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RE SF Visit Report


Dear Vinh:
  
I want to ask a favor of you, one which I know is an imposition on
your time and goodwill.  I will understand if you do not have time to
respond, but I hope you will be able to indulge me. 
  
There is a section of your recent report from the San Francisco
conference that intrigues me, but I have trouble understanding it (see
below).  It seems to be the most interesting part of your report so
far.  I have read it closely but I'm not confident that I understand
the points made, neither the one made by Viet nor those made by you.
I am new to this kind of discussion about identity; I'm not familiar
with some of the language and concepts you use; and I always have
trouble with abstractions.  I need some help.
  
For example, I am fine with phrases like "the self-aware and conscious
active process of becoming" - but I am familiar with it only in the
context of liberal Christian spirituality - I don't know right now how
to relate the "process of becoming" to ethnic or sexual identity.
  
I've broken the text up into sections; the sections represent what I
think are the distinct concepts or issues that I need someone to walk
me through.  Can you restate or explain some of these concepts and
issues in more familiar or concrete language?
  
When and if you have time, I'll appreciate it...
  
1)  As Viet...  pointedly questioned the free-wheeling notion of
"fluidity" when talking about what made for "tradition" and
traditional values as something given/preserved/transmitted "as
is" to most of us who happen to be born into them, 
  
2)  I quickly argued back for a dynamic notion of "identity as a
process of becoming" which partakes in a no less dynamic and
fluid structural context that can be considered an ever-
transformative tradition, 
  
3) and cautioned against the static perception of identity and
tradition as given when seen not in their dynamic processual
nature but only in heuristically useful but often misleading
frozen-framed slices of arrested development.  
  
4)  As I took care to undercore the dynamic interplay of
coexisting structure and agency, 
  
5)  I was secretly grateful that nobody mentioned the ever so
fashionable word (which would make me scream) of "performativity"
(be it for a queer or, to a more limited extent, ethnic identity
-- even though, jargon aside, I was glad to see that a few people
had their fingers on "identification" as an important aspect of
ethnic identity, and I'd say by extension, of sexual identity
too; 
  


6)  identification is a first and continual step in that process
of actualization of an identity through the self-aware and
conscious active process of becoming).



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