Event 2: Lecture-Walter Michaels

Last thursday, my First Year Seminar attended a lecture by Walter Michaels. Walters Michaels is a literary theorist. He has taught at prestigious universities such as John Hopkins, Berkeley, and University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For his lecture, he spoke about neoliberalism in universities. Well, thats what I suppose that's what he was advertised to be speaking about. To be perfectly honest, for a large majority of his lecture, I had no idea what he was talking about. Being premed and not having the slightest interest in anything political or in relation to the issues we have in our country that have to do with ten dollar words such a neoliberalism or any of those big-ism words, I didnt have the sufficient background information to truly understand what he was talking about. I would find myself beginning to understand, but just as I would begin to understand, he would segue into something else.

However, what his lecture boiled down to was he feel that in our nation we have placed our class disparity issues in the wrong area. He feels as though we have spent a multitude of time researching gender, race, and ethnic groups in order to understand how prejudice and discrimination have lead to our class disparity. The true issue, he feels, is in our economy. As an capitalist economy, it makes it difficult for the impoverished to raise in the economy. Essentially those who are poor stay poor, and those that are rich continue to stay rich because they are rich. In his mind, in our economic structure, there can be no upward mobility. Classes stay in their own classes, or become greater in their own class area. The poorer become more poor, and the rich become more rich. He feels that our countries preoccupation with theories such as the minority model and gender, race and ethnic studies does not solve the problem, but further perpetuate it, leaving the problem unresolved. At the conclusion of his lecture, two Asian studies teacher began an argument with him over the logistics of his theory. In his theory paper (which was read in verbatim for the lecture) he used asian studies as an example. He compare different texts within asian literature to further prove his point. The asian studies professors felt that his logistics did not prove his theory, and actually proved the reasons that he tried to prove so feverently against.

As the two parties argued against one another, I found myself becoming more angered at both of them actually. Perhaps I'm just simpleminded and am unable to see the true issues in our country are really centered around those big-ism words. Although, I couldn't help but think that all of those reasons for which both parties made for the class disparity in our country are simply copouts theorized by people who have never experienced what they preach. I've been raised in a household where issues of class, race, gender, etc are all preoccupations that do not ultimately affect how successful you are. You simply do not let those preoccupations monopolize your life and just do what you have to do in order to be successful and get where you need to be. According to Michaels theory and the theories of the asian studies professors, a person like my mother would never be where she's at. From the asian studies professors, she is a double minority-a black, female. From Michaels perspective, she was born in poverity. With that equation, she was essentially screwed. Discrimination would have stopped her or the nonexistance of upward mobility would have stopped her. But it seems as though my mother, a black female born into poverty managed to raise to a higher class, achieved a high education required, high salary and highly respectable job in medicine (my mother is an anesthesiologist). How? My mother is quite possibly one of the hardest working women who doesn't allow preoccupations of gender, race, class, etc to define or constrict her. She was focused on her goal and achieved what she needed in order to become the person she had imagined herself to be.

Perhaps I'm too simple to truly understand. Perhaps my mother is an anomoly. However, what I took away from that lecture was just another preoccupation and blame for laziness and negative attitudes in our nation. We continue to place blame on things that we have supposedly transcended or surpassed. It seems as though we haven't and continue to place the values that built our country on the backburner.

I'm actually glad that I attended that lecture. It served as a fruitful experience I've had in college. It first off introduced me to a discourse community that I am foreign to. Although I could not really understand what exactly he was talking about, the rhetoric and diction he used was truly astounding. Just the way he phrased his argument made him seem highly educated and that he was important. The argument between Michaels and the Asian studis professors showed just how eloquent that discourse community is, and just how well the utilize the English dictionary. Also, it also made me realize that just how difficult is it to understand a theory or discussion from a discourse community that you essentially have no part in. I needed a "Neoliberalism and other Big-ism Words For Dummies" book. The lecture also added to my college experience by further stressing the ideals taught to me by my mother. I often find that out on my own here, I have forgotten or neglect the ideals taught to me by mother. On this college campus, it has been easy to give into the ideals of others because of the lack of presence of parents. Everything is so new and interesting, that is quickly replaces what you may have been taught in the past. While new and interesting is good, there is still a base that is necessary. That base has generally been constructed by your parents and will ultimately give you success in college. By listening to that lecture, I could have left feeling disheartened. however, it reminded me of the lessons taught by my mother and those will prove as the basis for success in college.