Silence and Race

 Silence and Race

A Discussion on How Race and Power Affect Each Other

    As we have talked about, speech and language offer a lot of power, and being silenced means that one's influence and access to power is being denied. For a "voice to be powerful, it must be head and not simply spoken" (Castagno, 319)

    Through reading "I Don't Want to Hear That!": Legitimating Whiteness through Silence in Schools, it was discussed how school systems are silencing topics on race and racism. This article talks about how teachers and other educators, the majority of them being white, either silence students who discuss uncomfortable topics, such as racism, or they stay silent when issues arise. This article talks about silenced vs. silence, whiteness (an issue in which white culture is dominant), and colormuteness (the silence of race words). All of this causes educators to ignore their responsibilities, while also fueling the inequalities that are currently in school. Castagno argues that words must be used to make a change.

    "Whitewashed: Unmasking the World of Whiteness" is a video in which white people are being interviewed on what it means to be white, how they view race and racism, and how they view privilege. Most interviewees discuss how they don't even think about their race. This idea starts the main point of this video, which is white privilege. One of the most basic results of white privilege is having the "luxury of oblivion, and to be oblivious to one's own identity" (George, 8:47). This video shows that white people can walk into stores, or speed, or go to school without any worry or fear. The next major point is the talk on prejudice versus racism. Prejudice is something that everyone can experience, both as a "perpetrator" and "victim". It means that one has a bias against another. Racism is the idea that certain races get put down or hurt systematically. The one in power is the one that controls the system, and currently, white people have that power. The end of this video talks about what all this means for white people. Every individual has a different idea on this question. However, I have found that acknowledging white privilege helps to fight against biases.

    The use of silence can be very detrimental. There are also many ways that silence can be used. One way that silence may be used is through the elimination of racial terms. This could be done by describing students based on the area they live in, which is a form of racially coded language. Another way is to silence students from talking about racial topics and experiences. Finally, teachers may remain silent themselves. A way that this may occur is if students are saying racial slurs, and the teacher either chooses to ignore it, or fix the issue in private, even if the racist language was heard by others.

    All of these examples, which were discussed by Castagno, are ways that silence can be harmful. By choosing silence and eliminating racial talk, teachers are diminishing the likelihood of change because students were never taught equality was important. Especially when students are silenced, they are being punished, which creates fear and ends up diminishing the chances that they will speak up in the future.

    With the idea of normative powers, individuals are being taught "norms" in society. Which is why whiteness in school is harmful. With a "white domination" in schools, students are, unknowingly, taught that most successful people "were white". This feeds the systemic notion that white people should have all the power. With these ideas, it is harder for a systemic change to occur. As someone who is a music education major, and will become a K-12 teacher in the next year, this idea is something that I have thought about. A majority of music that is taught to music students happens to be white men. Some of the musicians that I have learned a lot of music from are as followed: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Eric Whitacre, Randall Thompson, Alan Menken, Jacob Narverud, and Henry Purcell. Of course, there are more, but these are all memorable composers in my choral and classical training. What do they all have in common? They are all white. Music classes have this issue of being centric on white male composers, especially those who are dead. What does this show students? It shows them that white male composers are those who can be celebrated as musical geniuses. Yes, this statement was never showcased, but this idea of normative power is that individuals get taught what is right or wrong through school and other medias. If students are being taught a pattern, they will unintentionally develop a bias towards that pattern. This is just one example, and is a reason why it is important to be aware of these patterns. In this specific case, I would hope that, as a music teacher, I will sprinkle in music from a multitude of different people, that way this bias doesn't appear.

References

4.2 million+ stunning free images to use anywhere - pixabay - pixabay. (n.d.-a). https://pixabay.com/

Alsayed, M. (2021, February 5). BP.BLOGSPOT. 2. https://2-bp.blogspot.com/

Castagno, A. E. (2008). “I don't want to hear that!”: Legitimating whiteness through silence in schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 39(3), 314-333.

Ed. (n.d.-b). https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/research-bow/wp-content/uploads/sites/928/2021/05/RB_Submission_Guidelines.2021-1.pdf

George, M. P. (2013, March 16). Whitewashed: Unmasking the world of Whiteness. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdaF_h06YX4