MEENAKSHI CHAKRAVERTI
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Speak Up, Please

9/24/2015

1 Comment

 
         This is a plea, particularly to members of majority groups (in North America, Asia, Europe, anywhere).
         My daughter, Milena, has explained very simply why, when the rights and dignity of a minority group are threatened, members of the majority group need to speak up: the minority group is already under threat. If the members of the majority group do not speak up, who will? It’s the same phenomenon as the bystander effect in bullying.
         If you are a member of a majority group, don’t let minority group members in your community and workplace be bullied. If you leave minority group members to speak up for themselves, their voices can get thinned, and then either they are not heard at all or they are heard as shrill and annoying.
         In a democracy, if you are a member of the majority group, you have the larger and louder voice. Use it, not to attack because then you invite counter-attack, and not simply to defend, because then you structurally can be shoved into the bullied group. Use your voice to engage with other majority and minority group members on the basis of values that are clearly more important to all than the usually fragile logic of bullies. Model the respect and dignity you would want for yourself and your family even with people – from the majority group or minority groups – that you fundamentally disagree with.
         Wherever you are, speak up, please.
1 Comment
Joe link
10/26/2015 01:24:20 pm

Was moved by this to make a couple of related comments: 1) another key reason for the "majority" in this country to speak up for minorities is because at one point, most of us in this country belonged to minority groups ourselves. This point was often made to me by my Italian American grandparents -- explicitly as a reason to be tolerant of others. 2) But, this latter point has always made me feel a bit uncomfortable about being classed simply as in "the majority." Being Italian-American used to be a "thing, " and it was not part of the majority culture, by any means. Now I am basically treated by our culture as just another white-European, with "privilege." What bothers me is that I feel like a whole complicated, important narrative is being forgotten, or is considered now to be irrelevant. Perhaps that is good -- we have assimilated. Perhaps the goal is that the children of minority groups will one day know this. But this homogenization often bugs me, (as does, I admit it, the term, "people of color." Our skin is actually olive, not "white", and we faced decades of discrimination). So where does that leave me? I guess what I am saying is that we all have our own stories, and often the prevailing narratives or constructs don't always reflect our great complexity as a people. And is good to remember where we come from, even as we assimilate into the mainstream. That's part of what makes this country great.

Enjoying your blog! You may be getting more comments from the likes of me.

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