By: Samir Chopra
In 'The Clouded Prism: Minority Critique of the Critical Legal Studies Movement', Harlan L. Dalton wrote:
I take it that everyone drawn to CLS is interested in specifying in concrete terms the dichotomy between autonomy and community. If so, talk to us. Talk TO us. Listen to us. We have lots to say, out of the depths of our own experiences. For many of us, our sense of community is a strength, a resource, something we struggle to hang onto, sometimes in the most peculiar ways, especially when the pull of autonomy is strongest. The day that I am awarded tenure, should that happy event occur, any pleasure that I experience will be more than offset by the extreme panic that I'm sure will set in; I will worry that I have been propelled (or more honestly that I have wittingly, selfishly and self-destructively propelled myself) two steps further away from so much that has nurtured me for so long. Even for those of us who have revelled in the sense of connectedness that, paradoxically, racial oppression has conferred upon us, there is a kicker: we don't have any choice in the matter. We can't choose to be a part of the community; we can't choose not to be a part of the community.
When I first read these lines, I was reminded of a conversation that used to recur in some of my therapeutic sessions: Why would you shrink from that which you most--supposedly--desire?
Some insight may be found in Dalton's confession. Tenure would mean not being part of a 'community', membership in which, while a reminder of exclusion from another, was also a belonging in a very particular way. It meant the enjoyment of a very distinctive camaraderie, the dwelling in a state of being that had its own rewards.
I will not attempt to speak for Dalton's experiences so let me just briefly address my own. Gaining tenure meant the end of a 'struggle'; it meant the end of a state in which I had a very 'clear and distinct' goal, a terminus of achievement, one that had established yardsticks and baselines for me, calibrating my 'progress' and reminding me of how far I had come and how far I still had to go. I saw myself as member of a group marked by its presence in the margins, by its distance from the center, by a vaguely heroic air of struggle against economic, intellectual, and even political barriers. We were the untenured, the 'assistant professors'; we had secured the prize of a tenure-track position, but we were still 'battlers.' I had trajectories to follow, and I had fellow-travelers. My lot was sympathized with; many were solicitous of the state of my journey, my distance from its destination. I was assured of celebrations and revelries were I to cross the finish line. I could look ahead and see the goal; I could feel my cohort around me, propping me up.
In the midst of all this, even as I desired that onward and upward movement, I knew what I would leave behind: a time and a place in which I was in possession of that dearest of things, a clear and unstinting purpose.
I am well-aware that a reflection like this, in the context of today's job market, is an extremely self-indulgent one. I write it only to highlight the ironic and puzzling nature of the situations that Dalton and those in therapy might find themselves in, and of the artfully hidden blessings of even those portions of our lives that we might find oppressive and worth delivering ourselves from.
Note: This post was originally published--under the same title--at samirchopra.com.
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