Words are powerful. But, perhaps even more, silence is powerful.
On Thursday I went to the cinema with my classmates and watched the new movie Dear White People. One piece that struck me was the silence in the midst of micro- and even some macro-aggressions.
As I mull over this idea of silence, I see two variances, each with different potency for differing reasons: choosing silence vs. being silenced.
AKA: who has the power?
Here are some ways I'm exploring and understanding silence, especially as it relates to power and privilege structures.
Silence as a weapon of privilege. Those with privilege can use silence as a weapon to defend their privilege and as an offense to kill conversations. Gloria Landson-Billings writes about the silence of her white students in her article "Silence as Weapons: Challenges of a Black Professor Teaching White Students". Silence can be a weapon because it can shut down conversations. It's especially potent when the dialogue is necessary. White students, especially in a race conversation, have the privilege of leaving the conversation. Popular media and even school curriculum can speak to the white experience allowing white students to resort to silence.
Silence due to lack of power. The [white, male, heterosexual, Christian, etc.] U.S. has created some narratives to be heard while others are silenced and given a one-sided portrayal. This can be seen through K-12 curriculum, popular media, and so forth. Silence is sometimes the only option given because of a lack of societal power.
Silence as ignorance. When this is the case, my first reaction is to roll my eyes and wish them good luck. Then I remember how "them" is often me and I pray for all the patience and grace I've been shown in the mist of my ignorance and silence because of it. From experience, sometimes people are silent because they don't know any better and don't even know how to formulate a question or anything to add.
Silence because the "other" is ignorant. At a ReNew Parenterships conference this weekend a woman of color stood up and told the group "we don't all want to be educators". Her words have stuck with me. In Dear White People I watched a lot of ignorant whites offend blacks and then watched the silence. This is a new lens for me to begin understanding because, for me, a lot of my narrative is told through media, etc. so I don't often need to do educating about my culture.
There are more reasons and motives behind silence:
Silence as cowardice.
Silence as a means to protest.
Silence as the atmosphere for internal processing.
Silence as a spiritual discipline.
Why are you silent? When don't you want to be silent? How can spaces be created for silence to be broken in redemptive ways?
Them is often Me. That is so real and so authentic. You made something that is so ugly into words and really expanded the idea of what silence is power. Such a strong and real thing and it has so many decisions so thanks for giving concrete questions to continue on thinking about this subject.
ReplyDeleteWOW WOW WOW! You have a gift of peaceful messenger. I use silence a lot in my life. I use it to process, to make sure that my feelings and actions are justified, to make room for conversation, and to allow others to speak. I love that you wrote that silence is a positive and negative act and that it is used in so many different forms. I never want to be silent when the truth needs to be told. Words have so so much power and blurting out what you think is not always the solution, but sometimes it is the only way to get someones attention and make someone see something that they couldn't see before.
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