SECTION NEWS March 2002 • Anthropology News es a yearly conference that often includes Latin America specialists. / welcome short articles and comments that could be of interest to our readers. Please contact me at: Facultad cle Antropologfa, UAutonoma de Yucatan, Calle 76 M55-LL, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico; tel and fax [52J999/925-4523; gvargas@webtelmex.net.mx or gabriela_vargas_cetina@hotmail.com. Society for Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists BARB WEST, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR As I write this, I am still thinking about last night's episode of ER. This show has not been as open as theoriginal Ellen or Will and Grace about dealing with LGBTQ issues, but it also has not avoided them. What I'm wondering is whether we would be better off without the kind of visi- bility that this high-profile series has provided. During the past seven years, we've seen the abused partner in a gay male relationship go home with his abuser rather than seek help. An HIV-negative male partner of an HIV-positive man was disappointed when an HIV test failed to come up positive. A teen-aged boy preferred to suffer in silence about his depression rather than come out to his father. More recently, one of the main characters, Kerry Weaver, has had relation- ships with two terribly intolerant caricatures of lesbians. To the best of my memory, there has been only one semi-positive LGBTQ story line: a lesbian relationship was presented as nurturing, caring and very long-term. Unfortunately, this episode ended with Weaver denying one of the elderly women the right to make health-care decisions for her partner when an estranged nephew showed up to block the partner's deci- sion. So much for a positive image. Last night, the show presented a less-than-flat- tering image of both a man and a woman. In one stoiy, a black male hip-hop star learned he was HIV-positive (or Hi-Five) but refused to tell his girlfriend, because he would have to own up to being on the Down Low (or DL). While this episode probably brought this cultural phenome- non to light for many people outside the African American and LGBTQ communities, it did not do so in a way that would contextualize and histori- cize the behavior. Instead, ER contributed to the recent media buzz on DL culture, which has "delivered [a] potent cocktail of stories that mix homophobia, hip-hop and HIV/AIDS," as report- ed by Steven G Fullwood in "The Low Down on Down Low Culture" (Africana.com, July 12, 2001). Fullwood's article on this media buzz should have been recommended reading for the ERwriters. Rather than demonizing DL behavior by linking it to HIV, they could have addressed what Fullwood called the "black community's longstanding ambiguity concerning their men- folk and adulterous behaviors. For centuries, many men have led double lives, one as a faith- ful husband, and the other as a[n] unconfined, free-wheeling bachelor. Before it even had a name, black folks condoned DL culture." The episode also could have addressed the homopho- bia and intolerance that drives many men to seek a double life. As Fullwood again wrote, "Homo hate is everywhere: at the office, on the train, on the street, in my building, in stores, at church, on television, in books, films and music." Yes, decep- tion, especially about HIV, isn't to be condoned. But at the same time, can anybody really blame these men for not stepping forward to claim an identity that's been depicted in such a negative light? Rather than reiterating the same old trope of the dangerous black man, ER had the oppor- tunity to be really innovative. It failed. Last night it failed with a second storyline as well. In this one, Weaver is outed at work by her second girlfriend, who (like her first) has dumped her after two or three dates because she was not already outat work. Perhaps having bought into the stereotype of the dangerous black male, the show was eager to disavow a second stereotype: the lesbians who move in together after two dates. However, this disavowal should not have come at the expense of any sense of compassion and tolerance on the part of the Latina girlfriend, nor at the expense of reality. My concern with ER is that it has used its tremendous popularity to address many difficult issues, all within the framework of entertain- ment. Why, when it comes to LGB issues (they have yet to have a transgendered character, to the best of my memory), do they reinscribe stereo- types and negativity? Certainly I do not want to go back to the days when there were no LGBTQ characters on popular TV shows, butI'm not cer- tain that this kind of visibility is any better. Send contributions to Barb West at bwest@uop.edu. Society fw Linguistic Anthropology JAMES STAN LAW AND MARK PETERSON, CONTRIBUTING EDITORS A Letter on Sept 11 [We have not talked much about Sept 11, or its linguistic importance, in this column as yet. Prof "X," however, has submitted this letter, telling of the tragedy's impact on her graduate seminar last- semester. This letter might be construed as being controversial, but it is not meant to reflect the views of the SLA Board or membership, the AAA or even myself. In fact, in the longer version, Prof X said she did not write this letter to be anti- American or even necessarily political. She just thought it was important that some linguistic dis- cussion about Sept 11 be started, and wanted to hear the views of others. It is in this light that I present it, and welcome comments.—Ed.] I was driving to class when I heard about "it" on the car radio. Our seminar onlanguage rights and linguistic minorities met once a week on Tuesday afternoons. The day of the attacks on the World Trade Center, theMuslim students in the seminar were completely silent, even though I didn't think the environment was par- .^ ticularly hostile. A few weeks later, ||||| however, on another Tuesday, the US attacks on Afghanistan began. I walked into class to find a beehive of sounds and discussions; it didn't look like a day to start off talking about Labov and language use in department stores. As surprising as was their silence on Sept 11, today the Arab students were vocal, excited, even loud. Though no one in the class seemed to be dis- agreeing with them, I was surprised at the inten- sity and depth of their anger, even though none of the Muslim students were Afghan or Pakistani. A few weeks later I walked in and heard, "Don't you see, he could not have written this letter! It is preposterous." The previous week the US govern- ment released what supposedly was the last, five- page letter of Mohamed Atta, who allegedly mas- terminded the attacks and piloted one of the planes into one of the WTC towers. Ali and Yasser were explaining that the Arabic in the letter was so bizarre. "No one would ever say such a thing," Ali said, referring to the reference to Atta's family in the pra5'er in the letter. "Where is the mention of the Prophet?" With their help, we went through several paragraphs dissecting the letter stylistically and sociolinguistically If there was one single thing that the class got from our discussions, it was how news in the Arabic media differs from the mainstream American media. We spent much time hearing our Muslim students describe what was being said on Al Jazeera and other Arabic-language news sources. I was glad again to have native Arabic speakers in class when the supposedly self- incriminating video of Osama bin Laden was released. Though it was hard to find the complete text in the American media, we were able to get it on the Internet. When compared to the ex- cerpted translations given on CNN or ABC News, the story we saw was more nuanced. Though the Arabic was said to be confident and strong, our students stressed how metaphorical and idiosyn- cratic the language was. After some 15 such weeks, the class ended. With the events of the past semester andthe sev- eral group projects we worked on, we had all become quite close. As the last hour came to a close, I asked if anyone had any final parting thoughts. After a little hesitation, Fatima said, "I know we talked about diglossia and Arabic things many times. I just wanted to say that Arabic is special. It is beautiful. It is the true language of the Quraan, the words of God passed on to the Prophet." With animation, she went on. "You can look at all the other languages of the world ... no other language has the same complexity of structure, the same depth of thought ... the grammar of all the other world's languages are contained within it. ... " "Wait," said Pyong, a Korean student. "Don't you believe in linguistic relativity? Aren't there no superior or inferior languages?" There was a long moment of silence. I decided to sum things up. "Well, of course, I don't really think that is what Fatima literally means, but, 55