the deen thing shows how extreme this has all gotten. one thing i like is that next week, spurred on by something or other, we'll be talking again about how we need to have an open discussion about race. (as i say 'we need to have a real national discussion' etc is just a shuffling evasion.) but the informal sanctions for merely emitting the wrong sounds have reached insanity; really i try not to be careful, you know? i don't really see what good it does; let's try to throw down and see what we can learn. but academia, not to mention the food network, might condemn you to siberia for life etc. do we really want to spend our lives speaking in fear? i don't think paula's necessarily helping the situation with her series of sobbing apologies, etc. just straightforwardly as possible reflect and express regret. if you are able to, in a couple of months share some reflections about race, southern identity, southern food. that's good. but this is taking the form of just taping people's mouths shut or redacting their every conversation.
this is what worries me about the 'bullying' stuff, for example; sometimes it doesn't go much further then 'here is a list of prohibited words'. one problem is that words are extraordinary volatile and multivalent things. it depends who's speaking where and when and how. the whole thing should be available for every sort of use.
