Privilege Oppression Diversity Literacy Week 1 Lecture 2

Privilege & Oppression Diversity Literacy Week 1 / Lecture 2 Prepared by Claire Kelly

Privilege / Normativity ¡Insert: “Untitled” by Thembinkosi Goniwe. It depicts a black man and a white man, both with white plasters on their faces. The plaster appears very obvious that it was made for white skin. ¡ http: //www. artthrob. co. za/01 nov/images/goniwe 01 a. jpg Prepared by Claire Kelly

Privilege / Normativity ¡Insert: A picture normalizing and privileging maleness. The picture used for the class is an cartoon of stick figures, the male figure makes a mistake, the other figure says “Wow you suck at maths”, the female figure makes a mistake and the other figure says “Wow girls suck at maths. ” ¡ http: //restructure. wordpress. com/2009/06/09/genderdifference-in-math-ability-variability-driven-by-socialinequality-study/ Prepared by Claire Kelly

Privilege / Normativity ¡Insert Picture of Osama Bin Laden ¡ http: //a. abcnews. com/images/International/ap_osama_bin _laden_2_ll_110502_wg. jpg ¡“Muslim extremist” OR “psychotic loner”? ¡Insert Picture of Anders Behring Breivik ¡ http: //i. telegraph. co. uk/multimedia/archive/01953/Anders_ Behring_Bre_1953790 b. jpg ¡“psychotic loner” OR “Christian extremist”? Prepared by Claire Kelly

Privilege ¡“When one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to” (Mc. Intosh) ¡Privilege is structural, you don’t do anything for it ¡Social position versus subjective experience: The power of privilege is that it rarely experienced as such ¡“Path of least resistance” > standing still on a moving train (Howard Zinn) Prepared by Claire Kelly

Oppression ¡Like privilege, oppression is structural ¡“… oppression designates the disadvantage and injustice some people suffer not because a tyrannical power coerces them, but because of the everyday practices of a well intentioned society” (Young, p. 36) ¡Family of concepts and conditions… Prepared by Claire Kelly

The Five Faces of Oppression 1. Exploitation: transfer of results of labour of one group to benefit another; enacts structural relation unequal distribution of resources 2. Marginalization: expulsion from useful participation in social life; beyond distribution of resources “deprivation of institutionalised conditions for exercising capacities in a context of recognition and interaction” (p. 42) 3. Powerlessness: “do not regularly participate in making decisions that affect the conditions of their lives and actions” (p. 43) Prepared by Claire Kelly

The Five Faces of Oppression (ctnd. ) 4. Cultural imperialism: “to experience how the dominant meanings of a society render the particular perspective of one’s own group invisible as they stereotype one’s group and mark it as Other” (p. 44); dominant group’s perspectives are the norm; “double consciousness” 5. Violence: to live with the fear of violence because you are a member of a group; including harassment; social context makes it possible Prepared by Claire Kelly

“possible to compare oppressions without reducing them to a common essence or claiming that one is more fundamental than the other” (Young, p. 48) Prepared by Claire Kelly

Two-Headed Monster ¡Insert: Image of a two-headed monster, with one head representing privilege and the other oppression. Oppression Prepared by Claire Kelly Privilege

The Octopus ¡Insert: Image of an octopus with each of the isms represented by his tentacles, and his head labelled “power”. POWER sexism racism xenophobia classism homophobia ableism Prepared by Claire Kelly

Extra References ¡ Zinn, H. (1995) You can't be neutral on a moving train: A personal history of our times. Boston: Beacon Press Prepared by Claire Kelly