"The difficulty is exemplified in Lora and Annie's situation. Lora does not understand Annie because the cultural "blinders: of white and class privilege impede Lora's ability to "visualize" Annie's life beyond how it "visibly" intersects with her own".
By using this specific personal "fictional" situation, Ratcliffe is able to get very close to linking her question of rhetorical listening, with Burkes concept of identification. The quote deals with a white women Lora, that is not able to visualize her maids outside life due to cultural differences and her own privilege. Lora states that she was not aware of simple facts about her maid and her maids lifestyle, and comes to realize it was simply because she never asked or listened to her. This ties back into Ratcliffes questions of the difficulties of cross-cultural communications, and how it is still a problem today because of instances such as this where one completely fails to recognize or listen to the obvious only because cultural/ethnic differences kept them from identifying with that other person.
This is where Ratcliffes rhetorical listening problem crosses over with Burkes definition of identification. Burke explains that in order for one to identify with another, they have to reach a common ground and mentally picture themselves and one or more other people as one. This is when they become con-substantial. In Ratcliffes example, Lora was unable to see herself in Annies position and could not mentally unify themselves together due to her own cultural and privilege barriers, which kept her from achieving true identification.
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