"I'm a man, but I can change. If I have to. I guess." - The Red/Green Show
There are people in the world who are powerless - who, by the virtue of the fact that they are not part of the dominant group, have their voices repressed, even today. The reason why "white, male privilege" exists is because other races and women in America still have their voices moderated by social constructions.
Turn on the radio or TV at any moment and you can hear this as an example. Chances are, you'll hear a man's voice - whether it's as the news broadcaster, the radio DJ, the person being interviewed, or the singer of a song. Need proof? Check out this article from 2013 in The Guardian, where only "20% of shows hosted by a solo presenter involve female broadcasters" for solo radio shows. A 2008 Media Matters report shows that, across all cable news shows, "67 percent of the guests on these cable programs were men, while 84 percent were white." Politico reported on an article from American University, showing that "female lawmakers have composed 13.5 percent of the total Sunday show appearances by all representatives and senators this year" but make up 17% of these lawmaking bodies - which we can interpret to mean that women are 20% less likely to be interviewed on Sunday political shows than their male counterparts.
News networks, both online and on-air, are a vocal amplifier - they help people speak to much larger audiences. As a result, those who are chosen to be amplified by the news have a more powerful voice than those who are not, and have a bigger social impact than those who are not. This means that the social impact is predominantly still white and male. It also typically belongs to someone who is far wealthier than the average. Those who are of racial minorities, women, LGBT groups, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, and the poor are underrepresented, under-amplified, and undervoiced.
While I am not rich, except as compared to citizens of third-world countries perhaps, I am mainline for everything else - white, male, Christian, straight, mid-western culturally, and unable to identify with any single ethnic group due to a blending of Caucasian heritages. As such, the chances that I would have my own voice amplified by the news media are far, far greater than the chances for anyone from these groups.
Those of us who are handed the megaphone should use it to shout to everyone, "Hey, look over there. That person has something to say," and then hand the megaphone off to that person before anyone else can yank it back. But, that said, once that person starts talking, we will have to listen. And sometimes, listening is hard; sometimes, the message hits us in the gut, and challenges us on things we hold deeply personal and important for our own identities. In that situation, sometimes we seek a way to understand, a way to seek meaning and apply the new message to ourselves. In that kind of situation, we seek out a voice similar to our own, because we hope that that person will understand how we feel.
That's what I hope this blog will be - a voice to tell others of its own social caste that it's OK to feel weird, and it's OK to question what's being said, but that those questions must come from an open heart and mind, a heart and mind willing to listen and to change; a voice to help explain those things in terms that the pre-voiced might understand; a voice to relate.
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