January Blog Post

Kamari Howard
Comm 160
2 February 2017

Blog Post #1

For this months post, I decided to focus my attention on a sentence from Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability by Ann Russo. This reading talks about how white feminists are able to tackle down racism through active listening. 

In the reading she states: "One of the simplest, most profound, and yet consistently difficult practices that disrupts the automatic entitlement to hegemonic speech is active listening" (36 Russo). This sentence stood out to me because it relates to my daily life, especially being an African American female attending a Predominately White Institution. A lot of people find it difficult to participate in active listening because it allows people to be more open to understanding the things that are going on around them, but some people are so closed minded that it is hard to engage in these types of things. Like the reading says, active listening makes those who are the most privileged, which are white people, not being able to be in the center of things and not feel entitled. Empathy plays a huge roll in this because empathy itself plays a part in privilege.  To be empathetic, it automatically means you have some sort of privilege because you have the 'option' to feel sorry or not for a situation that does not pertain to you. Active listening gives people the opportunity to be able to understand and be active in the changes that need to occur when problems rise. 

I chose this quote because it is important for people to understand the importance of active listening. The first thing that came to mind when I read this sentence was the thought of "white saviors". This is when white people think their ways are the best ways to accomplish something because of the privilege they have. Instead of trying to be in the middle of the issues by trying to :save" whatever they think is wrong that has nothing to do with them, gives a vibe that their way of thinking is superior. Active listening can help by actually trying to critically think before speaking on things that are not familiar. I enjoyed this article and hopefully other people got good insight as to what the author was trying to explain to the audience.