Week 4- "The Silenced Dialogue"

 2/20/2024

On “The Silenced Dialogue”-- Notes and other thoughts

As I am reading these opening pages, speaking on when black students and teachers tried to discuss the matter of education with their white contemporaries, it dawned on me that I have seen similar behaviors exhibited by my fellow teachers. The stubbornness and know-it-all attitude.

I wrote about it in my blog post last week, when we had a seminar about race in the classroom. The teachers all ignored and scoffed at the materials in the discussion. They believe they know what is best for all– even in spite of the fact that their own personal experiences as white teachers do not reflect the experiences and needs of colored students and teachers. I question what motivates this behavior, exactly? Why is it so hard to accept that the United States is an environment in which many different races and cultures experience the same system in unequal ways? Is it hard to accept there is disparity? And how can they comment on this in a position of privilege? 

It all relates to what we’ve been discussing, about being color-blind, and how being in privileged positions and experiences blinds white people to oppression.

“It becomes futile because they think they know everything about everybody. What you have to say about your life, your children, doesn’t mean anything” (p. 22)

“To provide schooling for everyone’s children that reflects liberal, middle-class values and aspirations is to ensure the maintenance of the status quo, to ensure that power, the culture of power, remains in the hands of those who already have it” (p. 28)

“And I do not advocate that it is the school’s job to attempt to change the homes of poor and nonwhite children to match the homes of those in the culture of power. That may indeed be a form of cultural genocide” (p. 30)

The above quote reminded me, again, of the aforementioned racial seminar at my school. One teacher whom I was sitting next to argued that it is not our jobs to adapt to the culture of immigrant students, but rather immigrants must assimilate with American culture instead. Definitely made the rest of the meeting very awkward, it was a disgusting thing to say. But again, it is relevant to the quote. I question, as educators we hold positions of power over our students, including displaying our culture, but many teachers refuse to acknowledge this position of power. How can we create dialogues that advocate the acceptance of different cultures and ideas? How can we change the minds of our fellow educators?

“We must keep the perspective that people are experts on their own lives” (p. 47)

In “The Silenced Dialogue”, author Lisa Delpit argues that there is a great communication disparity between white teachers and teachers of color– that there is a “silenced dialogue” as a result of privileged white teachers, unable to budge from their positions, and the frustration of colored teachers, who are upset that their peers refuse to listen. Delpit argues that, to acknowledge this silence, there must be an established understanding of “the culture of power”-- how privileged groups hold positions of power in educational institutions, and how these institutions are designed with the privileged culture in mind. Such institutions must be changed and designed to be accommodating to all cultures, including those not in the position of “cultural power”. Delpit also argues that there must be advocacy for both teaching leadership and student empowerment in the classroom.

I am looking forward to the class discussion on this– there are a lot of ideas and materials in this reading that I think are interesting, but I am having trouble digesting it all at once. I think a class discussion to break down all the integral ideas here will further improve my understanding, more specifically with the differing teaching styles and methodologies demonstrated, and how they are reflective of differing cultural attitudes.

The final quote I referenced definitely resonated with me— I wanted to see if there were any pictures or articles relating to it. It seems as though many people share this same line of thinking. We are the experts of our own experiences– we cannot make assumptions of the lives of others based on our own. Those differing experiences must be heard.