In chapter one of Feminist Accountability Russo, in the second essay , “Navigating Speech and Silence”, Ann Russo discusses her journey towards realizing that using her voice in every given situation, especially her voice as a middle-class, queer, white woman, does not always equate with liberation points to how the centering of whiteness in various social justice spaces leaves little – if any – room for more marginalized voices to find the same validation in these spaces. In one section of the article she writes of the “inhabited silences” of whiteness, and specifically of “how keeping whiteness an invisible and unscrutinized presence reproduces inequitable power lines rather than disrupts them.” (47). In other words, pretending that whiteness, or race in general, (in combination with other factors) does not influence the experiences of each person does more harm than good in terms of how it detracts from conversations to be had, and how it silences or overshadows the voices of those with different experiences. These concepts connect with those outlined in the opening essay of this chapter, “Building Communities”, in which Russo writes of recognizing privilege and taking accountability for the ways in which we are complicit in systems of oppression. The chapter ends with the essay, “Disrupting Whiteness”, where Russo states that it is the “distance” of those with privilege from situations and oppressions which do not affect them that she wants to disrupt. This essay, as well as the other two in this first chapter, emphasizes how whiteness and the silence of those with racial and class privilege, in addition to the lack of accountability, has fostered a culture of passivity and white entitlement.
WMST 488X: Senior Seminar in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. University of Maryland College Park. Spring 2019. Dr Alexis Lothian.
I found this first part of the book very interesting and a good lead into what the rest of the book contains. Russo’s explanation of discovering how her speaking out consequently meant the silencing of other minority voices resonated with me a lot. Like Russo, I have felt inclined to speak on matters where my unspoken privilege actually spoke much louder. Russo explains that we all make mistakes, but it is about taking accountability for those mistakes and accepting that we do not know everything that there is to know, that will help us achieve social change. I also liked that Russo brought up the implications with white “innocence,” which is something we’ve talked a lot about in class recently, and I look forward to discussing it further in class.