2019-08-19_The_New_Yorker

THE NEWYORKER, AUGUST 19, 2019 3

“millions who have it worse,” she is en-

gaging in a kind of “solipsism.”

These accusations perfectly illus-

trate the techniques by which the pa-

triarchy continues to discount the ex-

periences of certain groups. Women’s

emotions, particularly their rage, are

often deemed overblown or self-indul-

gent, and marginalized people are fre-

quently told that they are exaggerating

for perverse effect. Such critiques effec-

tively delineate whose voices deserve

to be heard, and become a way of de-

termining who is and is not entitled to

create art about their experiences of op-

pression. Perhaps if Als had extended

the “modicum of care and grace” that

he requests of Gadsby to his own as-

sessment of her performance, he would

have been able to appreciate how she

gives a voice to perspectives that are

still rarely listened to.

Emilia Truluck

London, England

1

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

As a civic-minded South Asian woman,

I found it gratifying that Dana Good-

year, in her Profile of the Presidential

candidate Kamala Harris, identifies her

as the first South Asian senator (“First

Person,” July 22nd). Disappointingly, the

media, and sometimes Harris herself,

has underemphasized her South Asian

heritage. Harris ardently defends the

rights of black women, but she has not

been as vocal in her support for South

Asian women, though we face similar

prejudices, both professionally and per-

sonally. Many of us in the South Asian

diaspora would welcome the chance to

claim Harris as our candidate, should

she choose to more publicly embrace

that aspect of her identity.

Maya Manoharan

Manteca, Calif.

LAND AND LOSS

Lizzie Presser’s piece about the Reels
brothers’ fight to reclaim their family’s
land brought to mind a similar case I
worked on as an attorney (“The Dis-
possessed,” July 22nd). In 1981, I was
hired to represent an African-Ameri-
can family living in rural Kentucky.
Their property was adjacent to Lake
Cumberland, a location whose value
had increased considerably. The case
was a hopeless mess, owing to both the
local court’s hostility toward the de-
fendants and the abject failure of the
county sheriff to deliver justice. I can
still remember the contempt the county
clerk displayed when I filed the legal
paperwork. The family had travelled a
hundred and twenty miles to find an
attorney who would represent them,
which speaks volumes about the dis-
crimination that they experienced. I
learned a stark lesson from this case:
that there is indeed a tacit acceptance
of stripping land from folks who face
systemic racial and legal disadvantages,
particularly when there are financial
incentives involved.
Bruce Kleinschmidt
Louisville, Ky.
1
PLAYING FOR LAUGHS

I was taken aback by Hilton Als’s re-
view of Hannah Gadsby’s new show,
“Douglas” (“On Stage,” July 29th). The
first time I saw Gadsby perform was a
revelation: her unmasked anger at the
heteronormative patriarchy made for
the most relatable standup comedy I
had ever seen. But Als seems to view
her work differently. He argues that, in
“Douglas,” Gadsby “makes a party out
of self-absorption,” and he questions
her confession that she, a person with
autism, was referred to as “retarded” by
a former lover in a group text. “I won-
dered if the woman’s insensitive remark
had perhaps been taken out of context
to give Gadsby’s act a boffo ending,” he
writes. He then seems to judge Gadsby
in a kind of oppression Olympics, claim-
ing that, because she is not among the

•

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