What do I do with this?
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@ShiroKuro said in What do I do with this?:
One is an exchange between a Japanese politician and a foreign (i.e., non-Japanese) reporter, and the other is an exchange between a past American president (guess who) and an Asian American reporter. For the record, this isn’t about politics or political policy, it’s a linguistic analysis that looks at discourse practices…. But it certainly doesn’t make either politician look good (they both look like jerks, although that’s not something I talk about in the analysis… it does speak for itself though...."
Something I learned a long time ago as a journalist: What you think makes them look bad only makes them look bad if you say it makes them look bad.
I'll give you an example (true story):
A reporter manages to befriend some members of the KuKluxKlan. Through those contacts, he gets to actually embed himself with the Klan, go to their meetings, record them on the record saying all kinds of outrageous sh!t, hang out with them for months.
Without judging them, without editorializing a whit on what he saw or heard, he published exactly what they said and what they did. Of course, to 99 percent of his readers, what he wrote was breathtakingly horrifying and outrageous. (IIRR, the piece came out in Esquire.)
Now, do you think the Klan was embarrassed or outraged or came after him after this piece was published?
Nope. They were thrilled. He portrayed them accurately. They felt he understood them. He told it like they see it. He was still their best pal, as far as they were concerned.
Because he simply reported what he saw and heard without telling the reader what to think. Of course, he didn't have to tell the reader what to think. He knew what they would think.
If you can follow this principle in your own paper, I think you are in the clear. People who find Trump a huge embarrassment will think what you wrote makes him look bad. People who support Trump--and maybe even Trump himself--will give you kudos for an accurate portrayal.
As for keeping your head down--and I address this to all of us--that is the opposite of what this moment calls for. The more of us who stand up for the way we see things, the more of us will be encouraged to do the same. And the more people who stand up, the sooner we get our power back. Please don't just roll over.
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Huh. My memory is better than I thought. I found the article. You can read it for free just for signing up with the magazine's website (you could always unsubscribe/block them if they send you emails). I think it is a pertinent read for this moment, seeing as in many ways we are reenacting the Civil War.
https://classic.esquire.com/article/1980/3/1/aint-nothin-you-can-do-but-join-the-klan
I know the author through my connections at grad school. Hearing him tell the story of how he reported this story was a hair-raising experience.
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Lots of food for thought here....
I do need to keep my job.
And anyone who's brain isn't made of rocks will see that my analysis is very critical (but again, not re politics)....
I'll come back to this. I have to go practice (i'm playing in a kids' recital on Sunday, which seemed like a good idea when I signed up, but now feels surreal)
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Can you change the characters to something other than politicians? How about chefs?
Everyone loves chefs.
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Noble, certainly. If one has a backup source of income it would be a fine choice.
But we’re looking at a fairly short period of time here. This is not gonna last and if it all goes pear shaped SK can certainly return to Japan for a year or two.
This is not the hill to die on.
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I remember the first time he was elected and many of us lived in fear.
I'm coming up on 60 in less than three years. I'm not going to spend one day of the time I have left living in fear of a politician and certainly not Donald Trump.
This isn't advice. I don't have any advice to give you.
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@Steve-Miller said in What do I do with this?:
Can you change the characters to something other than politicians? How about chefs?
Everyone loves chefs.
If only! It is common to hide or change small details to protect the identity of research participants. But in this kind of linguistic analysis, large excerpts from the interaction get included in the test of the article so the reader can see what the author has analyzed, and the author walks you through the interaction, explaining the discourse practices as they unfold.
It would be instantly obvious that these two exchanges are not taking place in a kitchen!
Although I could just give the two politicians pseudonyms, one would be “JP” (Japanese politician) and the other AP (American politician)…
I’m going to talk to my dept. chair, and also to another sociolinguist on campus who knows this work (she was at my talk) and she what they think.
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@Daniel said in What do I do with this?:
I remember the first time he was elected and many of us lived in fear.
I'm coming up on 60 in less than three years. I'm not going to spend one day of the time I have left living in fear of a politician and certainly not Donald Trump.
This isn't advice. I don't have any advice to give you.
@Daniel this is absolutely advice, and I mean that in a good way.
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@Steve-Miller said in What do I do with this?:
This is not the hill to die on.
This is the question, isn’t it. Is this the hill? IOW, does this work take a stand? And would I die on it? As in, would it get noticed, and could I write it up in such a way that it doesn’t? (Also, would I want to write it up in that way?)
My research has applications to linguistic human rights, and one of my new projects (on stereotypes about accents and accent stigma) brings that out even more.
This particular project, depending on how I write it up, could be more neutral, but it can also be more critical, which is how I presented it when I gave my talk.
Ugh, the more I think about it, the more I want to publish it because I agree with what @pique is saying.
But @Steve-Miller ‘s pragmatic take is also important. I definitely need to keep my job.
Also, here’s a super paranoid thing to say: my husband is not a US citizen. Yes, he has a green card, but how vulnerable are we as an international family?
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@ShiroKuro A few years ago I probably would have thought that you were being too concerned about running into problems, but after following @Daniel thread about what happened at places like New College, it's pretty clear that things are changing in academia in a bigly way.
It's too simplistic to write these concerns off as TDS. Trump is providing a powerful platform and paving the way for people like DeSantis, Paxton (TX) et al. They represent what a lot of people in America seem to want.
