The Power of Personae

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely rhetors.”

~ Shakespeare, misquoted

How do silenced or ignored people gain a voice? How does the subordinate party in an asymmetrical power relationship acquire agency? In his article, “‘White Guys Who Send My Uncle to Prison’: Going Public within Asymmetrical Power,” Ben Kuebrich discusses just these issues. One of his points involves the persona of the subordinate group. Within their hidden transcript, the subordinate group—in this case, Syracuse’s Westside residents—may often "critique, complain about, and blame" the neighborhood cops for prejudiced, ineffective policing. But during a community forum including both police and residents, “the large-group conversation revolved around loose terms like ‘dialogue,’ ‘communication,’ and ‘respect,’ and residents took much of the responsibility for problems” (Kuebrich 581). When the residents discussed power issues “off-stage,” they wore a different mask, or persona, than when they stood “onstage” before a police audience.

Why beat around the bush? Why didn’t the residents hit the cops head-on with specific issues rather than generalized problems? Consider this: “persona invites assent both to the request made and to the person making it” (Palczewski et al. 151, emphasis added). Do you feel like cooperating with someone who blasts you with both barrels? Probably not. Even though the residents’ pointed criticisms would have been accurate, they would not have been conducive to productive discussion (though one could argue the actual productivity of that community forum, I say any productivity is better than none). By emphasizing “dialogue,” “communication,” and “respect,” the Westside residents presented the goodwill facet of persona; they wanted to work with the police rather than against them—a perception that would have lowered the lawpersons’ defenses.

This persona aspect of goodwill along with the aspect of virtue appears even in the residents/university’s I Witness publication. One contributor named Bonaparte added an introductory paragraph to his chapter after reading the transcript of his conversation; he was worried about “police officers and people outside the neighborhood reading his chapter

and thinking that he ‘just hates the cops’” (Kuebrich 584). His revision reframed the chapter so people would know he wanted a platform to promote improved policing, not “an excuse to tell horror stories” (Kuebrich 584).

We might say the Westside residents presented a rather “non-threatening” persona to the police. I’d go even a step further and describe their persona as “gentle”—which is ironic as I define gentleness as “power under control.” But it’s true: the residents had some power to shatter whatever good image the police had with outside/other publics. Yet a certain “violence” is naturally done on the dominant public or power-holder’s discourse when a counterpublic or subordinate group gains more power. So where is the line between that gentleness and violence? And which kinds of personae effect the most comprehensive, productive results?