Gentoo Studies

[Paul Kekai Manansala]

Luis Gonzalez-Reimann wrote:
  A good recent example is Said's "orientalism" which paints Western
perceptions of lands beyond Greece -from the early Greek thinkers to
Henry Kissinger- with the same broad brush and, it would seem,
attributes to all one same hidden agenda, thus removing the importance
of specific cultural, religious, historical, psychological and personal
contexts.
>

I don't think this is a fair characterization of Said's work. On the
whole, it is much better than Schlesinger's  "The Disuniting of
America," or other works that defend Eurocentrism.  I might also suggest
St. Clair Drake's "Black Folk - Here and There" for the African-descent
perspective.

The idea that bias is not still extremely pervasive in "Western
academia" is not valid. We are still dealing with a mostly guarded gate
society that attempts to dictate how others (non-Westerners) view
themselves.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala