There were several questions that arose while I was reading Alcoff’s text. The first being, who is her target audience? How does she think she can create a practical solution for the matter at hand? Or even further does she think there’s a serious problem, to a global extent? One thing that was unclear to me regarding Alcoff’s text was her usage of the word epistemology. I looked up several definitions of the term, and they all basically centered around relating to knowledge or the environment surrounding the obtainment of knowledge. However, do speakers always intend to educate or enlighten? She speaks in contemporary terms, and most of the speeches I have heard, have been around to motivate. We are in an age of the internet, where knowledge is at our fingertips and where most people are not that surprised at any new news. Well that’s just me blabbing, let’s move on to the real meat.

Alcoff seems to be saying that there is an inevitable movement towards universal skepticism of the speaker. That makes total sense, because well, even in this class, we must first question the background of our authors’, and what woud motivate his or her argument. In addition, she claims that privileged people speaking for less privileged people usually makes the matter worse. While I put that in the most general manner possible, I also noticed that she offers several conditions. The most important one being this:

“We must ask further questions about its effects, questions which amount to the following: will it enable the empowerment of oppressed peoples? ”

Pertaining to service, to supply someone, or to fix or repair something. Does the speaking help the oppressed people or not? When I speak on behalf or for my service at the Boys and Girls Club, what will be my motivation? Am I trying to help out, or just performing it out of duty? Is the former more righteous than the latter?

I cannot answer these questions fully at this point because I have only gone and done 6 hours, but at this point, after reading Alcoff, I can say this. I will take two points from Alcoff: one pertains to her mentioning her Panamanian and American dual nationality and the other point where she says there is responsibility behind speaking for others.