[-empyre-] Luck of the Draw

[M White <mwhite@michelewhite.org>]

Tina, I completely understand your feelings about not
having the authority (and ironically) position in
relationship to bare life that allows you to speak.
However, I also think that we should avoid the ways
culture (I hope that I am not contributing to this)
likes to silence certain people--particularly those
that dissent. Many of us have noticed a tendency among
people from other places to tell us that we are
"lucky." "You are lucky that your stuff/house wasn't
flooded" and "you are lucky to have a job," which
somehow suggests we don't deserve one. Certainly,
things could be drastically worse but suggesting that
people are "lucky" also erases the ways they live in
these situations and silences them. The suggestion is
that their luckiness prevents them from
"authentically" speaking about the experience. Most of
the people saying these things are in fact "luckier"
if such distinctions were useful. I want to avoid a
tendency that I noticed at a feminist media studies
conference (and that I associate with the continued
cultural devaluation of women) where women tended to
use the dismissive term "just" when representing
themselves: "I am just a grad student," "just an
independent scholar," "just an assistant professor," ?
It seem to me that art production provides one way to
think critically about the world and that such tactics
and potential forms of resistance should not be
underestimated.

I also wonder, what happens when the silenced, bare
life, and the tortured try to speak/write/be visible
and no one answers? Our lack of reply might be guilt,
disinterest, feeling "lucky," being told we are
"lucky" and that the event does not apply to us, or
fear of contamination but this lack of acknowledgment
has serious consequences. I know that I have been
unable to answer and that worries me.