Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP - Archives
Practice Module on This File

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: September 13, 2002
Latest Update: September 13, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Practicality, Not Purity

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, September 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

At p. 15

"What it comes down to is that there is no fixed safe or sane place for any of us, as much as we desperately need it. The same shit we said to the white girls about how 'safe space' didn't mean 'never uncomfortable' space applies to us, too. We have to stay in the icky places, master the art of moving one step past what we know, listen to each other instead of shouting and do that tricky two-step of both trusting we know when we're being fucked over and knowing the difference between the truly evil and abusive and someone who screws up but is not evil. This is the difference between purity and practicality."

For me, this is heavy, kids. I had to think on it. And it's incredibly touching to think that this young black woman whom one would consider seriously disadvantaged by middle class standards, is saying much that brings to mind what Maria Pia Lara says. jeanne