Worship the Written Word part 3
As I continue to think about and wrestle with this white supremacy characteristic, I came across this quote and had a long moments of pause. I started to think about communication, knowledge, and collaboration. How, what, and why of communication is important to think through. An over reliance on one form of communication like the written word can be problematic. In context of this quote, communication for the sake of communication might be heard, but if it isn’t done in a way that speaks to the someone’s heart, then you might not get the results you desire. This quote reminded me of Michael Jr’s “Know your why” video. It is a powerful example of considering the communication with the why in mind. Check it out below.
Mandela’s quote also got me thinking about knowledge. Those around me have heard me say more than once, “Knowledge is not power; application of knowledge is power”. If that application is done in a way that does not have the desired impact, what is the point? When applied knowledge is limited to just written text and official citations, what information might be missing or not transferred. I also started to think about the number of time I have both not felt heard in conversations and know that I have failed to hear others. One of the antidotes to this characteristic reads, “dedicate time to practicing and honoring other ways of knowing and expression: oral storytelling, embodied learning, visual and movement art, silence, meditation, singing, dancing”. I am starting to believe that if I can open up my eyes to different ways to knowing and expression, I could increase my application of knowledge and truly connect with those around me.
My last thought is about collaboration. Worshipping the written word seems to align with the white supremacy characteristics of one right way and perfectionism. It’s a way to push a single way of knowing and communication. It pushes to rely on only certain sources of knowing. In this era of COVID and huge amount of misinformation, this feels even more complicated. How do we maintain a healthy reliance on experts and safe medical practices and address misinformation like ivermectin being a valid prevention and treatment for COVID? To me, this is where collaboration and speaking the language of others can get to the heart of issues. We can’t abandon science, but we also can’t limit our understanding of what works to just one way of knowing. Things that can and have been shown to be false or not effective can be sorted out without uplifting one cultural way of knowing over another.