Seems like moving forward with your paper is the right thing to do, but the reality is there is potentially much at stake if you do.
I don't know what to tell you. I'm not sure what I would do.
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Well there’s no deadline on this decision…. For better or worse.
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@ShiroKuro said in What do I do with this?:
And anyone who's brain isn't made of rocks will see that my analysis is very critical (but again, not re politics)....
The "brain isn't made of rocks" part here is key. Did you hear that google searches for "Did Joe Biden drop out" and "Is Joe Biden running" skyrocketed..... ON ELECTION DAY? And that in the past few days, one of the top searches on Google has been "What are tariffs and who pays them?" In other words, the intellectual ability of the average American honestly seems to be about the same as the average rock.
I do think getting the opinion of your department chair would be good, but I like the idea of calling them JP and AP - you aren't calling anyone out and your article isn't even overtly critical. Like Pique said about the KKK article, Trump supporters may even like that you are showing how "tough" and "manly" his rhetoric is and it wouldn't surprise me if Trump himself was flattered that someone wrote an academic article about him, especially if it's comparing him to another hardline politician that he admires.
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@Lisa said in What do I do with this?:
Did you hear that google searches for "Did Joe Biden drop out" and "Is Joe Biden running" skyrocketed..... ON ELECTION DAY? And that in the past few days, one of the top searches on Google has been "What are tariffs and who pays them?" In other words, the intellectual ability of the average American honestly seems to be about the same as the average rock.<
I hadn't heard about those Google searches and I'm horrified but not surprised.
I think my perspective has been shaped by having spent the past 40 or so years living in what is now deep red Trump country. It was very charming and enlightening and interesting to be in a very different culture for a very long time. A place where people have different values and priorities than what I grew up with. Whose intelligence didn't come from book learning but from common sense.
And now, I am just done with uneducated people who can't think critically. Just done. Because the common sense, the only redeeming quality, appears to be gone. After this election, my patience and my curiosity are exhausted. I've put in my time. We are going to return to our tribe and get out of here. (Not WTF here; Montana here. Or at least the part of Montana that was seduced by Trump, which isn't all of it.)
Actually I don't know exactly what we are going to do. But being surrounded by boxes of rocks isn't it.
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SK, you are smart to consider all of these things, and I think talking to your department chair and whoever else can give you good guidance is a smart move as well. Probably essential.
We can't know, nor can we control the future. We don't know that this paper would put you and your husband in any kind of jeopardy. Anticipating that it might, and then censoring yourself because of what might happen, seems to me like a betrayal of your own scholarship. Plus think about what it would mean if everyone does that? What happens to science? What happens to truth?
Now, is your paper something that really must be put out there for the sake of the progress of the field of linguistics? Is it that important? I have no idea, but that would be an important point to explore with those who are in a good position to guide you.
I won't pretend to understand the significance of your research, because I know nothing about your field. But it seems to me that if it is at all about people being treated differently, or being discriminated against, because of how they speak, that is quite important at this particular moment in time, and maybe a necessary contribution.
It sounds like you need to weigh the value of your work against the personal risks to yourself. It's very difficult for any of us to understand the significance of our own work. So in that regard, an early, private peer review from people who will give it to you straight seems essential. And then of course talking to the university about whether the imagined risks are real is also important.
My purpose in what I posted wasn't to insist you put your livelihood and lifestyle on the line, but to make the point to everyone here that hiding and self-censorship are not the way to move forward if we wish to get our freedom back. All that anticipatory obedience does is teach autocrats that they have even more power over our lives than they thought. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices to remain free. Unfortunately.
Only you know what is right for you and I certainly won't judge you either way. xoxox
fear is the thief of dreams
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@ShiroKuro said in What do I do with this?:
Also, here’s a super paranoid thing to say: my husband is not a US citizen. Yes, he has a green card, but how vulnerable are we as an international family?
That is a very real consideration that we don't have any answers to yet. The threat to deport immigrants could be very broad if the threat of 20 million is taken as the target. The spouse of my pastor is a green card holder and I know several other people of varying status who I seriously wonder how they may be affected.
I expect it to be at least partially influenced by the cooperation or lack thereof provided by state and local authorities, somewhat like the "sanctuary cities" in the past.
Big Al
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Al, I personally am watching closely to see which state governors step up and say they are stregnthening their laws to insure they are a sanctuary for democracy. So far I think it's just been California and New York; hoping more blue states join their ranks.
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@Steve-Miller said in What do I do with this?:
And start a new project.
I have several ongoing projects. The problem is, I like to plan things so one is under review while I'm writing up a different one while another is in data collection.
Not putting this one in for review screws up my timeline.
OTOH, I could just say whatever. I have tenure, so I do have some flexibility in my timeline. (of course, the meaning of tenure is very much in flux at the moment...)
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@pique said in What do I do with this?:
But it seems to me that if it is at all about people being treated differently, or being discriminated against, because of how they speak, that is quite important at this particular moment in time, and maybe a necessary contribution.
Yep. That's why this particular work is very timely.
It sounds like you need to weigh the value of your work against the personal risks to yourself.
Yes, and it's hard to do that....
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@ShiroKuro ignore the first emoji. I am still trying to figure out this platform. The message was supposed to be "solidarity"
fear is the thief of dreams
