Post #4 Kevin Murphy

So far in this class, our focus has been on rhetorical theory that has involved communication from the source of the rhetor to the audience. However, Ratcliffe gives us thw rhetorical audience to consider, in that the audience participates in rhetoric by listening and being open to the communicated rhetoric from another party. The listening is not simplified down to the act of paying attention and having the ability to hear. The race, gender, economic status, and other qualifications of the audience must be considered as well. Active rhetorical listening provides us a number of ways to consider how to use Burkean rhetoric to communicate with others in a more effective way. Using identification to dig deeper into the audience and how they listen beyond just seeing them as a general singular unit audience improves how we go about communicating our rhetoric.

When employed as a "code of cross-cultural conduct," rhetorical listening has the potential to generate more productive discourses about and across both commonalities and differences, whether these dis- courses be narratives or arguments, whether they be in academic journals or over the dinner table.

Ratcliffe talks specifically about "whiteness" and how it might inform us about certain aspects or circumstances which can shape and give context to rhetorical communication. This is something that I find endlessly complicated. The discussion of race is always a difficult one fora  variety of reasons. It is rarely a discussion that is openly had and when it does occur, there is often much emotion included in the discourse. The history of race, privilege, and discrimination in this country is one that most are now well aware of and are informed about. What we are not well aware or informed about is how race affects us in a rhetorical sense, especially in our academic setting. Ratcliffe gives us an access point to begin this process of awareness and appreciation through rhetorical listening.