I really, really do not want to be doing this, but I don’t have many options left at the moment.
I had registered for summer classes at my university, thinking that I would be able to get financial aid. That fell through, and I can’t get a private loan because I don’t have anyone to co-sign for…
This woman is reading. IS THIS FEMINIST?
No. The Western canon is white and male-dominated. This woman is lending her support to structures of male domination as embodied within the academy. Also, she is standing under a ladder, which means seven years of continued sexist oppression. PROBLEMATIC.
Slowly I began to understand fully that there was no place in academe for folks from working-class backgrounds who did not wish to leave the past behind. That was the price of the ticket. Poor students would be welcome at the best institutions of higher learning only if they were willing to surrender memory, to forget the past and claim the assimilated present as the only worthwhile and meaningful reality.
—
bell hooks (via wretchedoftheearth)
And if you don’t abide by this, you basically get the cold shoulder from academia. You have to fight to defend your work more than the average student because your perspective as a marginalized person is one that was meant for a study, a dissertation, or some other academic publication. It’s not so appealing when the subject of the study is giving you their perspective firsthand instead of having it pre-chewed and spoon-fed to you by someone who will never fully understand what you’ve been through because they’ve most likely never been there to begin with.
(via sinidentidades)
