Translator: Catarina Stigliano Reviewer: Theresa Ranft
When I think about plurality, the first thing that comes into my mind
is the need for us to break the silences.
When I say silence,
I’m not necessarily saying
that we should respond directly to someone.
When I think about silence, I think of institutional silence.
I think of the silence in relation to the naturalization
of the death of black people.
I think of the silence in relation to inequality.
I think of the silence when we are in spaces,
or in a country like ours of black majority,
and we don’t see ourselves, we don’t see ourselves in these spaces.
Then, when I think about silence,
I think how much this silence is built
from the determination and imposition of a singular voice,
a voice that wants to talk about us,
a voice that wants to speak about my body,
a voice that prevents a plurality of voices from speaking.
So, having the right to a voice is having the right to humanity.
When I don’t have the right to a voice, my humanity is being denied.
There’s a brilliant phrase from a black girl called Monique Evelle,
who participated in a TEDx, that touched me very much.
She said, “I have never been shy. I have been silenced.”
I then started to remember my childhood,
because I was always an extremely talkative child
with plenty of self-esteem.
With time, I started to silence myself,
I started to make myself invisible
through the will of this singular voice:
when I arrived at school and didn’t see myself in the textbooks;
when I arrived at school and the silence of the teachers
in relation to the violence that happens in the school environment…
I started to remember all this, and one day I asked myself,
“How much silence am I made up of?”
And how many of us often had silence imposed on us
and we ended up silencing ourselves.
But then there are brave people
who start discussing these silences,
and, in this sense, black feminists were very important
in my shaping as a person,
above all when I read Audre Lord
when she talks about the importance of talking
otherwise the weight of that silence will end up choking us.
Then, when Alice Walker says
that whoever demands your silence cannot be your friend,
we start to realize how many other narratives exist
and that these narratives are powerful,
and that these narratives come precisely to transcend this singular voice,
because I need to speak of myself I need to speak about me,
without having a voice telling me where my place is in this society.
These voices, these multiple narratives from these brave women
are encouraging us to speak as well,
they encourage us to realize how necessary our voice is.
And the people that were built to talk,
these people who are usually white men
who have the power of speech,
how important it is for these men to realize
my historical need to speak.
So, you don’t need to be black to fight racism?
Absolutely not.
You don’t need to be a woman to fight chauvinism?
Absolutely not.
But if black people don’t speak and if women don’t speak,
what kind of society are we building?
Because there’ll always be the same people speaking.
We don’t break with the white, male norm.
So this person who has always been in this place of speech
must understand that often his contribution
in this fight is to listen
and to understand our historical need to speak.
Because in a society where these voices don’t speak
or, when they speak, they follow a hierarchy
– because there is the authorized speech of those who can speak –
we can’t, in fact, talk about humanity.
So when I think of plurality, of the needs of voices,
I think that a new pact for humanity is needed,
because in a society where violence becomes natural,
where silences are not questioned,
where we often don’t realize that silence says a lot –
because the absence is also an ideology
and there are lots of things behind these absences –
we can’t, in fact, talk about humanity.
So, I think that when we truly appreciate these voices,
when we have a plurality of voices,
that’s when we can think about humanity.
I think that the need of a voice is the need of human beings,
of reconquering our humanity,
of us, as black women,
to be respected for who we are as human beings.
Because this voice that dehumanizes us,
that put us in places of subalternity or exoticism,
needs to be broken.
When I think in the plurality of voices of transsexual women, black women,
black men, homosexual black men,
and this multiplicity of voices speaking,
how much we truly become a richer society,
how much we truly have a more creative society,
how much we will truly have a more human society.
Because whilst being a black woman in this society
means not being considered as human,
whilst we are merely seen as sexual objects
or as people who are only in certain positions,
we need to reconfigure this humanity.
We’ll only reconfigure this world when these voices start to speak,
when these voices start to be respected,
when these voices start to be legitimized.
So, breaking with the silences is breaking with violence.
Breaking with silence
is breaking with this naturalized everyday violence
that we very often don’t perceive as violence.
So, you need to ask yourself,
because when you’re in a space of white majority
and the black people are there serving you,
you need to ask yourself
why those people are not enjoying the same space as you are.
“Why aren’t these black women enjoying the space like I am?”
When we arrive at a college with only white professors,
we need to ask ourselves:
“Why don’t I have any black professors here in this college?
Why are the black women in this college only cleaning the toilets
instead of sitting in the chairs of this college?”
If we don’t break with these silences, we’re accepting that this is the place,
we are condescending with this type of violence.
So it’s necessary for us to truly care,
and these powerful speeches
of these groups that historically never had a voice
will indeed disturb us,
and this disturbance needs to be seen as a positive thing.
