact zone where cultures could “meet, crash and possibly grapple” with each other. With the different backgrounds, when the students saw the same thing in their own aspects, they originated the different opinions which contradicted their classmates. They experienced the multiple emotions such as horror and shock as their beliefs accumulated through their lives in the past were challenged. They even went through ignorance, discrimination or hostility when the arguments became more intense and personal related. Because the students grew up in their own way and in the specific environments, each of them cannot understand the weakness, the grief and the sensitive parts in others’ cultures. And that could be harmful and frustrating when a person found that their established value system was destroyed as they just shifted from one kind of background and convention to another. It might take a long time to recover from this and move on.
I had the similar feelings as the students in the class described in “Arts Of the Contact Zone” when I took my first History class in America. I was shocked when the teacher told us that we cannot say World War Two was bad even thought something horrible happened during that time, and we need to analyze them critically without much personal emotions. I felt humiliating as I thought the teacher simplified the disasters happened during that time, especially in my country as I believed that the brutal things happened during World War Two was unforgettable due to my culture. I can neither understand her opinion nor regard this thing in a positive aspect. Of course the teacher did not mean to offend me or make me feel bad, she just told us what she thought about this historical event. But when I interpreted her lecture in my perspectives, I was upset by her understatement of the crimes in World War Two. In both classes, the teacher and the students caused slippages when they said something without the understanding of others’ culture and background: there were neither mistakes nor bad intentions, but someone got hurt or felt uncomfortable in this situations.
Slippage caused by the different backgrounds also happens in some large scale events. In “The White-Savior Industrial Complex” (Cole, 2012), Teju Cole describes an example of slippage between different cultures. He mentions that there are many issues happening in Africa that need to be solved, but the direct helps from the sentimental need to “make a difference” are not what Africa demands. Even thought the people who want to help have good wills, their helps lead to unwanted results as their different backgrounds keep them form thinking the problem constellationally. For example, if people donates money to solve the children military in Nigeria, the money may not be used in the way that they expected as Nigerian has one of the most corrupted government around the world. Thus their good will leads to a more severe corruptions in this country. They thought the money they donated to Nigeria will help; that can work in America, but not Nigeria. People do not know what is the best way to help the civilians in Africa, thus they just cause slippage by making the situation even worse with their good intentions. They are the innocent singers while what they did makes the song become more sinful.
This example in “Arts of the Contact Zone," my personal experiences and the instance in “The White-Savior Industrial Complex” just exemplifies that the customs and backgrounds are the important reason to cause slippage. What we say or do unconsciously can be something offensive or hurtful for others. Besides that, what the concept of slippage tells me is not only that those differences can lead to subconscious but harmful effect, but also tell me to be careful when get along with people who have a different experiences and help others. Because the opinion that I regard normal could be offensive to others, the things I do to help others can make the situations even worse. Slippage happens possibly at every moment in the life, and it happens mutually: we never know when we will hurt others or be harmed by others because of the different backgrounds.
Works Cited
Pratt, Mary Louise. "Arts of the Contact Zone." N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1991. 33-40. Print.
Dalke, Anne. "Slipping into Something More (Un)Comfortable: Untangling Identity, Unsettling Community." Steal This Classroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Cole, Teju.“The White-Savior Industrial Complex.” The Atlantic. March 21, 2012.