Some segments of the article “Writing ourselves at risk: Using self-narrative in working for social justice,” by Corey W. Johnson, were inadvertently published incorrectly in Volume 31, Issue 5, pp. 483–489. The editors and author apologize to readers. The corrected paragraphs are below:
Pages 487–488: I am now thinking about it, reading about it, and doing some writing. However, I am, as Dutro says, “writing wounded.” Demonstrating how the “exposed wounds of others and the exposing of wounds—function… [to] foster the kinds of relationships and pedagogical spaces necessary to challenge entrenched inequities and privileged assumptions about Others’ lives and to facilitate engagement and intellectual risk-taking” (2008, p. 2) for people on the margin and those at the center.
Using collective memory work to explore issues of race in young men's use of leisure has forced me to recognize that my story (lived, but yet to be written and perhaps therefore understood) is “entangled in the stories” of those young men about whom I have already written. My “entrée into the theories and practices” of my own privilege are embedded there (Dutro, 2008, p. 3).
Therefore, I found it necessary to pause and begin the telling of my white/racist story to
illustrate both the purpose and the form of that exploration… [and] argue that to be an effective witnesses for the testimonies of our [participants], we need, in turn, to allow them to be our witnesses—even when it is hard, even when it feels too risky. Thus, it seems imperative that [we] testify on the page, even as it does feel unsettling—and it does. (Dutro, 2008, p. 3)
And though “listening is fraught with emotional landmines” (Boler, 1997, p. 179), telling is surely riskier. Yet, these days my risk goes something like this:
Page 488: Sharing personal stories, such as those around racism, can create a great deal of apprehension and certainly entail risk taking, especially as we share them in public vis-à-vis a conference presentation or journal publication (Dutro, 2008). Yet, qualitative researchers must confront that apprehension and take the risk if they are to work for social justice/change. “It is in that uncomfortable place where a space imbued with official academic discourses… meets a space of testimony and witness where one of the dilemmas of [reflexive inquiry] lies” (Dutro, p. 24). The power of a story is important to qualitative researchers and by “acknowledging that power, in attempting to harness it to intervene in what we deem possible to understand and to enact in our professional lives, we necessarily make ourselves vulnerable…but [marginalized groups] are made vulnerable every day” (Dutro, p. 24). Instead, I argue that to be virtuous qualitative researchers, we must explore the complexities and risks involved in representing the researcher self and endeavor through personal and intellectual risk taking to find ways to know the world and make it better.
The corrected version of the paper is available by contacting the author at [email protected]