I was absolutely overwhelmed with this article, as I’m sure many of my 121 peers were as well.  After reading it, everything seemed like a blur.  I did manage to pull out many quotes from it though that I found highly significant and relevant to the topic of service as well as the curriculum of our class.  The following are some quotes I took from the reading and some notes to go along with them:

“In anthropology there is similar discussion about whether it is possible to speak for others either adequately or justifiably.” I believe this is a topic that raises great questions.  It is not only the basis of Alcoff’s debate, but it relates with what we are doing in our service learning duties as well as discussions within the classroom.  I think this is a debate that could go on forever, and although I may have my own opinion of it, there may never really be one universal answer to this dilema.    

Intertextualizing

“The recognition that there is a problem in speaking for others has followed from the widespread acceptance of two claims.”  Although this quote may not have the depth and meaningful insight as others, I picked it out of the article simply due to the world “claims.”  I feel as if this is an important skill that we must learn and that is crucial to presenting a well-thought and intelligent argument.

“And the effect of the practice of speaking for others is often, though not always, erasure and a reinscription of sexual, national, and other kinds of hierarchies” This quote has special significance to our class simply from the word “sexual,” as strange as that may sound.  I say this only because my groups connotation of the word “service” was in a sexual manner.  I found it interesting that Alcoff brought up this point, in that service can relate to pushing things on to other people, even in a sexual manner as we discussed in class.

 

Build on definition of service

I found all of the following quotes to have significance on building our definitions of service and raising questions and concerns about its intentions:

“In other words, a speaker’s location (which I take here to refer to her social location or social identity) has an epistemically significant impact on that speaker’s claims, and can serve either to authorize or dis-authorize one’s speech.” “The second claim holds that not only is location epistemically salient, but certain privileged locations are discursively dangerous.⁵ In particular, the practice of privileged persons speaking for or on behalf of less privileged persons has actually resulted (in many cases) in increasing or reenforcing the oppression of the group spoken for.” “Systematic divergences in social location between speakers and those spoken for will have a significant effect on the content of what is said.” “If one’s immediate impulse is to teach rather than listen to a less-privileged speaker, one should resist that impulse long enough to interrogate it carefully. Some of us have been taught that by right of having the dominant gender, class, race, letters after our name, or some other criterion, we are more likely to have the truth. Others have been taught the opposite and will speak haltingly, with apologies, if they speak at all.” 

“Speaking should always carry with it an accountability and responsibility for what one says”

(I especially like this one…It’s short, to the point, and powerful all at the same time) “In order to evaluate attempts to speak for others in particular instances, we need to analyze the probable or actual effects of the words on the discursive and material context. One cannot simply look at the location of the speaker or her credentials to speak; nor can one look merely at the propositional content of the speech; one must also look at where the speech goes and what it does there.” 

“I would stress that the practice of speaking for others is often born of a desire for mastery, to privilege oneself as the one who more correctly understands the truth about another’s situation or as one who can champion a just cause and thus achieve glory and praise.”

All of these are interesting and important ideas that I plan to refer back to as I continue my service learning and participation in class.  I think that they are great tools that anyone should use to raise debate or as direction towards claims that we as a class can make about service.  After just one day spent at the boys and girls club, I can allready see how some of these issues and concepts brought up in Alcoff’s article are relevant to what we are doing as service learning students.  The kids at the club are so diverse that it will be hard to properly speak for them without altering their voice.  Reading this article has helped me to see this, and also caused me to ponder how I will deal with this issue.  At this point, my only solution is to get to know them as well as possible so that what I am saying is reflective of them.  Hopefully as I continue I will gain more and more insight and develop even more thourough techniques to deal with this dilema.