Well, I thought Alcoff’s article was fairly fantastic. My pdf has about as much text highlighted on it as it has unlighted. And I think I can forgive her for making me use my dictionary widget.

In regards to our blog prompt, it seems to me Alcoff laid out her points extremely well (she rarely threw a curve ball- her case was laid out fairly systematically). Sure, she didn’t bash us over the head with a “right” answer to issues which arise from speaking for other people, but she provided me a lot of food for thought. I found the begining of her conclusion a little sketchy though- I’m not sure where I missed the link between the content of the body of the paper and her claims authorship, but I must have.

The paper was extremely dense, and there’s no way I’m going to be able to reiterate in a blog post everything I took from it. From what I gather, the trials and tribulations of speaking for someone are one and the same as those that come with “service”. Firstly (though I think it was her second point), there is this huge complexity. Our world is not a department store with a shelve for each person, place and event. Everything is intertwined, misconstrued and fuzzy. From the reading, I gathered that people speak for other people because, on some level, they feel they are providing them with some great service. They are giving the oppressed a voice. And by doing so, they are cementing their own superiority. Just as I, right now, by writing about (and almost for) those people, I’m placing myself above them, with my supposed superior knowledge on the subject. How is that for a conundrum.

I think Alcoff’s article was infinitely useful. If nothing else, I discovered how conducive the chairs in the HUB are to napping. It’s also prompted me to think, which I feel is the hallmark of a good piece. It is my predisposition (maybe it’s the predisposition of the entire human race like Alcoff suggested, I don’t know) to talk for other people, and it’s been known to get me in trouble. As a stranger to the Boys and Girls club, I don’t have the authority to be a voice for Nevan, who turned 7 last week, or Amber, who copes with disability.  Additionally, though I don’t think Alcoff expressly mentioned it, words have a tremendous power, and that concept lies beneath the entirety her paper. When you decide to use your words to accomplish something, you are attempting to wield an extremely powerful weapon. Though she doesn’t tell us exactly what we should do in regards to speaking for other people, she insists that we think before we wield our voice, because words have unintended consequences.

Anyhow, I think it was a tremendous piece of writing (even if I’ve already forgotten half of it).