Unsettling Silence

In this essay, we rhetorically analyze X González’s speech at the 2018 March for Our Lives rally, a response to the Parkland school shooting. Focusing on the role of silence in González’s speech, we introduce and develop the concept of “unsettling silence,” a rhetorical mode of silence that disrupts expectations, provokes discomfort, exposes inaction, and manipulates time. For members of marginalized communities, we argue, unsettling silence can function as a proactive rhetorical tactic, one that challenges dominant power structures and has the potential to catalyze social and political transformation.