August Blog- Sierra Anderson

Under the Dialogic Communication section in the text, it explains that true dialogic communication consists of a ethical and respectful engagement between two people that accept the other person's thoughts and feelings while maintaining a firm believe in one's beliefs. Essentially, this concept is focused on communicating with a person, rather against them despite the different perspectives two people may have. This was kind of a hard pill to swallow for me since I just had an encounter with my boyfriend where I asked him his thoughts on Kaepernick and the nike controversy and while he was stating why he respected certain aspects of him, and even though some were valid points,I kind of just threw what he said out the window and jumped to conclusion on what I thought, making it an argument rather than a discussion. However, while reading the Russo Reading, Between Speech and Silence, she talked about how commonly among white people, “we have a hard time finding ways to listen that do not reinscribe our sense of entitlement” (Russo, 38).  In a way, I felt the whole thing with Kaepernick a little shocking because having family that fought in the navy and having a grandpa who fought in World War II I felt a sense of entitlement when I would think, “why is he kneeling? There are families fighting and dying for this country everyday, even my own family”. Even though it was a silent protest, the way it was getting attention made me feel uneasy because I did not know everything about his protest. After the conversation with my boyfriend I took a step back and realize, this country gives us the right for freedom of speech. Different events thats happened in our lives has shaped us into how we think and our ideologies, and not everyone has to agree with them. Russo emphasizes this when she states, “the practices of being aware of not knowing, of stepping back, of committing to being in conversation and not domination, with a range of relational knowledges” (Russo 39). I think this concept is important because I think the only way we will make progress of keeping the country as undivided as we can is having hard but willing conversations. Willing to listen and know that our thoughts are going to be challenged sometimes and we will be wrong but it does not mean our ideas do not matter. They make us who we are and I think discussing respectfully instead of overbearing and attacking are not the answers to fix tension or misunderstanding. Chapter 3 in the text also expands this idea of dialogic communication with critical thinking. It talks about critical thinking in two stages. One is identify the problem at hand and the other stage is too see possibility for change as well. It ties back to being able to emphasize with the other side and keeping an open mind while holding themselves responsible for their communication and way of thinking. Personally, I thought kaepernick had his right to protest but I thought at first, maybe there was another way to go about it without causing a media circus. Maybe donating to underdeveloped cities or helping kids in dangerous neighborhoods, etc. He is now donating to inner cities of Chicago which I think is definitely noble of him and It is because of the statement he made whether people choose to agree with him or not.