Often the person that feels disturbed,
instead of asking himself the reason for the disturbance,
he directs his anger to the person who is making him feel uncomfortable,
and once more he tries to silence him so he can be the only voice.
But without disturbance we don’t promote change.
So the privileged need to feel uncomfortable
otherwise they’ll think that things are fine the way they are.
They won’t see themselves as responsible for the change,
they won’t realize how important it is to put themselves in a listening position.
And when I say listening, I mean real listening,
sincere listening, of who listens and is willing to deconstruct himself,
of who listens and realizes the need to speak of these other voices.
Because as Alice Walker said, it can’t be a friend
who demands my silence,
and if he doesn’t listen to me, he is demanding my silence.
Even though he doesn’t tell me to shut up,
he’s demanding my silence by not listening to me
and by not considering my narrative as important.
So it’s important that we ask ourselves why we don’t read black women,
why we don’t read works of black people,
why often in our libraries
these women are not there.
Why don’t we read those narratives?
Why don’t we understand the power of those speeches
and how important those speeches are in the reconfiguration of our world?
So, men and women are responsible for this,
and, above all, we need to have this awareness,
to understand that the world will be richer and better for all of us
when we really have a plurality of voices.
Because if it’s not good for those silenced voices,
it’s also not good for anyone.
So, let’s think what this world is that we actually want;
if it’s a world where only one voice is speaking
or if it’s a world where these other voices can speak
and are not seen as minor voices, as marginalized voices,
but as necessary voices and as powerful voices.
And so I leave the question:
to what extent are we allowing these voices to speak,
and to what extent these people who make up this singular voice
are actually placing themselves in the responsibility of listening?
In this way, silence will be important,
in the sense of listening to the one who could never speak,
in the sense of recognizing the historical need for speech
of these other people,
because we can’t speak of rights if we don’t speak of the right of a voice,
if we don’t recognize, above all, the right for speech.
So, a pact for humanity is possible
from the time that we recognize this right
and place ourselves as responsible for true change.
So I think that these powerful voices of these groups that are speaking
are not only speaking merely against narratives and discourses.
They are powerful speeches,
they are speeches that have come to transcend secular silences,
because they want to show our humanity
and say that we have several possibilities of existence
and that we do want to exist;
but that, above all, we want to exist with dignity.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Cheering)
When I think about plurality, the first thing that comes into my mind
is the need for us to break the silences.
When I say silence,
I’m not necessarily saying
that we should respond directly to someone.
When I think about silence, I think of institutional silence.
I think of the silence in relation to the naturalization
of the death of black people.
I think of the silence in relation to inequality.
I think of the silence when we are in spaces,
or in a country like ours of black majority,
and we don’t see ourselves, we don’t see ourselves in these spaces.
Then, when I think about silence,
I think how much this silence is built
from the determination and imposition of a singular voice,
a voice that wants to talk about us,
a voice that wants to speak about my body,
a voice that prevents a plurality of voices from speaking.
So, having the right to a voice is having the right to humanity.
When I don’t have the right to a voice, my humanity is being denied.
There’s a brilliant phrase from a black girl called Monique Evelle,
who participated in a TEDx, that touched me very much.
She said, “I have never been shy. I have been silenced.”
I then started to remember my childhood,
because I was always an extremely talkative child
with plenty of self-esteem.
With time, I started to silence myself,
I started to make myself invisible
through the will of this singular voice:
when I arrived at school and didn’t see myself in the textbooks;
when I arrived at school and the silence of the teachers
in relation to the violence that happens in the school environment…
I started to remember all this, and one day I asked myself,
“How much silence am I made up of?”
And how many of us often had silence imposed on us
and we ended up silencing ourselves.
But then there are brave people
who start discussing these silences,
and, in this sense, black feminists were very important
in my shaping as a person,
above all when I read Audre Lord
when she talks about the importance of talking
otherwise the weight of that silence will end up choking us.
Then, when Alice Walker says
that whoever demands your silence cannot be your friend,
we start to realize how many other narratives exist
and that these narratives are powerful,
and that these narratives come precisely to transcend this singular voice,
because I need to speak of myself I need to speak about me,
without having a voice telling me where my place is in this society.
These voices, these multiple narratives from these brave women
are encouraging us to speak as well,
they encourage us to realize how necessary our voice is.
And the people that were built to talk,
these people who are usually white men
who have the power of speech,
how important it is for these men to realize
my historical need to speak.
So, you don’t need to be black to fight racism?
Absolutely not.
You don’t need to be a woman to fight chauvinism?
Absolutely not.
