September 16, 2016 - 10:19
Princess Jefferson
A Slip Between the Cracks
“A slip up…or a Slip out?” After attending and taking part in the class discussion for my E-Sem, English- writing class, it became apparent to me that, we (my class, and society), all share different perspectives of slippage. Not that I was unaware of this before, my thoughts were just validated in our class time. To some, they believe that slippage is mistakenly saying something that you did not necessarily mean to say; to others slippage is defined as the act of allowing yourself to be honest. I do not fully agree nor do I fully disagree with the concepts that my peers have drawn regarding this term, I simply believe that there is more to slippage than, “a slip of the tongue.”
Not everything people say is a mistake, and not all slippage, “slipped out.” I define slippage, not using the denotations, given with chapter 8 of Slipping, but instead I define it using the information that I have gathered from the text, class discussion, and events that take place in society. Slippage is a means of communication, sometimes meant, and other times speaking out at simply the wrong place at the wrong time. Slippage can be used either in a good way, which here is where I agree with my peers that it can be used to express honesty, then slippage can be used in a negative way. Slippage is just the empowerment of saying what you have known and felt others would not agree upon. This is where I disagree with my peers, because in the context that slippage is used here, it is not a mistake.
To make my point more transparent I use a text from chapter 8 saying,” I find myself tracing a variety of ways in which institutionalizing diversity generates a back lash, as deliberate moves to create inclusive structures provoke pronounced displays of further exclusion- sometimes conscious, sometimes very not so.” (Dalke,Cohen p.253) This text was chosen because it speaks on something that is much more complex- what I interpreted from that quoted paragraph, and even from classroom discussion is that people get so caught up trying to fit in and not slip, that they began to make themselves or others more uncomfortable, that they are becoming more susceptible use of slippage in a bad way. Eventually the act of conforming yourself will cause you to slip and say exactly what you will have wanted to say and do the entire time.
We are different and the fact that we all have been raised differently makes it inevitable to not step on someone’s toes every once in a while. For example, in the closed environment, my class was asked to describe their perception of slippage after reading the response of someone else’. As the conversation grew more personal, I could feel myself tense up. I often times do not wish to participate in discussions of racism, because I have noticed that when people speak of things that are “A little close to home”, others fall silent. The audience acts as if you have every right to say what you have to say because they cannot empathize with what it is like to share a culture where bad things have happened. They do not speak on how uncomfortable this makes them because it would be a moment of bad slippage. I say all this to say that if in even the most miserable situations people can voluntarily chose not to speak, then it is also possible for others to know when and when not to say anything. But then you have people such as Donald Trump who simply do not care.
Report from the Bahamas, 1982, was written by June Jordan. In her paper she provides an experience she had with a white woman in her classroom: “You are so lucky!” she exclaimed. “What do you mean by that?” “You have a cause. You have a purpose to your life.” I looked carefully at this white woman. What was she really saying to me? “What do you mean?” I repeated. “Poverty. Police Violence. Discrimination in general. (Jesus Christ, I thought, is this really her idea of lucky?) “How about you?” I asked. “Me?”. “Yea don’t you have a cause?” “Me? I’m just a middles aged woman: a housewife and a mother. I’m a nobody.” For a while, I made no response.” (Jordan,1982 p.43). This is an incident where slipping was done in a manner of unconsciousness. This white woman, did not know how her slippage had offended Jordan.
Then there are instances such as that in Chapter 8 of Slipping, “I will never hide behind the expectations of others again, I take from this class a greater understanding of myself… accepting, and being proud of who I am…Two semesters later the student and her friend hung a rainbow flag… a confederate flag, first in the hallway, then their second window.” (Dalke, Cohen, p.258). This is a perfect example of conscious slipping. These students knew the message the flag would send, yet chose to pursue it further. This brings me back to Donald Trump who blatantly choses to insult minorities, and use inappropriate behavior towards others without any discernment or fear of repercussion. Did he slip, or was this intentional?
In my last posting I used an old saying that says, “a drunk man never tells no lies.” This is because it is almost impossible to do so while intoxicated, but also being intoxicated gives you an excuse to slip without repercussion. Are these slip ups, or slip outs? These are Slip- ins. Slip-ins are saying what you truly feel inside. The hanging of the confederate flag, was something the student did because she wanted to represent that side of her from within. The things Donald Trump says are thing that he feels really need to be focused on. The white lady who told Jordan what her cause was, spoke what she believed to be the truth from within.
Slipping Within.