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Latest update: October 26, 2000
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Dominant Discourse

Dominant discourse relates to many leading edge issues today. It calls to mind the colonization of many peoples by the empire approach to globalization. The dominant discourse represents the voice and the perspective of the colonizer and suppresses the voice and the perspective of the colonized.

On Tuesday, October 24, 2000, Berthena Kemp asked in distributive justice class for a definition of dominant discourse.

On Thursday, October 26, 2000, jeanne put up these links:

Dominant Discourse, Black Letter Definition
In law, we speak of the Black Letter law, meaning a standard definition. Students are expected to know the Black Letter law accurately. Constraints through Search Terms
Constraints through the Meaning of Words
Constraints though the Choice of Categories

On Wednesday, October 25, 2000, Dena Washington said in theory class:

I disagree with Gayatri Spivak that there is a clear cut difference between racism and colonialism. Spivak suggests that victims of racism have access to the dominant discourse and can use it to argue their validity claims, whereas the subaltern has neither forum nor the support of being heard in good faith. But oppression feels like oppression to both the subaltern and to the victim of racism.

On Wednesday, October 25, 2000, in theory class, jeanne responded:

Dena, I also disagree with Spivak. I do not think the line between colonialism and racism is as clear as I think it seems to her. I'm not sure that the oppressed victim can easily distinguish between the two situations, though certainly the sati represents an extreme form of oppression.

Moreover the skilled use of the dominant discourse is a status characteristic to which the oppressed rarely have fair access. Thus, to insist that the oppressed victim of racism should undertake defense of his/her validity claims in the dominant discourse is to ignore the difficulty of attaining that skill in the dominant discourse and to ignore the privileging of class in its attainment. As I recall, that's one reason we have lawyers, to represent those who have not had the advantage of acquiring skill in the dominant discourse.