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Kate Weiler

            Slipping happens when a person does something intentionally or subconsciously that is not socially acceptable.  This could be saying a rude, racist comment or making assumptions based on the way someone looks.  It can also be giving into social norms or ignoring a problem that should be dealt with.  Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” demonstrates a society of people who are constantly slipping.

In “Slipping into Something More Comfortable” the concept of “slipping” is introduced as “an act of associative miss-speaking”. Meaning it could be a Freudian slip, stereotyping, even micro aggression. It is usually negative but can be positive such as acts of regression into playful child-like behavior, however for the sake of this paper I will be focusing on the negative aspects of slipping. Therefore slips that are offensive and even harmful will be the main focus as I analyze the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”.

Princess Jefferson

A Slip Between the Cracks

            “A slip up…or a Slip out?” After attending and taking part in the class discussion for my E-Sem, English- writing class, it became apparent to me that, we (my class, and society), all share different perspectives of slippage. Not that I was unaware of this before, my thoughts were just validated in our class time. To some, they believe that slippage is mistakenly saying something that you did not necessarily mean to say; to others slippage is defined as the act of allowing yourself to be honest. I do not fully agree nor do I fully disagree with the concepts that my peers have drawn regarding this term, I simply believe that there is more to slippage than, “a slip of the tongue.”

Slipping, as described in Anne Dalke’s chapter of the same name, is a multifaceted and rather complicated term to define. The process of slipping has become even more apparent as we make our way into the 21^st century and come in contact with people of various ethnicities and races. Slipping should not be thought of as outright racist comments, but simply small remarks or actions that reveal ingrained racial bias, prejudice, or a disregard for the cultures of others. However, it is important to note that slipping is not always done in an attempt to offend or hurt; it may be, exactly as the term itself suggests, a simple mistake.

Race and the media…wow. There’s a lot of material there. There’s so much that I can say about the media and utter crap that Hollywood churns out. When I think of race and the media, I think of a text I recently sent to one of my Asian friends, asking “Do you ever wonder which white actress would play you in a movie about your life[?]” I was joking, but I know and other Asian-American people know that Hollywood has a hard time casting Asians for Asian roles. I'm just thinking of Emma Stone, Scarlett Johansson, Matt Damon, the entire Avatar: the Last Airbender movie—although let’s be honest don’t you think it’s interesting that the only brown actor in that movie was cast to play the bad guy?

The title of Emily's essay helped me to think about what slipping into something more comfortable means. When I hear that phrase in the context of speaking politically, I interpreted it in this way: finding other words that are more comfortable, which in the end cover up the same thing that other words are also saying. I think it's okay to slip and to accidentally mis-speak, and I think this paper is implying that our expectations of others can't be so high that they will never ever misspeak; the implication is that when one does misspeak, they own up to the mistake and the "slip".

Slipping is the kind of reading that I felt really confused at the very beginning ,which I don't know clear about the federal flags and protest things, but later when the author refer back to the experiences in Brynmawr I found echo with myself.

Something that really touches me is the author's new perspective of 'slip'. Instead of ragrading it as the unvoluntary slippage, but also something 'into new thought and order'and we should 'consider the meaning behind words spoken in moments of slipping'. I like the idea that slipping acts as a signal to reminde people something could be go wrong and need to be reviewd. 

A part of the essay that really stood out to me was the story of Nkechi and the villager that she was assigned to. The instance where Nkechi walked away was viewed as a lost opportunity for she was unable to create a connection that she had gone there to create. In contrast, it was also an instance of someone acknowledging their uncomfortableness with a subject and choosing to walk away. There always seems to be a gray area between trying to form new connections between different identities and protecting the integrity of one’s own identity. This story in particular really touches upon that difficult interaction. People always value their own identities and values over others’.

As I read “Slipping”, the idea that resonated the most with me was the essay’s view on how we should think of these slips. Instead of vilifying people for their political incorrectness or ignoring it on the grounds that it’s an honest mistake, the best course of action is to treat the slip as a signal that there is still work to be done. I have written in my previous essays for this course about how social injustice does not disappear if we just ignore our differences, as those who advocate for “colorblindness” seem to suggest. Likewise, in this essay, it is clear that ignoring slips creates missed opportunities to effect positive change.