I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven t been singled out because of my race. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race. I can swear, or dress in secondhand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race. I can go into a book shop and count on finding the writing of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser s shop and find someone who can deal with my hair. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely and positively presented. I can go shopping alone most of the time, fairly well assured that I will not be followed or harassed by store detectives. Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference, Mayfield Press, 2001.Ĩ For example, white privilege: If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live. of blame, of guilt, of rejection by their own group if they acknowledge privilege, of loss. They think privilege is just a personal problem. Privilege insulates them from its consequences. Why don t dominant groups see privilege as a problem? They don t know privilege exists in the first place. For example, not every man (individual) holds institutional power in the same way, but within social institutions most positions of power are held by men, and other men can identify with the power that accrues to manhood (system) in the institutionħ Privilege An invisible package of unearned assets. 86% of faculty members are white.ĥ Questions for Discussion How might the myth of neutrality mask the realities of Latinos in your work? What can you do in your work to make power arrangements visible and to ensure that they are not disadvantaging people based on race/ethnicity, gender, social class, or other forms of difference?Ħ The Importance of Understanding Systems The problem is not one of bad people (an individual approach) but of oppressive systems in which individuals participate in relative privilege or disadvantage depending on their location in the system. Women professors earn 81% of what male professors earn. Women hold 31% of tenured positions and 44.8% of tenure-track positions. The result is: 39% of instructional faculty are women Only 24% of full professors are women, while 51% of instructors are women. Power brings unequal distribution of tasks and rewards (starting salary, resources such as time off for research or start-up funds/travel funds, research assistance, service expectations). But the assumption of neutrality masks power relationships based on privilege. appear natural and inevitable.Ĥ For example: We would assume that the hiring, promotion & tenure processes at a college or university are neutral and based solely on merit. Social institutions (family, education, religion, media, government) reproduce hierarchy and ensure the maintenance of power in the hands of members of the dominant culture by normalizing the dominant culture so that hierarchical orderings based on gender, race, social class, etc. In systems of oppression, power accrues to those who most closely approximate the mythical norm (in the US) male, white, heterosexual, financially stable, young-middle adult, able-bodied, Christian. Power also includes access to social, political, and economic resources. Susan Shaw DPD faculty seminarĢ Definitions Difference: socially constructed binaries that conference dominance or subordination on group members (gender, race, social class, ability, sexual identity, age, religion, country of origin) Power: the ability to control or coerce Privilege: an invisible package of unearned assets Peggy McIntoshģ Power Typically defined as power-over, the ability to coerce another s behavior.
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