For this week’s prompt, I’d like you to discuss at least two of our readings for the week. You should discuss them in relation with one another, thinking about how the author’s might speak to one another about the issues they bring up in their articles.

In the introduction to “Discoure and Racism” by Wodak and Martin Reisigl, there is a line that says “…discourse serves to criticize, delegitimate, and argue against rascist opinions and practices, that is, to pursue antiracist strategies”. After reading that line, I started to think about the travel piece, Our Contemporary Ancestors in the Southern Mountains, written by William Goodell Frost. Reading his piece about the people of Appalachia for the first time, I felt that he was very condescending and critical of the people he wrote about. It appeared as though he mocked their lifestyle. Reading over it again I was certain he was further reinforcing the stereotypes of the people and was writing a piece that could be skewed as condescending and judgmental. I did not think that Frost was using literature to combat or discredit the racism and stereotyping the people of Appalachia face, but that he was taking part in that racism. Then, I was told that Frost was also a humanitarian. Reading the article one more time with knowing that Frost was a humanitarian made me look at it a little differently. It was maybe that he was trying to sell the poverty, illiteracy, and other characteristics of their lifestyle in order to garner support for the people. He was not trying to point out everything he say as a flaw and he was not attempting to mock the people, he was attempting to give the rest of the country a perspective of the people and help them.

KCD