How to Silence Marginalized Voices - an Instruction Manual
Warning - this is a bit of a rant. And I'm sure others have said similar things, and gone into greater depth than I do here. But it's been on my mind.
How to Silence Marginalized Voices-
a Brief Instruction Manual
1. Discount oral histories, because they are only memories of old people, not facts.
2. Dismiss memoirs, also. They are personal, not scholarly.
3. Insist that the marginalized people should produce scholarship that is up to your standards, despite being denied your sort of education. Feel free to change the standards if someone actually manages to be scholarly. For example:
4. Dismiss scholarship produced by expatriates, because they are expatriates.
5. Also, dismiss arguments you don’t like as opinions, not facts.
These are all techniques I’ve actually seen and heard well-meaning, intelligent people use, probably with no intention of actually silencing minorities and oppressed peoples. There are others, a lot less subtle than these. For example:
1. Deny eyewitness evidence because “those people” are liars.
2. If that fails, attack the character of the speaker. There are several ways to do this.
a. A classic example is blaming the victim. This is often surprisingly successful.
b. You can also blame the victim’s family and community, and so on. I’m sure you can think of other methods.
3. Denial of tenure or refusal to publish are good, relatively subtle, techniques. But these only work in schools and publishing houses. You may need to use less sophisticated means if you aren’t in a position of power in an institution like these. Shouting down speakers, either in person or online, can sometimes work.
4. If you are really determined, and none of the above techniques have worked, you can proceed to violence and terror. State terror (whether carried out by police or by armies) is an excellent technique.
5. When carrying out terror attacks such as drone strikes and bombings, continue to blame the victims, explaining that you are merely defending yourself/your people/the civilized world.
I think we all have to be careful not to do things like this. On a small scale, we’re all capable of trying to silence each other. And it’s only human to relate more strongly to our “tribe”, however we define it. But we are all human beings in this world together. In the end, our common humanity is much more important than our tribal allegiances. (I would say, we are all children of the same God. We need to care for each other, and for all our fellow creatures, human or otherwise.) End of lecture!
I write this today in memory of Rachel Corrie.
How to Silence Marginalized Voices-
a Brief Instruction Manual
1. Discount oral histories, because they are only memories of old people, not facts.
2. Dismiss memoirs, also. They are personal, not scholarly.
3. Insist that the marginalized people should produce scholarship that is up to your standards, despite being denied your sort of education. Feel free to change the standards if someone actually manages to be scholarly. For example:
4. Dismiss scholarship produced by expatriates, because they are expatriates.
5. Also, dismiss arguments you don’t like as opinions, not facts.
These are all techniques I’ve actually seen and heard well-meaning, intelligent people use, probably with no intention of actually silencing minorities and oppressed peoples. There are others, a lot less subtle than these. For example:
1. Deny eyewitness evidence because “those people” are liars.
2. If that fails, attack the character of the speaker. There are several ways to do this.
a. A classic example is blaming the victim. This is often surprisingly successful.
b. You can also blame the victim’s family and community, and so on. I’m sure you can think of other methods.
3. Denial of tenure or refusal to publish are good, relatively subtle, techniques. But these only work in schools and publishing houses. You may need to use less sophisticated means if you aren’t in a position of power in an institution like these. Shouting down speakers, either in person or online, can sometimes work.
4. If you are really determined, and none of the above techniques have worked, you can proceed to violence and terror. State terror (whether carried out by police or by armies) is an excellent technique.
5. When carrying out terror attacks such as drone strikes and bombings, continue to blame the victims, explaining that you are merely defending yourself/your people/the civilized world.
I think we all have to be careful not to do things like this. On a small scale, we’re all capable of trying to silence each other. And it’s only human to relate more strongly to our “tribe”, however we define it. But we are all human beings in this world together. In the end, our common humanity is much more important than our tribal allegiances. (I would say, we are all children of the same God. We need to care for each other, and for all our fellow creatures, human or otherwise.) End of lecture!
I write this today in memory of Rachel Corrie.