On White Silence and White Listening

So already, Speak up! Stand up! Lie down!* Act up! Shut up!

All of these are actions White individuals can take in the wake of George Floyd's death to help make the present moment transformative; done relentlessly, visibly, and audibly by racially diverse groups, they have the potential to pressure legislators, policymakers, and police departments to make the changes necessary for achieving a non-racist, racially just society--or to help our society make significant strides in that direction.

But wait a minute. "Shut up" as a strategy for making social justice change? What about the sign that protester is holding that says "White Silence is Violence"?** First of all, no one poster slogan should have to speak truth on every level. Since "White silence" in this case means complicity--a failure to speak up when Black and Brown people are being oppressed, victimized, murdered, under-served, and/or denied the basic human rights all Whites would claim for themselves--that sign holds true.

But in another context, White silence could mean listening rather than speaking, could mean seeking to understand others' viewpoints, especially people of colors' viewpoints, rather than sharing, defending, or justifying our own. 

On June 4, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh urged White Bostonians to listen to protesting Black Bostonians. And frankly, if you're talking, you're not listening. Hence, the "Shut up" above. 

I don't think Walsh meant White protestors should ask Black protestors to stop protesting in order to give on-the-spot tutorials on the history of race-based systemic oppression; I do think he meant that White people should open their ears, brains, and hearts as they experience the protests on the street or on their televisions.

Listening deeply to learn, to understand, to work together effectively isn't easy. I actually think schools have played a role in cultivating people's poor listening, all in the name of the laudable goal of cultivating student voice. Too many classroom participation rubrics have encouraged students to speak often, whether or not their "contributions to class discussion" have done anything more than put forth their own questions, their own opinions, their own interests. Why would students listen to other students if they didn't expect those other students to respond to them? 

Thalia Speaks; Liam Listens

That's why I began asking my students how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: "I learn more by listening than speaking." Discussing the roles that speaking and listening played in our own learning got us thinking together about the purposes of listening and speaking inside and outside the classroom--and invariably quickly got us beyond "So I could get a good participation grade for the day."

So yes, there are times that White silence that indicates listening and thinking with the intent of understanding is crucial. Let's face it: activism that lacks understanding, that's based on ignorance, a lack of self-awareness, and a lack of other-awareness, can make problems worse, not better. That's what Camus was talking about in The Plague. So what's really needed is activism based on understanding that has developed at least in part through deep, attentive listening.

But how will our fellow Americans, or the world, know when our silence signals not that we're indifferent, but that we're listening? Chances are they won't. 

Shut up!

And that's why, I suspect, many White Americans who understand they've been the beneficiaries of racial privilege keep talking, keep talking, keep talking, keep trying to make clear to Black people and other White people that they are good, knowledgeable, actively engaged, and ready to give up their privilege. (I'm guessing some of us are ready, some of us think we're ready, and some of us wish we were ready.)

Time and time again during the last couple of years, I've heard Black people say they're tired of educating White people. Many of them have been doing it for years. And really, why at this moment--when many if not all of them are feeling intensely and personally enraged, vulnerable, and/or sorrowful, and when so many of them are busy trying to put an end to the injustices that threaten their lives, not White people's--should they also have to take on the work of educating me and my fellow White people? 

White people really can do a lot of this educating ourselves, as long as those of us who've gained some needed understanding in the last few years actually have the conversations with friends, family, and colleagues that expose differences in thinking and address powerful, dangerous misunderstandings. The White silence that's dangerous is the White silence that won't do that. And any White person who's silent in the face of those dangerous misunderstandings values something more than racial justice.

And one more thing: that doesn't mean that the first thing we should do after having had such tough conversations is proudly report them to others.Yes, we White people may need to risk that no one will know we've done something potentially useful.

Recently, a Facebook friend posted something on her page*** that helped me think about my own actions during the last two weeks. I haven't participated in any Boston-area vigils or protests, and I have my reasons for that. The four screenshots at the left have reassured me that I alone need to understand my reasons. 

But I also better not be self-deceptive--either about why I'm not out in the public square, or about whether my chosen "activism" is really apt to do something that will help to stop to the murder of Black people at the hands of brutal policemen and civilians.

Years back at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a group of teacher-learners spent several years inquiring into the listening-learning relationship. Our efforts were most guided by the concept of a "pedagogy of listening" that was articulated and developed in the Reggio Emilia Preschools and Infant-Toddler Centers. Carla Rinaldi defined listening in a series of statements that emphasized the need for "openness to change," "curiosity," the acceptance of some degree of "precariousness," and "a deep awareness and at the same time a suspension of our judgements and above all our prejudices" (80-81).****

The statement we most struggled with was not about openness, but about action: "Listening as the premise for any learning relationship – learning that is determined by the “learning subject” and takes shape through his or her mind through action and reflection, that becomes knowledge and skill through representation and exchange."**** Many of us had accepted listening as invariably and exclusively invisible and interior, and as somewhat passive. Rinaldi's definition made listening active, and even interpersonal. [Interestingly, when we asked our students what they thought we meant when we said, "Listen," they said we wanted them to be quiet. Obviously, something needed to change.]

But about the last word in that statement, "exchange." As you can see in the adjacent image, the "White Silence is Violence" poster is actually not the main subject of the Boston Globe Metro section photo in which it appeared last week. The real subject is the conversation happening between a White protestor and a Black protestor. The caption includes the following: "Frantzia Carasco and Steve Kellerman, both from Roslindale, talked as they shared a bench together."** Given that both of them are wearing masks, we can't tell which of them is talking and which of them is listening. Maybe Kellerman is doing what Marty Walsh asked White Bostonians to do: listening. And maybe Carasco is listening, too.

There's a lot of good pressure out in the world right now to get on the racial justice bandwagon, and the time couldn't be more right and ripe for the pressure and the pursuit of racial justice. But people are different, and there are multiple ways to contribute. In my opinion, listening and learning are part of White people have to be doing at this moment, and much more than that, as they can--and as will genuinely help to create the needed changes. I hope this blog post hasn't merely filled the air with more White noise--and I'm sure you'll let me know if it has.

* Tlumacki, J. "Protesters laid down with hands behind their back on Washington Street in front of the Jamaica Plain Boston Police station." Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/04/metro/photos-boston-area-protests-call-justice-george-floyd-other-black-americans-killed/ Note: Tlumacki is a Boston Globe staff photographer.]
** Tlumacki, J. "A Silent Vigil for Black Lives was held Thursday evening at the Adams Park perimeter in Roslindale Square. Frantzia Carasco and Steve Kellerman, both from Roslindale, talked as they shared a bench together" [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/04/metro/photos-boston-area-protests-call-justice-george-floyd-other-black-americans-killed/ Note: Tlumacki is a Boston Globe staff photographer.]
*** @andrearanaej. Performative Activism and Another Opportunity. (4 photos) Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/amber.mayes.94
**** Carla Rinaldi’s definition of listening can be found in the chapter entitled “Documentation and Assessment: What is the Relationship?” in Project Zero and Reggio Children (2001): Making learning visible: Children as individual and group learners. Reggio Emilia, Italy: Reggio Children.