The Unheard Voice

By mid-2023, the world’s population will reach 8 billion if it hasn’t already.

The average number of words spoken per minute is one-hundred fifteen.

In an average minute across the globe, 920 billion words are spoken.

If you were to say one word per second, it would take nearly 30,000 years to repeat the words spoken in one humanity-minute.

Of all those words spoken, how many of them fall on deaf ears? How many people have had words of great value in their hearts and minds that were never spoken because they were never given space to share them? Even worse, how many people throughout history have been forced into silence?

Cornell University’s law school Legal Information Institute writes,

“Socially disadvantaged individuals are those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities. The social disadvantage must stem from circumstances beyond their control.”

We can, of course, extend this definition across the entire world to include any group or individual that has been marginalized, excluded, persecuted, or exterminated.

It is impossible to number those individuals who have been and are in socially disadvantaged groups. I’m a white, Christian male living in the middle of the middle class in the Western United States so I’m absolutely unqualified to speak from the position of someone in one of these marginalized groups. I do belong to a church that, in the United States — land of religious freedom — once had an extermination order against its members that was issued by a governor and ignored by Washington, D.C. However, I am many generations removed from that persecution.

My aim in writing this article is most definitely NOT to pretend like I understand. I don’t. I don’t believe anyone who has not been persecuted or marginalized in some way can ever really grasp what it means to truly be socially disadvantaged.

That said, every person has the capacity to see those around them who are and even do something about it.

What can I do about it?

First: Recognize

Particularly in the United States, there tends to be social clustering so it can be all too easy to either be ignorant of social injustice or choose to turn away. For most people, I don’t believe turning away is an indication of condoning or accepting what’s happening. I think most people don’t know how to process the pain they see in others and feel overwhelmed by not knowing how to help. I’ve been in that place before. I lived in Guatemala for two years. I witnessed a lot of human suffering that I couldn’t do anything to change. Sometimes, it broke my heart. Other times, I was too busy with my own duties to take time to see it.

If you are socially disadvantaged, it may be hard to accept that some people are simply ignorant. If you are not disadvantaged, it requires effort to stop and see what’s going on in the world around you. Recognize that there are people, probably living close by, who are being marginalized.

Second: Remove Judgment & Listen

Part of the survival mechanism built into our brains is judging the safety of a situation. However, many people are trained from early childhood to misuse this mechanism to judge other people. It can be far too easy to make snap judgments, particularly about people who are different than we are in some way.

In order to remove judgment, we have to listen with the intent to understand. In all of human history, is it preposterous to believe that more than 1 billion lives could have been taken in violent acts? Many of those deaths came about because an individual or group was not willing to listen without judgment. Of course, that’s not true in every case, but it holds in far too many.

I believe this is not a question of fighting our nature but our nurture. It requires us to, again, stop and question our own judgment. When we withhold judgment, we’re in a much better position to listen and learn from people.

Then, be open and curious about the hurt they’re feeling. Open, honest, caring dialog is an important part of any relationship.

Third: Love

The Beatles were right in their lyric-deprived song “All You Need Is Love”. Love must be our primary motivator. It may seem cliché, but it actually is through love that social injustice will ultimately be conquered. Whether you accept the bible, the adage of “love thy neighbor as thyself” is true. Of course, that requires having the proper kind of love for ourselves. Self-worship is the kind of love that propagates more social injustice.

Reciprocal love leads to mutual understanding and vice versa. People who have been marginalized and/or persecuted, want to have a voice. In our current climate, that desire (coupled with a few bad actors) has led to unnecessary violence which foments the problems meant to be solved. Another old adage, “violence is rarely the answer”.

Fourth: Take Action

The first three steps build up to the fourth. Taking action doesn’t have to be something huge. A simple internet search of how do I fight social injustice yields a plethora of ideas. Go ahead and pick one.

On paper, the process is simple. In the real world, it’s hard to resolve the hurt — particularly of the kind that extends for generations — but it can be done. By recognizing, removing judgment and listening, loving, and taking action, the hurts of generations can be cleared. Some people may choose to be imbittered their whole lives, but for most, even our smallest efforts will make a difference. After all, the time is long overdue for their voices to be heard.