Still on that topic

I wonder if my exasperation with the non-disabled students who claim to have a personality or “learning style” making it impossible for them to do the work in Spanish 4 has to do with repressed anger at an administration who also claims to be impaired and require indulgence. I mean, they’re encumbered and limited by … More Still on that topic

And

Are the differences between Cajuns and other white Southerners actually so great? We know the atmosphere and vibration are different, and we can cite Catholicism, Tabasco sauce, French roots, accordions, and so on as specific signs of cajunisme. But in terms of the grievances they cite, don’t others have them? They lost their land and … More And

Also

I wondered for years what my chair meant when he would insist I was oppressing the instructors. They were licensed to harass me, but I wasn’t doing anything to them except support them academically in every way I could, as he had asked me to do. Still, I kept hearing that I was oppressing them, … More Also

December 24

It’s my birthday! For my birthday, I will try to act henceforth as though I loved myself. It’s a very good project. What would it feel like to refuse to engage in arguments with others over my being and my right to exist? What would it feel like if I were immune to claims that … More December 24

Et encore

I should stop tearing myself apart over this, I would like to be immune from it, but it feels as though I need to understand it so I can get it out of me. There is a fine line between thinking too much and thinking enough, I know. I don’t want to nurse resentment the … More Et encore

Farewell to these books

They’re either dogeared, or I’m not going to read them, and if I can stand to get rid of them, they must go. Ghattas, Black waveHemingway, For whom the bell tollsLunn, Marxism & ModernismMudimbe, The surreptitious speechTatum, Assimilation blues—, Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? Axé.

It was

All the effort we put in to tolerate where we were, to make life tolerable where we were, and to create a space where work could be done. It wasn’t possible to just ignore circumstances and do work, because we had to build a workspace. Axé.