Blog post #1

Jack Riordan

Dr. Ivey

Communications 160

11 September 2017

The Most Important Sentence in “Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability”

Active Listening, what communications students know as one of the most effective listening strategies for receiving a message. It is as Dr. Ivey defined in her lecture, structured, focused on the speaker, and emphatic. The major recognized weakness of this form of listening is the fact that it focuses solely on the speaker and receiving their message, not considering the stance, identity, or class of the receiver; ignoring the power dynamics. However, this form of listening (which involves giving up your own position of power to hear someone else’s message) has major implications in recognizing privilege and taking down structural inequality.

Ann Russo, in her article “Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability” addresses the importance of leaving your own power position behind to truly hear a message and facilitate change. In possibly the most important sentence of this article, Russo says “These practices of listening, decentering, minimizing intrusiveness, and stepping back often create discomfort, particularly for those with structural advantage in such contexts” (Russo p. 35). This discomfort though, is essential for those of privilege to realize their implicit boons and put them down in order to hear those who do not have the same gifts. However Russo also cites that “we have a hard time finding ways to listen that do not simply reinscribe our sense of entitlement” (Russo p. 35). But why is this?

The reason active listening is so hard from a privileged perspective is because it is hard to recognize privilege when one is born into it. However it is very easy to notice the absence of it in your own life if you don’t have it. Jamie Utt, in her article “The Importance of Listening as a Privileged Person Fighting for Justice” for everydayfeminism.com explains that “folks of privilege are the ones struggling to figure out how to act for justice” (Utt 2013). This illustrates how the possession of privilege often clouds the judgement of both its existence, and how to deal with it. Utt defines this as the “lack of perspective that can come with any form of identity privilege” (Utt 2013). To bring it back to the original point, listening (in particular active listening) is the best way to start dealing with this lack of perspective that comes along with privilege. Utt also claims that “listening is the root of justice” (Utt 2013). By truly engaging in active listening from a privileged perspective, one can simultaneously break down their own privilege while hearing the voice of those without it.

To wrap everything up, active listening can be hard. Ann Russo in her most important sentence of “Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability” described how she felt uncomfortable engaging in active listening, because she had to leave her position of verbal and performing power to let discriminated people speak for and empower themselves. The weakness of active listening (ignoring power dynamics) is precisely what makes it the most important exercise for privileged people listening to the disadvantaged.

Works Cited

Utt, Jamie. “The Importance of Listening as a Privileged Person Fighting for Justice.”Everyday Feminism, 8 Mar. 2014, everydayfeminism.com/2013/04/the-importance-of-listening-as-a-privileged-person-fighting-for-justice/.

Russo, Ann. “Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability”