Finding the Silenced Voices (Vol. 1)

In my last blog post, I shared one of my 2017 New Year’s Resolutions that has now become a lifelong practice:

Seeking out voices not my own, silenced voices, in order to understand the world more fully.  This has led to me using what I learn to make my choices and actions less selfish and ignorant and more meaningful and just.

So, I will share some of the voices I have found thus far.

I discovered how much I love podcasts since becoming a stay-at-home mom.  Just listening to adults conversing makes me feel like I am still part of the adult world.  So, these first two are from one of my favorite podcasts: The Liturgists.

Suffering (Part 1)
I think about this podcast every time I flush the toilet or wash the dishes or do laundry, which lets be honest feels like 8000 times a week.

Black and White: Racism in America
Give this a listen.  The hosts of this podcast are two white men, and the ways they step back and let the voices of others speak…guys, if we all listened the way they do and seek to understand the way they do, we could solve a lot more problems.  The additional reading resources are also a gold mine.

 

I am a reading addict.  I never have the problem of not having a book to read.  My “Want to Read” list is longer than I will ever have time to accomplish, and that is totally okay!

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
This book explores the history of the War on Drugs, how that has impacted the prison system in the US, and how communities of color bear a heavier burden because of this.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book is an honest, sometimes uncomfortable, read.  Every bit of discomfort comes from the author’s truth as he writes to his son.  He speaks plainly of his experience being a “black body” in the world we live in.  While you are at it, follow The Atlantic on social media.  Coates writes for them regularly and their other journalists are worth reading as well.  A fun side note, Coates is also writing the Black Panther comics for Marvel.

 

I recognize this is far from hearing every silenced voice in America.  Seeking out, and elevating, the silenced voices takes a lifetime.  Power and Empire will always silence groups of people.  As long as they exist, the task of listening will exist.  So please, add to my listening list.  Share books, podcasts, authors, groups, any platform that marginalized people are shouting from so that I can listen.  And as I find more, I will share, too.

 

 

Silenced Voices

I live in Arizona.  For the past week public schools all over the state have been closed because teachers “walked out” of their classrooms in order to advocate for themselves, their colleagues, and their students.  Being a former public school teacher and a soon-to-be public school parent, I was obsessively following everything about the #RedforEd movement and the action at the Arizona Capitol.

Many, many parents and community members were, and continue to be, supportive of the teachers.  However, some were not, complaining the walk out was disruptive and inconvenient.

Guess what?  It was meant to be disruptive and inconvenient!  I started teaching in 2008, and for at least the past 10 years, teachers have been trying to be heard and supported by the Arizona leadership. They have been trying to mobilize parents to see how school funding affects their children. And for at least the past 10 years, their voices have been silenced because they are ignored over and over and over and tossed little scraps of ballot propositions that don’t solve a fraction of the problem. If a group of people get ignored long enough, the problems and their needs brushed aside, they will rise up and make their voices heard in inconvenient ways because that is the only way enough people will listen and do something to make a change.

How many other voices are silenced in our world?  How many others are begging to be heard and we willingly ignore them or are too lazy or too afraid to understand them?

One of my New Year’s Resolutions in 2017 was to seek out voices that are not my own. Let me tell you, if you want to renew your mind, get some fresh voices in there!  Just like water that has become a stagnant breeding ground for mosquitoes needs to be flushed with fresh water, fresh voices flush our minds of stagnant ideas that breed parasites.  So this resolution has become an ongoing practice in my life.

Turns out these silenced voices are easy to find (duh!).  I find them in books written by people of color.  I find them in podcasts hosted by Christian mystics.  I find them in Facebook profiles of DACA recipients.  And I find them being amplified by people whose voices are like mine, only they started listening a long time ago. (I will write another post with some of the voices I have found so far.)

This is the first big step I took in renewing my mind.  I can’t seek justice if I don’t listen to the cries of the victims of injustice.  And as my mind is renewing, realizing how much work is still to be done in seeking justice, I am encouraged that this act of listening to the silenced voices and doing what I can to un-silence them,
this is holy work.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Proverbs 31:8-9

Those who cannot speak for themselves…
really they can, we have just silenced them.
It is time we take their voices off of mute.
Time to really listen and understand, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel.
Time to act so that justice can roll down and God’s Kingdom can come.