Public Speaking

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Responses to Diversity 29

speech, discriminatory language, or language “intended to intimidate” a person

or group.^3 Instead, we must balance our rights with our responsibilities into what

Professor Vernon Jensen calls our “rightsabilities.”^4 Jensen further defines ethical

communication as the conscious decision to speak and listen in ways that you, in

light of your cultural ideals, consider right, fair, honest, and helpful to others as well

as yourself.^5

Focusing on both rights and responsibilities brings up a number of ethical

questions. On what basis should we determine right and wrong in public speak-

ing and listening? Should some things be left unsaid? When? Who decides? What

responsibilities do you have as a listener or as a researcher? This chapter pres-

ents some principles that have emerged from discussing these ethically challenging

questions. We first examine common responses to diversity and then discuss guide-

lines for ethical speaking, listening, and researching in a complex culture.

Responses to Diversity

Diversity includes obvious differences such as language, ethnicity, religious beliefs and

practices, as well as conflicting opinions about political and social issues that can seem

irreconcilable, leading to tensions that can overshadow the many things that might oth-

erwise bind people together.^6 However, diverse people and groups can and do come

together in productive, civil, and ethical ways. Common responses to diversity include

resistance, assimilation, and accommodation.^7

Individuals and groups enact resistance in many forms. Some bolster and defend

their beliefs and traditions. Others withdraw from challenging situations. Still others

attack their opponents with mild challenges that ignore, discount, or ridicule diver-

gent ideas or escalate to physical assaults, death threats, terrorism, or armed conflict.^8

Resisters often attack with words, so much so that Deborah Tannen, a professor of

linguistics, says we live in an “argument culture.”^9 Tannen is especially sensitive to the

war metaphors we use. For example, think about all the battle terms you hear: culture

wars, fighting for your ideas, battleground states. We arm ourselves for arguments;

we shoot down ideas; we target our political enemies. You’ll find dozens of additional

examples.

Resistance is not inherently bad. In many cases, both in the United States and

around the world, conscientious resistance leads to positive outcomes. Protest move-

ments and activists often confront social, environmental, and global injustices and bring

about necessary reforms. However, activism that justifies using questionable means for a

good cause has ethical implications.

In assimilation, groups or individuals embrace new perspectives and lifestyles and

reject or surrender some or most of their previous beliefs and actions. For example,

a person might encounter religious diversity and convert to a different belief system,

adopting a new religious vocabulary, new rituals, and changed concepts. Assimilation

takes place over time and is rarely total.^10 Because choice is a dominant US value, people

are free to change their ideas and lifestyles, but ethical implications arise when individu-

als feel coerced or manipulated into changing without critically examining good reasons

for the change.

Another approach, accommodation, involves adjustment or adaptation.^11 Accom-

modating groups or individuals show a willingness to hear and evaluate diverse ideas

rightsabilities phrase

coined by Professor Vernon

Jensen to highlight the ten-

sion between our right to free

speech and our responsibility

for our speech

ethical communication the

conscious decision to speak

and listen in ways that you,

in light of your cultural

ideals, consider right, fair,

honest, and helpful to all

parties involved

Read, highlight, and take

notes online.

resistance response to

diversity in which you refuse

to change, and you defend

your own positions or attack

others

assimilation response

to diversity in which you

embrace new perspectives

and lifestyles and reject or

surrender some or most of

your previous beliefs and

actions

accommodation response

to diversity in which you

listen and evaluate the views

of others; both sides adapt,

modify, and bargain to reach

mutual agreements