Ethnic-minority identity must not ground every cultural reading

Evidence

The method of reading has kept to the representation of agency. These representations are gender-divided. The medium of the male agent’s self-representation in this case is the devaddsi. Such readings in the subdiscipline of Cultural Studies cannot claim the attention of the disciplinary historian of the aftermath of colonialism. They can timidly solicit the attention of the teacher of multicultural literature courses so that s/he can remain aware of the differences and deferments within “national identity” and “ethnic minority,” and not take the latter as the invariable startingpoint of every decolonization of the mind. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2087

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The warning against taking ‘ethnic minority’ as an invariable identity starting point for decolonization directly parallels the argument that strategic essentialism must not harden into a fixed residence; relevant to the reader’s tracing of whether the ironic stance collapses.
• XREF: connects to: Cultural situatedness need not limit identity or delegitimize other cultures — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 951; Asking the lone minority student to explain ethnic texts burden them unfairly — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 92; Ethnic situatedness need not confine or delegitimize other identities — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 951

Broader Connections

• Cultural situatedness need not limit identity or delegitimize other cultures #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 951