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This article describes a feminist intervention to raise awareness about, and problematize, the pervasive experience of silencing, as reported by women, people of color, students, people identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ), people with national origins outside of North America, and people with disabilities, within the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA). A theater‐based intervention was designed and scripts were written from real‐life experiences that defined and described the problem of silencing as structural. We highlight three main points that emerged from intervention: (a) nontraditional approaches that step outside the cultural norms of a setting have great potential for raising awareness; (b) questions of power, privilege, and voice continue to be central considerations when using feminist‐based anti‐oppression methods; and (c) although acts of silencing can occur at the individual level, they thrive in an environment in which power, privilege, and historical inequities operate invisibly (without being named, acknowledged, or addressed). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper describes the first author's attempt to collect data in a homeless shelter without attending to her role in the social class hierarchy of the organization. The author's egalitarian approach towards the homeless clients, and her lack of involvement in "staff-only" activities, transgress the social class norms within the organizational structure. While the author is successful in gaining the trust of the homeless clients, her approach alienates shelter staff, especially those in the higher echelons of the social hierarchy. The concepts of classism, world views, and Social Identity Theory, are utilized to discuss the dilemma faced by researchers who want to challenge, or work outside, a setting's status quo.

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