JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 17, Number 1, 1997 Page: 57
142 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Race, Class, and Conflict 57
(e.g. ethnicity, social class, gender, role) with the assumption that the social
identity based on this category is influencing their behavior (32). "Interacting
with strangers is characterized by anxiety and uncertainty," Gudykunst ex-
plains. When uncertainty, "a cognitive phenomenon that affects the way we
think about strangers," is above our maximum threshold, strangers' behavior is
seen as unpredictable and/or we do not have confidence in our predictions and
explanations of their behavior. The consequence may be either we choose to
end the interactions as soon as possible or we may try to gather the information
we need to bring our uncertainty below our maximum thresholds (11).
Anxiety, the "affective (emotional) equivalent of uncertainty," results from
"feeling uneasy, tense, worried, or apprehensive about what might happen"
when we interact with strangers and respond to situations "with the anticipation
of negative consequences" (12). When anxiety is above our maximum thresh-
olds, Gudykunst asserts, "we are so uneasy that we do not want to communicate
with strangers" (13). If we have to continue the interaction, misunderstanding
will result.
No matter how our anxiety gets above our maximum thresholds, when it is too high
our attention focuses exclusively on the anxiety and not on our communication with
others. When anxiety is above our maximum thresholds, we tend to process
information in a simplistic fashion. To illustrate, when our anxiety is too high, we only
use our stereotypes to predict other people's behavior. Because stereotypes are never
accurate when applied to an individual, our predictions are inaccurate and our
communication, therefore, is likely to be ineffective. (13; emphasis added)
Was I "the stranger" to those resisting African-American students in my
basic writing class, physically close to them to impose academic discourse and
Standard English on their home discourse and dialect, and yet so remote that I
was outside their situation and caused them to anticipate negative consequences
of my interactions with them? Did they use their stereotypes to predict my
behavior? Did I violate their predictions and cause them anxiety? Did I
subconsciously use stereotypes to predict my students' behavior and make
wrong predictions about them and cause both myself and them to feel anxious?
Did the outspoken white students also use stereotypes and cause the African-
American students to feel misunderstood and indignant?
If l am the stranger, what exactly is my "strangeness" and how does it affect my
students?
Challenging the belief of the Freireans in North America that literacy
empowers the oppressed, Stuckey calls on literacy workers to see "how literacy
is a weapon, the knife that severs the society and slices the opportunities and
rights of its poorest people" (118). Concurring with Porter Sexton that standard
testing is an "insult that is now so popularly being hurled at our nation's youth,"
Stuckey pushes the argument farther. "The insult is the pervasive lie that
language makes the difference," she snaps, "a lie that goes to the heart not merely
of English in the institution but of the public perception of English" (119). For
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Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 17, Number 1, 1997, periodical, 1997; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28618/m1/61/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .