January Blog Post

January Blog

Between Speech and Silence: Reflection on Accountability By: Ann Russo

 “I believe strongly that white people need to step up and speak out in the face of injustices, and yet do so without making ourselves the center of power and knowledge.” (pg.47)

            When reading over the Russo reading, I felt that it was extremely relevant to the challenges that we are facing as a society today. Russo mentions in the beginning of the reading that she has been a part of multiple movements, including the feminist movement. She thought that all her years of service and knowledge about socialist, radical, and lesbian feminist gave her the authority to speak out about these issues. Looking more into it, Russo realized that it was her race, class, able-bodied, and citizenship privileges that gave her the authority and comfortability to speak out about these issues. I appreciate Russo’s realization of how her white middle class upbringing plays a part when she is an advocator for these issues.

            Even though Russo realized the perception of authority she holds, others have yet to comprehend why their voice has authority over others. I see this a lot within mass media, specifically with social media like Twitter or Facebook. I am a frequent user of Twitter and almost every day I see some type of opinion about a current issue. I also notice majority of voices heard are not based on education of the subject but based on class, race, or able-bodied. For someone who is continually on social media, it is frustrating to see the people who have the authority of speaking out are potentially uneducated on the subject, and are jumping to conclusions based on bias.

            When analyzing Russo thought process a little closer I started to notice that others use their own authority to speak out about issues. Example of this is when politicians discuss issues revolving around women but the politicians debating the issue are a majority of old white men. Because these politicians have worked hard for their jobs and are well educated within political science, they then have the perceived authority to discuss issues on this subject matter even if they are uneducated on the issue and have no personal reference.

            It seems that as a society we are attempting to be culturally diverse and educated on all matters so we are politically correct. Where we are lacking is the knowledge and awareness of how our own words are perceived based on your culture. We are unaware of how our cultural differences affect how we our perceived specifically in day to day conversation. An example of this is how a normal conversation with your co-workers can be influenced and dictated by the racial, and class background of the parties. We as a society need to be culturally aware of others but specially of our own culture. This is what Russo mentions at the end of her reading; when you are aware of how you are perceived, it can assist you in being culturally aware.

            I quoted this sentence from the Russo readings because it acknowledges who has the authority in the public eye, and how we can fix that. As a white middle-class women, I found this as a profound sentence, and how I can make a difference without using my “authority”. Russo is a great example on how we can still speak up on injustices without being the center of power.