December 16, 2016 - 09:07
Revisiting A Thought
Through the course of this E-sem class my biggest inquiry has been the term “Contact Zones.” This term or idea was first discussed, on the second week of classes, after my class read, “Arts of the Contact Zone”, by Mary Louise Pratt. I have decided to revisit this topic because I realize that in all this time, and discussion about this term, that I still have a hazy idea of what this term actually means. On the last few days of class I asked my peers, “What are contact Zones?” And While at first there were no answers, the answers that I did eventually receive seemed to be far from the actual definition of a contact zone.
According to Pratt, Contact Zones are “Social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with one another, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they lived out in the world today.” (Pratt, p. 34). What I did not know before that an example of contact zones, was presented to me early on in “Report from the Bahamas,” by June Jordan. Multiple examples are represented throughout this text, one being when Jordan, first arrived at her Hotel in the Bahamas, and she was greeted by other Blacks, who looked at her differently because of the way she was spending her money and they were working for theirs. This was an example of two cultures meeting and clashing. Although I realize that they were of the same race, the fact that they were living two separate and different lives showed me that they were not brought up the same way.
Another example of this was towards the end of passage when Jordan mentions how she and a Caucasian woman, worked together, to rescue a black woman from abuse. It was not only shocking to Jordan to witness the interaction of the white woman with the young lady who was being abused, but it was an eye opener. They ventured outside their contact zones, and were able to work together to help someone.
After re- reading both the above mentioned passages, it made me realize that living on the campus of Bryn Mawr, people cross contact zones every day. I believed that this was just the act of meeting different people, and seeing how they thought and viewed the world, I had no idea that these were actually contact zones, intersecting. During our six- week project presentation, I noticed that almost all of my peers connected Contact zones with Comfort zones.
Since I was already confused about the term, this did not help me any. But one presentation in particular, which discussed bubbles helped me come to a realization. The two students asked, if when you come to Bryn Mawr, are your bubbles burst or are they interconnected? Well using Pratt, and my recently gained knowledge, I would say that no one’s bubble can ever be popped. Metaphorically speaking your bubble, just like your contact zone is who you are as an individual and what has shaped you. For example, within my contact zones I am black, and I am Christian, and I will never stop being either, for these qualities are what make me.
So the answer to the two students question is that, bubbles are interconnected when you come on Bryn Mawr’s campus. There are so many different people that you are bound to meet them and clash sometimes, but just like Pratt said, sometimes this is needed to learn and grow as a community.
In my E-sem class I have grown from the contact zones of the international students in my class, because they have taught me that their culture varies and why this influences their ideas, just like my cultural back ground influences my ideas.
I am happy to say that I now know what contact zones are: Contact zones are the interactions with other individuals of varying cultural background, which involves meeting and engaging in conversation. It is a learning process, one that I now believe to be essential for diversity.