Hearing the Silence: Burman Privilege in Myanmar

Abstract:The limited literature on Myanmar that touches on aspects of silence often associates it with hierarchies of authority, but silence can also be revealing of hierarchies of privilege. Drawing on Walton's theorization of Burman-ness as Whiteness and photo-elicitation interviews with twenty young Myanmar citizens, this paper illustrates how Burman structures of privilege manifested empirically in the silence around ethnicity in Burman participants' identity narratives. I argue that similar to Whiteness, Burman participants' silence around their ethnicity demonstrates the invisibility of Burman-ness as the natural condition. It is critical to overturn these silences if Burmans are to work against systemic racism and in support of ethnic reconciliation.