Truthful Silence

            A voice can be heard both orally and verbally. No matter how quiet or loud, every human has a voice and every human decides when to express their voice. In the modern world, though, the ability to get your voice heard has become extremely difficult. Sure, we can all write blogs and argue in chat rooms, but truly, social institutions have created major constraints that limit and control how much anyone’s voice gets heard. And truthfully, over half of the world is still without internet access, so blogs and chat rooms report to a limited audience. This doesn’t mean the internet isn’t a useful tool to express your opinions, but let’s not confuse our online voice with the individuals who are heard and seen on prime time television worldwide. Not only are journalists and reporters revered as sources of information, but the mass media has transformed celebrities and athletes as not only entertainers, but voices for social and political issues as well. The emergence of this tactic has created even a larger auditorium for individuals to get a hearing in, which in turn, has propelled the mass media into one of the most influential institutions in the modern world. For some, though, this does not detract their pursuit to get a hearing and be heard.

            Brenda Fassie, a popular South African singer, is an individual who attempted to get a hearing by artistically expressing her voice about issues surrounding the apartheid in South Africa, including blatant racism and oppression against women. Many of her followers considered her the Queen of African Pop. And that’s precisely what she was, because unfortunately, Fassie’s messages received little or no attention by those in the Western culture. Compared to another famous South African singer, Miriam Makeba, Fassie is merely a shadow. And this can be attributed to a number of reasons. An obvious one is the fact that Fassie’s message is delivered in her native tongue, where as Makeba sings in perfect English. For a listener who does not speak Fassie’s language, her song and message is completely distorted. This clearly shows how important language is to getting a hearing in the West. Without singing in English, Makeba may have never been heard.

            Language, though, was not the only reason for Fassie’s voiceless existence in the West. Like I mentioned before, her songs focused on apartheid and violence against women; issues that need to be addressed and messages that should be heard. Unfortunately, in Western culture, these are topics that are sensitive and receive little attention. As individuals, we may claim that we are not racist or sexist. But as a society, we have reproduced ideologies that automatically limit certain individuals to be heard. For Fassie, being a foreign Black female is like being on a waiting list. They (the mass media) acknowledge that you are probably capable of being heard, but in the end, you are not chosen because they dictate who gets a hearing. Again, in comparison to Makeba, who transcended her native music and tongue into Western melodies, Fassie becomes even a smaller shadow. To be sarcastic and blunt, is a media producer going to do a story or give a hearing to a South African woman who has performed with Paul Simon or one who sings about taboo topics in our culture? Trust me; it’s not the latter of the two. And this highlights the actual criteria for anyone to get a hearing. Like anything in our culture, motives are driven by profit. This is why we have seen the use of celebrities as representatives for companies and products. Because of her ability to transcend into our culture, Makeba gets a hearing because she can earn someone money or notoriety. Fassie, on the other hand, can’t even let her cough be heard in the West.

            In my Multicultural Literature class at CSU, Chico, we discussed the question of whether Fassie could get a hearing in the mainstream mass media. The answer is simply no. Some may argue that her videos on You Tube and other media outlets are a way of being heard in the mass media. But the internet is really a small tip of an iceberg. Our media institutions have complete control over who gets a hearing. And usually, the voice that is heard is going to earn a profit for these institutions. During our class discussion, one of my peers used Snoop Dogg as a comparison to Brenda Fassie. I think Snoop is a perfect example. Not only is he Black, defying the average heard voice, he represents how a voice is only heard if it can earn profit. Snoop’s music career, successful and popular, doesn’t compare to the forum in which is voice is heard now. With a television show on channel E that follows Snoop, focusing on his approach to fatherhood, Snoop’s voice is larger than it has ever been. And this is a man who became popular by rapping about gangs and violence against women. To Western culture, though, he is appealing. To media producers, he is dollar signs. So regardless of his prior negative connotations to society, Snoop is idolized and his voice is almost taken literally by some in our society. And this takes me back to Brenda Fassie and her powerful messages; the ones which remain silent in our society. Unlike Snoop, Fassie fought for her voice to be heard. But not just to be heard, she wanted the truth to be heard. Surely, though, no media producer would give Fassie her own show. In the end, her endless pursuit to have a truthful voice is what kept her silent.