September 17, 2016 - 18:17
In her essay, “Report From The Bahamas” June Jordan recounts multiple instances of “slipping”. There are two kinds of slips (“acts of associative misspeaking” as described by Cohen and Dalke in their book “Steal This Classroom: Teaching and Learning Unbound”) depicted in June Jordan’s essay “Report From the Bahamas”. The first is misled comments on the parts of individuals, and the second is an offensive idea promoted by a non-personal entity. To each of these slips Jordan reacts differently, revealing something about how slips may function as agents of progress.
Both times Jordan encounters a slip during a personal interaction her response is to withdraw. A boy tells her he doesn’t care about student loan programs and she writes that they “had moved away from each other, even while [they] continued to talk” (43). Later in the essay a woman tells her she believes Jordan is lucky to be a black woman and have a cause, in response to which Jordan feels that the other women does not support her in problems of race, and so asks why she should support the middle class white woman in “‘her’ problems of housewifely oblivion” (44). This contrasts with Jordan’s response to a different kind of slip: an offensive advertisement put out by the hotel where she is staying.
At the beginning of her essay, Jordan recounts a photo used to promote The Sheraton British Colonial that depicts a middle aged black waiter “so delighted to serve you... he will wade into the water, fully clothed, oblivious to the ruin of his shoes, his trousers, his health, and he will do it with a smile” (39). Jordan is angered by the demeaning photo, but, she cannot withdraw from the hotel in the same way she did from the other individuals who offended her. She supports the hotel because she feels safer staying in the hands of a chain, “the big guys take customer complaints more seriously”(41).
The significance in the difference in Jordan’s response to these two slips gives insight into how it is (or isn’t) possible to gain understanding from the subconscious mistakes in conception we accidentally let “slip out”. Cohen and Dalke introduce the concept of slipping as one of “an often unconscious form of resistance [which can be].... generative of… evolution.” But only one kind of slipping seems to have this potential in Jordan’s essay- and even it faces challenges in promoting growth.
The image of the black waiter is the unproductive slip in Jordan’s essay. It qualifies as a slip because the hotel was (most likely) not intentionally trying to convey an offensive message, although they may have been indifferent to whether or not they did so. We can speculate that their purpose was to attract customers by appealing to their desire to have a stereotypical tourist experience involving complete relaxation, facilitated by the complete servitude of others, united with an “authentic” experience of a “foreign” place. The image of the blackman reduced solely to his role as waiter fulfills both these advertising requirements by appealing to subconscious racism that views people of color as archetypical servants as well as foreign natives (I imagine the hotel was mostly catering to white people).
Such an advertisement could arguably facilitate constructive reflection by leading to analysis of its inherent racism (and racism present in the way white society conceives of tourism) as it did for Jordan- but it would be hard to turn such reflections into progress. The reason for this is that while individuals might recognize what subconscious ideas of their own the ad appeals to and seek to change, it is unlikely that the business which created the ad will be forced to re-evaluate its role in promoting racism. The result will be that while some individuals may re-construct their own ideas, the ad will remain and continue to reinforce subconscious racism present in the idea of tourism for as many people as it will help to self awareness.
The characteristic of this particular slip which makes it unconstructive is that it is made by a non-personal entity (a corporation) with no actual reason to seek to develop its own identity. The hotel won’t lose customers because of its advertisement. Messages promoted by a business are side notes to its actual function of serving customers- even Jordan, a black woman, had incentives to choose the hotel divorced from the ideas in its promotional literature. For a slip to lead to change the agents must have some stake in their own identity, such as when a slip is made by an individual- but even then development isn’t a guarantee.
When Jordan notices the women and boy slipping, she does not point out the mistake to either of them. Instead, she gives up on making a connection. There is no evidence in Jordan’s story that either of her students are aware of the fact that they have slipped. Jordan describes the women as sitting, “friendly as an old stuffed animal” after making her comment about Jordan being lucky (43). One gets the sense however, that both of these students are individuals who might be willing to acknowledge their slips and learn from them. The boy has reached out to his teacher in an effort to make a closer connection, suggesting he might care how his words affect her, and the women is presented as kindly, intelligent individual who has read Jordan’s political essays.
The missed potential in these two interactions raises the question of how we might become aware of our own slips to learn from them. It is not the job of the individual we have offended to point out our mistake, nor can we assume we will have the self awareness to realize it on our own. One possible answer is that we must engage enough to slip publicly. Both the women and boy slip with Jordan as their only witness, who is personally affronted and chooses not to point out their mistakes- had they had a wider audience, however, it is likely that they would have received feedback and had the opportunity for development.
Works Cited
Cohen, Jody and Anne Dalke. Chapter 8, “Slipping”. Steal This Classroom: Teaching and
Learning Unbound. New York: Punctum Books, forthcoming 2017.
Jordan, June. “Report from the Bahamas, 1982." Meridians 3, 2 (2003): 6-16.