Act Of Silencing

In performing certain speech acts, sometimes actions speak louder than words. The act of silencing is effective when the biased group manipulates the illocutionary and perlocutionary speech act and prevents certain groups from being able to speak or feel comfortable to express their opinions freely. The speech act of consent is the illocutionary act of saying “yes” or “no” and trying to convey to the fact that we accept or do not accept what is happening. The perlocutionary force is where the hearer understands our refusal and has seriously and respectfully accepted our “yes” or “no.” Some groups of people use the tactic of silencing purposefully so that they can easily be target and discrimination certain group of individuals. They use silence
The discrimination of a women's rights in an office place is an example of questionable ethics. If for example, an employer were to make sexual advancements and comments about his female secretary, this is an act of discrimination based on the basis of sexual harassment. The employer is placed in an authoritative position of power over his employers and he is responsible to give each of his employee's respect. The female secretary feels very uncomfortable around her boss because she constantly feels as though he is sexually objectifying her at work. However, the boss is her employer and is responsible for her workload, paychecks, and overall employment and she feels uncomfortable speaking up or reporting him actions. Let’s say, for example, one day the secretary is walking by her boss’ desk and he makes a comment on her skirt, that, “ her ass looks hot in that skirt.” The secretary feels terrible about what she just experience and decides that today she has had enough of the constant harassment, so she decides to report him to employment Quebec. When the boss finds out about her report, he wrongfully terminates her, with the bullshit excuse of, “she made advancements towards me and I have informed her previously that her behavior is not tolerated in my office.” Although this a flat out lie and the boss had made the excuse to cover up the fact that he was discriminating his employee. Therefore the boss is attempting to silence his secretary because he has made false reports about her caused her to lose her job. He has also used the power of his position as her boss to discredit her claim but also discredit her reputation. This is considered testimonial injustice because the speaker (the boss) in this case is wrongfully and unfairly attempting to discredit the secretary against a circumstance where she