dis privilege

Paragraph 1: Summary (5+ sentences)

• What were the key points in the reading(s) and the lecture notes?  Summarize both!
• Identify and define important vocabulary
• What do you want to make sure you remember from this week?

Paragraph 2: Reaction (5+ sentences)

• What was your personal reaction to this topic?
• Did you notice any connections between this topic and your own life?
• Did this topic remind you of any current events, media, movies, TV, or academic subjects?

Throughout this semester, you will often see the words privilege and oppression.

Today we will explore what those terms really mean.

Let’s start with oppression

Oppression: Prejudice and discrimination directed toward a group.  

• Oppression is created by and continues on because of our social institutions (systems like education, law, the family, religion, the media, etc.)
  • This is how we keep oppressing groups generation after generation!  It’s baked into our systems and institutions.
• Examples of oppression: 
  • Sexism
  • Racism
  • Classism (oppression of poor people)
  • Homophobia (oppression of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.)
  • Ableism (oppression of people with disabilities)
• What other examples of oppression can you think of?

What about privilege?

Privilege: benefits, advantages, and power given to members of a dominant (powerful) group as a result of the oppression of the marginalized (oppressed) group

• People/groups can be privileged without realizing, recognizing, or even wanting it
• For example, one of my privileges is that I am a white person.  On an average day, I do not think about my whiteness.  I still face difficulties in my life, but those difficulties are not based on my whiteness. 

Oppressions always have corresponding privileges

• Sexism + male privilege
  • For example: a woman being asked, “Are you in a bad mood because you’re PMSing?” versus a man being asked, “Is everything ok?  It seems like you’re having a hard day.”
• Racism + white privilege
  • Fearing being the target of violence when you see a police officer versus feeling safe when you see a police officer
• Classism + middle-class or upper-class privilege
  • Worrying about where you will sleep tonight versus not having to worry about how you will pay rent/mortgage
• Homophobia + heterosexual privilege
  • Fearing you could face hateful comments or violence for holding your partner’s hand in public versus holding your partner’s hand in public without thinking about it
• Ableism + able-bodied privilege
  • Not being able to enter, navigate, and exit a space easily versus not needing to think about how you will enter, navigate, and exit a space
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