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Think Paper

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Moral integrity, hypocrisy re: values of fairness, etc. ... They affect more than women, homosexuals, racial & ethnic minorities. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Think Paper


1
Think Paper 6 \
  • Privilege, Power and Difference
  • By Allan G. Johnson
  • Chapter 5/6

2
Discuss what Johnson means by, A Problem for
Whom?
  • Family relationships
  • Living up to real men image
  • Fear of violence
  • True cross-gender friendship
  • p.64

3
What is the Race trouble for whites?
  • Enormous suffering caused by racism
  • Discomfort fear around blacks
  • Demonizing black men boys
  • Not being trusted
  • Moral integrity, hypocrisy re values of
    fairness, etc.

4
Who is really affected by the isms (racism,
sexism, ageism,
  • Everybody! They affect more than women,
    homosexuals, racial ethnic minorities.
  • Because its impossible tolive in a world that
    generates so much trouble, injustice suffering
    without being touched by it. (p67)

5
How does the trouble around difference affect
organizations, communities and society as a
whole?
  • Denial
  • Oblivious
  • Crisis scandal
  • Culture of denial and neglect that permeates
    society as a whole.

6
Why dont dominant groups see privilege as a
problem? (p74)
  • B/C they dont know it exists in the first place.
  • Because they dont have to
  • Because the think its just a personal problem
  • B/C they want to hang on to their privilege
  • Because theyre prejudiced-racist, heterosexist,
    classist
  • Because they are afraid

7
What two strategies are most often used to try
engaging CEOs and others in positions of
privilege?
  • Appeal to sense of fairness and decency or their
    good will toward those less fortunate
  • The business case soscially responsible,
    organizations work better, raises morale,
    productivity and lowers costly turnovers,
    protects agains lawsuits, etc.
  • We need a third choice (p82)

8
What is the myth that everything is somebodys
fault?
  • Individualism individualistic thinking
  • Society encourages us to think that the social
    world begins and ends with individuals.
  • This is a narrow and distorted view of reality.
  • The social world consists of a lot more than
    individuals, we are always participating in
    something larger than ourselves - social systems,
    more than a collection of people.

9
Define the path of least resistance?
  • Systems load the odds in certain directions for
    us to follow that are far more appealing
  • Its the only one we see
  • Its more comfortable
  • Its less scary
  • We do what we are told to do
  • We smile, laugh or remain silent

10
What is the social system that drives
privilege, power and difference?
  • We are connected to each other through a dynamid
    relationship.
  • Patterns of oppression privilege are rooted in
    systems that we all participate in and make
    happen.
  • These patterns are built into paths of least
    resistance that we are drawn to follow every day.

11
Privilege, Power Difference
  • As long as we participate in social systems, we
    dont get to choose whether to be involved in the
    consequences they produce. Were involved simply
    through the fact that were here. As such, we
    can only choose HOW to be involved, whether to be
    just part of the problem or also to be part of
    the solution. Thats where our power lies, and
    also our responsibility.

12
How do systems of privilege work?
  • 10. What does it mean to be involved in
    Privilege and Oppression? Pg 96)
  • Through social systems and how individuals
    participate in them.
  • Systems organized around privilege have three key
    characteristics They are dominated by PG,
    identified with PG and centered on PG
  • members of PG are superior, thus deserving

13
Dominance
  • Positions of power tend to be occupied by members
    of that group in ways that make it seem natural
    and normal.
  • Consider the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher
  • Male dominance describes a patriarchal system
    that both men and women participate ingendered
    patterns of unequal power and paths of least
    resistance for men women that support those
    patterns. p99

14
Dominance (cont.)
  • Patterns of dominance and the paths of least
    resistance that sustain them show up in every
    system of privilege.
  • White dominance is reflected in an unequal racial
    balance of power in society and its institutions.

15
Identified with Privilege
  • Consider, Its a mans world, Its a White
    world, or a Straight world.
  • Privileged groups are usually taken as the
    standard of comparison that represents the best
    that society has to offer.
  • Because privileged groups are assumed to
    represent society as a whole, American is
    culturally defined as white, despite diversity.

16
Identified with Privilege (cont.)
  • White identification means rarely if ever being
    identified as white, which is assumed.
  • However, racial tags are common for everyone
    else, i.e. black physician, Asian actor, etc.
  • There are NO words that culturally associate
    women with a valued quality of human relation in
    the way that fellow and fellowship do for men.

17
Privilege at the Center
  • Systems of privilege center on dominant groups,
    thus Black, Latino and female students are
    usually invisible.
  • The well traveled path of least resistance makes
    invisibility a key part of the devaluing that
    lies at the heart of privilege oppression.
  • Marginalized groups cope by creating their own
    social systems.

18
The ISMS
  • Racism is the patterns of privilege and
    oppression themselves and anything- intentional
    or not- that helps to create or perpetuate those
    patterns. If we extend this to other forms of
    privilege, then sexism and heterosexism are also
    more than personal expressions of hostility or
    prejudice, but include everything that people do
    or dont do that promotes male privilege and
    hetero priv.

19
The ISMS (cont.)
  • Its not what people do or say but what they
    dont. The Power of silence to promote privilege
    and oppression.
  • Silence not looking, or asking are in effect
    just as racist or sexists or heterosexist because
    oppression depends on them in order to continue.
  • What counts isnt just what they do, but even
    more what they dont do.

20
The ISMS and US
  • doesnt mean that white people are consciously
    racist or that men are intentionally sexist, or
    that heterosexuals are overtly heterosexist. It
    does mean that there isnt a single white person
    or man or heterosexual who doesnt have these
    issue to deal with inside and in relation to the
    world around them. This is their legacy, handed
    to them when they were childrenpg116
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