January Blog Post

I’m not going to lie and say I was excited to do the Russo reading. In fact I am going to be straight up and tell you that I in no way wanted to read this article. Not because of the article itself and its content, I actually had no clue what this piece was about when I decided I didn’t want to read it, I didn’t want to read this article simply because it was the beginning of the semester and I was lazy. Regardless of the amount of time I spent procrastinating, I eventually gave in and read it. And I was pleasantly surprised. I was captivated by one sentence in the introductory paragraphs that kept my eyes scrolling, page to page “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” (35). This is a long sentence with a lot going on. However what I got from Russo was quite simple, those speaking up about important issues such as sexism or racism, are not typically those affected most by it. Normally those affected most don’t have the strength or power to make a difference and therefore don’t speak up at all. Last semester I took Sociology 101, during one chapter we talked about minorities and how little power they hold in society. We talked about how no matter what is done to try and avoid this it is inevitable, if you are a minority you have very little power in the world around you. Knowing you have very little power in society what would give someone the bravery to speak up? Personally I grew up in the background Russo talked about, white, middle-class. Although I grew up in this background I still see myself holding very little power over issues I view as most important and because of this I hesitate to speak up. If I, a white, middle-class college student don’t have the bravery to speak up why would someone who is directly affected by the issue see themselves as having power? One thought that Russo has sparked in me is the idea that the powerful people are speaking “for” the minorities. They are giving their opinions on the injustices that don’t concern them at all. In a way this is a form of silencing those who are affected. The masses will listen to and believe the powerful person but the minorities are overlooked even when it is an issue directly concerning them. Another reason having these privileged, white middle-class people talk on issues is bad is because it seems irrelevant or winney. These people have no business complaining about issues that seemingly don’t affect them so why do they deserve the respect. For example, most of the women focused on feminism are middle to upper class. They are living comfortable lives and have the money, power and time to be involved in the feminist movement. They are not the ones the feminist movement should really be about. The feminist movement should be about helping the underprivileged, those who are fighting to make enough money and struggling to get by, those that are truly overlooked at the hands of men and people who view women as unequals. Throughout the rest of this reading Russo touches on this issue many more times. Although Russo's writing was done quite well and spoke on some great topics, it was the thoughts that sparked in my mind after reading this piece that will stick with me for longer.

Russo, Ann. "Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability." Silence, Feminism, Power. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2013. 34-49.