April: Week 4
Listening can arouse our anger, and it’s up to use to channel it/transform it into nonviolent power and creative action.
Listening in the face of harm.
This week, we’re engaging with the documentary White Right: Meeting the Enemy, and reflecting on what it means to listen across deep divides, drawing from the work of Deeyah Khan.
This is a very challenging film to watch. Especially right now, with ongoing conflicts around immigration enforcement in the United States, it may feel close to home. You may notice connections between the beliefs expressed in the film and patterns of dehumanization and escalating cruelty in our public life.
Please take care of yourself as you engage with this material. The film because it’s about white supremacist violence, includes violent language, racial slurs, and archival footage depicting harm. You are not required to watch it in full—or at all—to be part of this week’s exploration.
If you do choose to watch, pay attention to what Deeyah Khan is doing. She is not agreeing, and she is not excusing harm. She is choosing to stay present to another person’s humanity without stepping away from her own values. This is an active stance: it takes clarity, grounding, and a kind of courage that we are exploring in this course.
Simon Sinek uses the phrase “extreme listening” in his interview with Khan to describe listening with the intention to understand, even when it’s difficult. You might hold that alongside what you see in the film, and notice how it lands for you.
As you reflect this week:
What might listening look like as a form of nonviolent power?
What nonviolent principles emerge this week?
Any direct quotes from Khan that speak to your practice of nonviolence?
Any more recent examples of ‘extreme listening’ to share?
This week directly ties into May’s topic of restorative and transformative justice.