But if black people don’t speak and if women don’t speak,
what kind of society are we building?
Because there’ll always be the same people speaking.
We don’t break with the white, male norm.
So this person who has always been in this place of speech
must understand that often his contribution
in this fight is to listen
and to understand our historical need to speak.
Because in a society where these voices don’t speak
or, when they speak, they follow a hierarchy
– because there is the authorized speech of those who can speak –
we can’t, in fact, talk about humanity.
So when I think of plurality, of the needs of voices,
I think that a new pact for humanity is needed,
because in a society where violence becomes natural,
where silences are not questioned,
where we often don’t realize that silence says a lot –
because the absence is also an ideology
and there are lots of things behind these absences –
we can’t, in fact, talk about humanity.
So, I think that when we truly appreciate these voices,
when we have a plurality of voices,
that’s when we can think about humanity.
I think that the need of a voice is the need of human beings,
of reconquering our humanity,
of us, as black women,
to be respected for who we are as human beings.
Because this voice that dehumanizes us,
that put us in places of subalternity or exoticism,
needs to be broken.
When I think in the plurality of voices of transsexual women, black women,
black men, homosexual black men,
and this multiplicity of voices speaking,
how much we truly become a richer society,
how much we truly have a more creative society,
how much we will truly have a more human society.
Because whilst being a black woman in this society
means not being considered as human,
whilst we are merely seen as sexual objects
or as people who are only in certain positions,
we need to reconfigure this humanity.
We’ll only reconfigure this world when these voices start to speak,
when these voices start to be respected,
when these voices start to be legitimized.
So, breaking with the silences is breaking with violence.
Breaking with silence
is breaking with this naturalized everyday violence
that we very often don’t perceive as violence.
So, you need to ask yourself,
because when you’re in a space of white majority
and the black people are there serving you,
you need to ask yourself
why those people are not enjoying the same space as you are.
“Why aren’t these black women enjoying the space like I am?”
When we arrive at a college with only white professors,
we need to ask ourselves:
“Why don’t I have any black professors here in this college?
Why are the black women in this college only cleaning the toilets
instead of sitting in the chairs of this college?”
If we don’t break with these silences, we’re accepting that this is the place,
we are condescending with this type of violence.
So it’s necessary for us to truly care,
and these powerful speeches
of these groups that historically never had a voice
will indeed disturb us,
and this disturbance needs to be seen as a positive thing.
Often the person that feels disturbed,
instead of asking himself the reason for the disturbance,
he directs his anger to the person who is making him feel uncomfortable,
and once more he tries to silence him so he can be the only voice.
But without disturbance we don’t promote change.
So the privileged need to feel uncomfortable
otherwise they’ll think that things are fine the way they are.
They won’t see themselves as responsible for the change,
they won’t realize how important it is to put themselves in a listening position.
And when I say listening, I mean real listening,
sincere listening, of who listens and is willing to deconstruct himself,
of who listens and realizes the need to speak of these other voices.
Because as Alice Walker said, it can’t be a friend
who demands my silence,
and if he doesn’t listen to me, he is demanding my silence.
Even though he doesn’t tell me to shut up,
he’s demanding my silence by not listening to me
and by not considering my narrative as important.
So it’s important that we ask ourselves why we don’t read black women,
why we don’t read works of black people,
why often in our libraries
these women are not there.
Why don’t we read those narratives?
Why don’t we understand the power of those speeches
and how important those speeches are in the reconfiguration of our world?
So, men and women are responsible for this,
and, above all, we need to have this awareness,
to understand that the world will be richer and better for all of us
when we really have a plurality of voices.
Because if it’s not good for those silenced voices,
it’s also not good for anyone.
So, let’s think what this world is that we actually want;
if it’s a world where only one voice is speaking
or if it’s a world where these other voices can speak
and are not seen as minor voices, as marginalized voices,
but as necessary voices and as powerful voices.
And so I leave the question:
to what extent are we allowing these voices to speak,
and to what extent these people who make up this singular voice
are actually placing themselves in the responsibility of listening?
In this way, silence will be important,
in the sense of listening to the one who could never speak,
in the sense of recognizing the historical need for speech
of these other people,
because we can’t speak of rights if we don’t speak of the right of a voice,
if we don’t recognize, above all, the right for speech.
So, a pact for humanity is possible
from the time that we recognize this right
and place ourselves as responsible for true change.
So I think that these powerful voices of these groups that are speaking
are not only speaking merely against narratives and discourses.
They are powerful speeches,
they are speeches that have come to transcend secular silences,
because they want to show our humanity
and say that we have several possibilities of existence
and that we do want to exist;
but that, above all, we want to exist with dignity.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Cheering)
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