Raise Your Voice

Raise Your Voice
Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up
by Kathy Khang
InterVarsity Press
Christian , Religion & Spirituality
Pub Date 31 Jul 2018
I am reviewing a copy of Raise Your Voice through InterVarsity Press and Netgalley.
We have a voice, and God has given it to us to use. In some places certain voices are amplified while others are either erased or suppressed.




We often find it hard to speak up, especially when we fear what we say being twisted on Social Media. We become silent and marginalized by power dynamics, especially when race, gender and ethnicity become factors.



Activist Kathy Khang reminds us that the root of out identify and ethnicity are rooted in the image of God!



I give Raise Your Voice five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Given today's social and political climate, I can't think of a more practical and needed book than Raise Your Voice. In Part 1, Kathy Khang walks us through some of her own journey learning to raise her voice. In Part 2, she provides the concrete steps to help the reader do the same. Kathy is smart and funny and makes the reader feel at ease, even as she's challenging you. I appreciated the way the whole book is grounded in Scripture and the way she related situations we're currently facing to those faced by various biblical figures. We need more books like this.

Raise Your Voice is powerful and important. It’s so delightfully practical, spiritual, and encouraging. Filled with enough anecdotes that give honest, real-life examples. Weaving in narratives from the Bible from her perspective. I loved the way the author describes Esther's dual identity, having two names, Esther and Hadassah, along with a time to step up and raise her voice – for such a time as this – to hear it told from Kathy’s perspective was vivid and powerful. She emboldens and encourages practical, tangible action steps for personal work, listening to and amplifying other diverse voices, but also boldly speaking up when silence equates complicity. She includes helpful checks and balances, a practical do this, don't do this list. I'm learning how to spend my privilege and take time to be informed. She also touches on and debunks a theme we hear constantly these days in Christian circles: “Our unity in Christ does not erase diversity. Our unity in Christ affirms and even demands diversity for the flourishing and stewarding of this world. Our diverse voices allow God’s truth to be told in many ways.”

Finally, I leave you with this quote from the book:
“The reason I most often choose to stay silent is the one I don’t want to admit. If I benefit from the status quo, I have a vested interest in maintaining it. Silence is complicity. Speaking out is often labeled as rocking the boat or causing trouble, but silence is just as dangerous.”

I highly recommend. I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my review, but my thoughts are my own. This is an important and timely book.

What I found most useful about Raise Your Voice was the distinct shift in perspective it offered.

I’m a white woman, brought up in what I assume is a mainstream church culture, and there are some things I am just learning how to question and deconstruct. Khang’s work caught me not just by reframing one baseline interpretation of Esther (for example) but also in showing herself as a mother and minister navigating her own life. Her making decisions in real-time, watching her children make theirs – with no guarantee the end will fall in their favor.

I found the section deconstructing why we stay silent to be very valuable, and I leaned into the storytelling and recently-dated examples (reminders of the immediacy of this book) that tie the theoretical to the actual.

This was also where I stumbled. A number of the stories were mere sketches, and I wondered sometimes why they were included without the substance and detail I expected from a rich storytelling. I also don’t know if it’s a stylistic thing or a cultural difference, but I found some of the writing… “jeweler precise.” Quotes in particular were perfect in their placement, making their point, but standing out rather than feeling like a fully integrated part of the whole.

Not to denigrate that precision. The writing is so good at nailing what is relevant to me and the people I talk with. It captures each truth, looking straight at these questions of silence, worthiness, cultural expectations and assumptions.

This is both a gentle and substantial book. I didn’t feel “called out” or “othered” by anything I read, but I was also very aware of my place in the dominant culture, having as much choice as I do about whether or not to speak up.

Khang says it well: “It gets complicated rather quickly and there’s no easy roadmap to guide us…in any circumstance there are always unspoken rules of engagement. If we never challenge them, we may perpetuate unhealthy patterns and never actually address and resolve conflict.”

This was not a quick read, even though it looked to me like a short book. I underlined and re-read, and pondered. This is what we need in a book. Something that will stay with us, and make us want to remember.

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing a review copy.

A lot of good advice and encouragement on finding your particular voice. Her personal stories on her finding her voice were good but for.the political and activist content. A great book to read if you need help finding your voice.

Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up by Kathy Khang is a thoughtful read perfectly situated to encourage others with practical guidelines for how to step up and speak out.

Khang repeatedly returns to the biblical story of Queen Esther as a lens to guide us in how to speak up when we find ourselves in a place of influence, even if taking a stand may be dangerous.

I love to read nonfiction titles, but I admit I find myself putting some authors on a level above me; the rest of us are down below, as we have less courage, less innate ability, less brilliance. They tell their story, but it ends there -- I don't necessarily find natural take-aways to implement in my own life because they are so superior to us mere mortals. Their foibles, if documented, seem to be conquered easily, never to be a stumbling block again.

However, Kathy Khang is real to me; she genuinely shows her process of learning to raise her voice, as well as times she chose not to and how those situations shaped her. Her words and experiences resonated with me. I am naturally non-confrontational and a people pleaser, so it was a powerful example to hear from someone who found her gender and her culture came with expectations for keeping the peace, and yet she was able to go beyond those expectations to learn to boldly stand up and speak out. Khang admits it didn't always turn out well, and at times she has had to admit she was wrong. All the more, those instances resonate with me, since speaking up can be a complicated process filled with hasty misjudgments and misunderstandings.

My copy is filled with highlights, as there were so many passages I want to return to. The sections detailing what to do before, during, and after speaking up are phenomenal. There are no shortage of opportunities to speak up on social media, and Khang's best practices there are relevant.

Khang doesn't sugarcoat what can change when you start raising your voice. She recognizes things can be uncomfortable, but she reminds us that, "Speaking up doesn't increase division. It brings injustice and sin to the forefront. Speaking up can be an avenue of truth and healing, which can be painful for you and your friends."

This was a valuable, well-written read.

(I was given a digital ARC copy from NetGalley and InterVarsity Press in exchange for my honest review.)

Some people think they speak up too quickly. Others, that they're so slow they miss opportunities. Kathy Khang addresses both sides in her new book.

Along with this message: Silence carries a risk.

She shares in this book that as God’s creation, we aren’t meant to be silent. All of creation communicates, and we need to speak up, too.

“We all need to understand that voice, identity, and agency are given by God but often are underdeveloped or ignored in people on the margins. We need to be seen and heard.“

That doesn’t mean we become abrasive.

Speaking up should not create more divisions or cause more pain. To the contrary, “speaking up can be an avenue of truth and healing,” bringing injustice and sin to the forefront where it can be corrected.

“I choose to speak up, over and over again, even when it’s awkward because awkwardness is easier to overcome than allowing injustice to continue.”

Kathy shares a list of things to consider before we speak up, as we speak up, and after we speak up. Here are a few items from these sections.

Before You Speak Up:

* Pray
* Do your research
* Prepare your talking points

While You Speak Up:

* Pray
* Breathe
* Ask questions

After You Speak Up:

* Pray
* Follow up
* Start all over again

But speaking up isn’t just for IRL situations. We use our voice again and again in online venues as well.

Whichever way we choose to speak up, this is a truth worth remembering:

“Speaking up is never about creating conflict or being disruptive just to shake things up and leave a mess. Speaking up is always about the gospel—speaking and painting a picture of truth, wholeness, and hope.”

Regardless of your natural tendency to speak up quickly or slowly, speak up wisely. That’s the best way to make a difference.

My thanks to Net Galley for the review copy of this book.