Some of the responses to her various posts:
"Where did this Debra person come from, anyway? Is she here to stay? Most of the time I have no idea what she's is talking about. I mean, I'm sorry, but her posts are mostly incomprehensible to me." "Apparently, this writer thinks blogging is just journalism done to lower standards and with greater self-indulgence. It betrays a contempt for other bloggers and for her audience." "Oh rubbish, the woman was just feeling her way along. She got it wrong at first. So bloody what, it's not contempt, it's getting her bloody sea legs." "hey, this as a much better, more interesting Dickerson post than the last few." "uh, am I the only one here who's finding Dickerson's posts mostly incoherent? I can't even make out Will's argument, much less hers, from this mess. And maverick negro cowboys with made-up diseases wha?!? Maybe blogging actually *is* harder than it looks." 'Yeah, I agree. She needs to frame her arguments better." "Tony- there was an argument there? What was it?" "This was entirely unreadable. Incoherent, poorly written, largely irritating." "That was a terrible, terrible piece, and even aside from the awful writing, it's practically content-free." "Who is Debra Dickerson? And why does she write so poorly?" "Seems that Dickerson can actually turn in a coherent piece, as long as she lifts 95% of it from other sources." "I read the whole thing, even the silly link to the 1851 racist tome. What is your point?" "Yep, that post was the mother of all brainfarts. Race? "The Negro Cowboy"? Huh?" "I read Debra's post shortly after it went online. I didn't have a CLUE what she was talking about, but was too embarrassed to say so. I felt sure I was missing something fundamental." "That was.... a fine example of incoherent blithering on." "Typically one normally intends to have a fucking point when writing. And, given this blog is supposed to be about American politics one might expect a guest author would want to have something approaching a point." "Get rid of this Dickerson person, and her incoherence. Haven't seen a sensible piece from her yet -- what the fuck, is she doing some kind of low wage, between-terms internship or something? Sheesh." "Misogynists? I suppose illiterate looney Left have to dig around for hackneyed smears, but my problem with this incoherent twit Dickerson has fuck all to do with her gender and everything to do with her inability to write coherently or even in an interesting manner."
and so on.
People came down on her for writing "spoze" instead of "suppose." There are comments that took her points seriously, also, but I quoted comments above at length (and there were many more) to show how much her writing was denigrated.
Maybe I'm reading all the wrong blogs, but I read a lot, and I have never seen such responses. There's all kinds of writing in blogs, and people do comment on spelling sometimes (usually their own), but I have never seen such a pack response to a writer who is bringing into a blog arguments that haven't been made there before, arguments about how deeply race is embedded in all sorts of past and present practices.
Such responses to Dickerson are condescending at best, misogynist and racist at worst, and show -- minimally -- that a lot of readers are not willing to put in time and effort to read anything but that which is familiar and re-inforcing of what they expect. This is the pattern we get used to in writing instruction: some readers are blinded by one word they consider to be misspelled, seeing in it moral implications.
The people who wrote the comments I quoted will say, "It's only about the writing" -- just as (for example) was said by those who turned down an article by Carole Blaire, Julie R. Brown, and Leslie A. Baxter that focused on women and academia (Blair, Carole, Julie R. Brown, Leslie A. Baxter. (1994). Disciplining the Feminine. Quarterly Journal of Speech (84): 383-409). One example, but I'll let it suffice for now because it's a strong one and because my stomach needs soothing after reading those comments.
The teaching of writing also needs to be about the teaching of reading and about the teaching of generosity toward that which is not familiar.
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