Blog Post #2 - Trinh T. Minh-ha

I really enjoyed this piece by Trinh T. Minh-ha, and was glad it was our first piece in the Identity and Difference unit of study. Although it was somewhat confusing, Minh-ha brought up some great points that I know I've never really thought about, and definitely got me thinking throughout reading the piece. As a white female, I don't have another culture to relate myself too, and therefore feel as though I haven't struggled with finding my identity in that way as much as several others probably have. That was definitely one of the reasons I feel this piece was the most interesting to me.

One of the first quotes from Minh-ha that I really liked was on page 930. It was about her discussion of the "X" and "Y". Minh-ha says, "Those running around yelling X is not Y and X can be Y usually land in a hospital, a rehabilitation center, a concentration camp or a reservation." One of the reasons I feel people are too afraid to show (or try to find) their true identities is because looking at our history, we have out casted people who were different, especially those who try to celebrate being different.

"Many of us still hold on to the concept of difference not as a tool of creativity to question multiple forms of repression and dominance, but as a tool of segregation..." This point made on page 930 definitely rings true to me. I immediately thought of the several groups we have on campus, and how each individual group has their own identity, and for the most part, share a common theme that brings the group together. While I'm involved in several clubs and think it's a great thing, it also makes me sad sometimes how not a lot of these groups collaborate and do projects and events with one another.

The last point I marked down while reading the text was on page 932. Minh-ha is questioning how one should identify if they have a "hyphenated identity". This made me think about when you fill out paperwork and have to mark race; there's never a box to mark down more than one. Even though this is a simple example, it definitely is something to consider and think about.

After doing a little research on her, I found she is a professor at Berkeley in California. She teachers women and gender studies classes. Here is a little information on her, and her different publications(which all look really interesting)
http://womensstudies.berkeley.edu/about/profile/faculty/19