After reading Alcoff’s novel on speaking for and about others who are considered oppressed, my first question was something along the lines of “why did it take 25 pages to say this?” Really I didn’t see the need for the superfluous use of jargon and fancy writing to get across her point. Also, in this excerpt: “And this effect will continue until the U.S. government admits its history of international mass murder and radically alters it foreign policy” I found that it was out of the blue, and very abstract to the purpose of the essay, and she had a typo! should’ve been “It’s foreign policy.” Well, I thought that was funny. ^^

The things that weren’t clear to me were most often drowning in an ocean of unnecessary details and artful writing. Seemed to me like the Alcoff was trying to appear unquestionably intelligent or an expert on the subject, though I do recognize her relationship to her subject; she is a minority, and she is asking a question pertaining to how to speak for or about, or even if it’s acceptable to speak for or about a minority.

This article is useful to us as service-learning volunteers because it addresses the political correctness of speaking for a group, which is what we will be doing for our papers in due time. She tackles the different methods of avoiding speaking for a specific group, as well as the downsides to those evasive techniques. She asks the very questions that we, as representatives of the kids at the Boys and Girls club, should be considering.

As far as intertextualizing with service learning, Alcoff looks at the effects of speaking for someone else, and how one’s position as a member of a different class, race, or sex can affect their biases or credibility in certain situations.