From Eyes on the Prize to Eyes on the Text

I've had a few people ask me to comment on the recent controversy over the UW Oshkosh Advance-Titan's April Fool's satire issue. The facts of the matter along with editorial comment and discussion can be found on Lake Winneblogo here and here, along with Miles Maguire here. The Oshkosh Northwestern has a thread on the matter at their community forum.

My academic research area is known as "rhetorical criticism," so I can certaintly understand and appreciate the desire to interpret and evaluate media texts. Provoking people to think about the social, political, etc. implications of something like the AT April Fool's issue is a good thing.

The problem I have is that, when it comes to the movement for social justice in America, textual criticism seems to have replaced old fashioned organizing as a method for making change. People who 40 years ago might have been knocking on their neighbor's door to coax them to come to a rally, or distributing leaflets in a public space, or pursuing any number of grassroots organizing activities, might today be found spending unlimited time and energy deconstructing a text. A waste of time? No. Helpful in building a broad based human rights movement in America? Marginally.

For what it's worth, current AT editor Stephanie Barnard is the most liberal/progressive individual I have seen in that position in my 18 years on the campus. Perhaps because we are living in the era of keeping our eyes on the text instead of the prize, it's difficult for individuals sincerely interested in making ours a more just campus to recognize who our allies are.