Re: The Hidden Agenda (4 of 4)

Umm, yeah...  I'm actually going to have to disagree with Kevin here 
and just assume that this poster is a few cards short of even Al 
Sharpton's deck.  Have you noticed NAQT's website starts with WWW?  
Which may stand for whitey whitey whitey.  And "neg 5" was probably 
just shortened from the racial slur.  Get a grip buddy, and if you 
have a problem with the lack of minorities in quizbowl start with 
your own team and recruit them.  Then you can address the Qb 
community at large.

M. Napier
U. of Florida

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "qb_hmm <qb_hmm_at_y...>" <qb_hmm_at_y...> 
wrote:
> Part Four: "I Designate Caliban"
> 
> Ultimately, the question must be where will morally progressive 
people who =
> 
> care about quizbowl turn? Paradoxically it is the format most often 
held up=
>  as 
> the voice of conservatism that allows us to reshape quizbowl with 
the maste=
> r's 
> own discourse. Precisely because of the Enlightenment ideals of 
self-
> fashioning it espouses, its past history as the format of Seth 
Kendall and =
> 
> Strom Thurmond can be overturned. The recent calls to scrutinize 
the so-
> called "knowledge arms race," a very worthy cause if the true 
motivation 
> behind the ire were not to simply reify quiz bowl's exclusionary 
and simpli=
> stic 
> past, actually hides the ways in which ACF's growing question 
subject 
> expansion may hold the most promise for the quizbowl utopia we have 
> always dreamed about. In other words, the format's elitism and 
search for n=
> ew 
> frontiers of knowledge actually helps to diversify the game, and 
promulgate=
> s a 
> more inclusive vision of the world. Ask yourself why you hate the 
format—is=
>  it 
> really the difficulty or is it all the non-western, non-male 
questions that=
>  seem 
> unanswerable? In their never-ending quest to one up one another 
many ACF 
> players actually extol (often not deliberately) global 
contributions to the=
>  
> tapestry of human culture. Inadvertently or not, ACF has become an 
> alternative space for minority voices. Curiously, their own core 
members 
> includes the most diverse ethnic cross-section of any format 
(though they 
> must address their gendered politics to truly show a commitment to 
growth) =
> 
> and not surprisingly they are often the subject of slander. Note 
how the 
> consistent sniping about the over-representation of hip-hop would 
be 
> interpreted in another context—can you say Trent Lott? What we can 
take, 
> therefore, from ACF, is not the elitist aloof stance towards the 
rest of th=
> e 
> community, but their implicit willingness to explore and expose 
players to =
> the 
> myriad ways of knowing that are otherwise silenced.
> 
> Conclusions:
> 
> In conclusion, this letter was not written out of hate, but out of 
love, lo=
> ve for the 
> game, love for the people who play it, love for knowledge. We must 
be aware=
>  
> of the power structures that effect our daily lives. It is only 
through a g=
> rowing 
> consciousness of our sordid past that we can have a future as one 
people, 
> united, buzzing, together.

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