Our class discussion was so lively yesterday, that we were only able to cover the first half of the book Feminist Accountability. We went over the chapters Cultivating Feminist Accountability, Building Communities, Navigating Speech and Silence, Disrupting Whiteness, Shift Paradigms to End Violence, and a little bit of Collective and Communal Support. An important topic from the introduction, was the idea of cultivation, and how intent is vital to accountability, because it is something deliberately conveyed with a productive goal, yet it is unpredictable, much like Dr. Lothian’s garden. Privilege came up as a common theme and we discussed its effects on being accountable. For example, in Navigating Speech and Silence, we talked about how to effectively balance a position of privilege. Even when privilege is accounted for and someone is trying to use their position to help others, not focusing enough on listening can overshadow stories and experiences of oppression. Speaking over and for these experiences reinforces the systems of oppression that devalues them. Further, “white innocence” and the image of the “tearful white woman” were other aspects that were noted as methods of using privilege to acknowledge oppressed groups, while simultaneously turning the attention away from the issue at hand.
I thought that the book we were assigned, as well as the discussion that we had, was an important perspective for our class in particular, as it is a predominately white class. It was constructive that this privilege was acknowledged, while having the opportunity to have conversations about the most effective way to cultivate our own feminist accountability.