Re: We are not the alternative

Judy Seigel ( jseigel@panix.com)
Sun, 12 January 1997 2:49 PM

On Mon, 13 Jan 1997, George L Smyth wrote:

> African-Americans includes white immigrants from South Africa

I've never heard South Africans referred to as either Africans or
African-Americans -- only "South Africans."

> excludes Hatians.

If we're being LITERAL, though my history has some serious limitations, I
BELIEVE Haitians originated in Africa some 200 years more or less
ago...(n'est-ce pas?)

> "Classical Music - is John Cage's music "Classical"?), but I can't

Two brilliant college students who happen to be making coffee in my
kitchen at the moment say they would call John Cage's music "post-modern."
I would have called it "modern." But I wouldn't have thought to call it
"classical (except I suppose insofar as anything that isn't rock is
"classical").

Meanwhile, as I have pointed out, "alternative photographic processes" is
used in at least one school to mean everything BUT the "classical"
processes. I doubt we can expect an all-points literal perfection from any
name, but maybe an improved "umbrella" term would be -- an improvement.

Judy

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