The Opposite of Subaltern Agency is not Agency, it’s Listening: Self-Guided Anti-Racism Investigation for Aspiring White Anti-Racists

This research project examines the rhetorical relationship between oppressed and privileged communities, first to look at how oppressed communities can have more success in their outreach to change privileged points of view, then to examine that “success” of social advocacy is as bound up in the listener’s ability to hear as it is in the speaker’s ability to persuade and that the oppressed community is already using the most successful rhetorical tools available—privileged audiences are just not participating. To complete the first process, I used textual analysis to understand how an oppressed rhetor—represented by Toni Morrison—thinks of privileged perspectives in their outreach, while the second process was completed by reviewing my own privileged perspective throughout the first process and throughout my anti-racism re-education. I concluded that while Toni Morrison does perform outreach with privileged perspectives in mind, she is also aware that it is not her responsibility to make the privileged hear—just to speak.