Insider/Outsider Debate

I think there is a clear difference between who is an insider and who is an outsider. Someone is an insider to a particular group when they have the same characteristics- Whether it be a race or a culture... That someone is the same race or is apart of the culture. Someone is an outsider to that group when they are not the same. They don't have the same characteristics or the same everything.

Now whether someone should be able to write about a group, in my opinion, does not depend on whether they are an insider or an outsider. If you are educated in something, you study it, you should be allowed to write about whatever you want to write about.

In class, we read a book called Encounter by Jane Yolen. She is European American but the story was about Native Americans. The thing about this story is that it was about a Native American group that was not around anymore; she did study them and was educated, but as educated as anyone could be about something not a lot of people knew about. If it was about a culture that was around now, it would have been totally fine for her to write about it, if she researched and talked to people who are in the group.

To wrap up, I basically think there is a definition on who is an outsider and who is an insider to a group, but that doesn't make it wrong for an outsider to write about an insider! :-)