Mary Louise Pratt

A detailed Summary of Mary Louise Pratt

Tailgates as a Cultural Contact Zone

"Arts of the Contact Zone" by Mary Louise Pratt is an article that talks about how critical and history-making it is when different cultures meet for the first time. She describes this moment with her coined phrase, the "contact zone". She gives the perfect example of when the Andeans, who were native Peruvians, were encountered by the Spanish. Even though my experiences in life can not compare with those of Andeans, this example prompted me to think back to my personal experiences which took place in such an environment. This "contact zone", as Mary Louise Pratt puts it, is " the space in which peoples geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish relations, usually involving coercion, radical inequality, and intractable conflict"(527). In my own interpretation, the "contact zone" is a place or moment in time when two different cultures are forced to interact with each other for the first time. Throughout my life I have had experiences of this nature. My frequent moving around has enabled me to interact with many different cultures. Though my experiences may not have been to such an extreme, such as the example given by Pratt, I still consider them

To the readers of this paper, please understand that I am not trying to say that white people here at Lehigh are drunks or that they are racist or that I am racist. I am trying to make a point that even though all Americans have their common values and traits and all people have different backgrounds, those of different races have undeniably different cultures than those who are not of the same race.

After walking through the whole crowd, we saw that the U-house had a little set-up away from the big crowd. The Umoja House is a special interest house that has been established to encourage a sense of unity and pride among African-American and Hispanic/Latino students. It is a house where students can concentrate on improving their academic standing, vocalize ideas, and socialize in a common cultural setting. They chose to separate themselves from everybody else. When I walked over to them, I was welcomed. They offered me drink and food. Even though I did not know anybody, I did not feel uncomfortable.

On this day I was walking with a black friend of mine and from what I could see, we were the only minorities in the whole crowd. I really did not know what to expect from the experience. Even though I had a preconceived notion of how whites acted in a big group, I was not prepared for the event. To add to my amazement, most of the crowd of at least two thousand, had beers in their hands, but yet the event was peaceful. It is sad to say, but if this were a crowd of Hispanics and Blacks, I seriously doubt that there would be that much peace. Why, I really do not know.

There was no conflict involved a

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Approximate Word count = 1086
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous