“It didn’t occur to me at the time that my taking up space,
my sense of “authority,” and my comfort with speaking in generalities could be
connected with my race, class, able bodied and citizenship privileges located
in the predominantly white middle-class university setting, or could serve to
marginalize and/or silence women of color, working class, poor, and/or
immigrant women, and/or women with disabilities,” (Russo, 2013). This sentence
holds a high amount of importance due to the fact of how much information it
holds. If I were trying to explain to someone the power a privileged a person
can have and how it can marginalize those who do not share their privilege, I
would read them this passage. It is important to understand the power one has just
by the color of their skin, their economic class, their gender, etc. Once
someone is aware of their privilege they can then use it to help others. Beyond
that, it also makes one aware of when to be silent. It is important and
necessary for change to speak up about injustices, but it can be just as
powerful to step back and have those who are experiencing those injustices to
speak for themselves.
This statement has made me think differently about the
course material by critically thinking about different cultures and my role and
lack of role in these cultures. I only recently learned about white privilege and
the importance of not speaking for others. And even more recently leaning that
these concepts are neither good nor bad, but that they just are.
When I first learned about these concepts I was confused
because I thought that if I was talking about a movement or a social injustice
on a high platform, that I would be doing a service to that community. It didn’t
cross my mind that I could still help these movements without offering my
voice. As a white person who has only
seen police brutality against black people on Facebook, why do I have a right
to speak about this on a high platform? I don’t. There are plenty of black
people who are suffering from this, have things to say on the matter, who can speak on the matter. I need to step
back, help where I can, but not speak for others.
It is important that those who are oppressed speak out
because their cause earns more report. Seeing a white person talk about the
injustices of police brutality against black people doesn’t look as meaningful
as a black person speaking out. It could raise the question, “what does that
white person know about this?”
Linda Alcoff writes about this is their article “The Problem
of Speaking for Others”. Alcoff states, “…both the study of and the advocacy
for the oppressed must come to be done principally by the oppressed themselves,
and that we must finally acknowledge that systematic divergences in social location
between speakers and those spoken for will have a significant effect on the
content of what is said”(Alcoff, 1991). What this quote means is that when
someone who is oppressed they need to be the one who speaks for an impact to be
made.
I chose the original quote from Russo because I felt that it
is important to be aware of one’s privilege and ability to speak for others,
especially when talking about communication and culture. While you may be able
to speak for someone it always best to step back and ask yourself whether or not
you should.
Sources
1) Russo, Ann. (2013). Between speech and silence: Reflections
on accountability. Reflections at the edges of sound, 34-49.
2) Alcoff, Linda. (1991). The problem of speaking for others. Cultural critique, 5- 32.
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