...way of life or being. My social location is easily identifiable as a white female however, due to the dominance of white supremacy, I am not judged by my racial background much like a woman of “color” may be. These distortions on sexism provide awareness, that oppression is not only in terms of sex and in our patriarchal power system, white privilege is a benefit. Social Identity Although sexism is a problem in society, I do not suffer the same oppression faced by women of color. Lorde (1990), discusses the impacts of this built-in-privilege of whiteness and how it forces women of color to become an outsider. As a Catholic woman, I am faced with a similar power relation by identifying as a lesbian in my community, which is neither considered the societal norm nor accepted by the church. This disadvantage I face allows me to be socially aware of the impacts oppression has in society and agree with Mullaly (2002) who states that oppression “assumes a ‘fixed identity’ on the part of both oppressors and oppressed – that the world is divided into two groups and people belong in either one, but never to both” (p. 27). I am aware of the marginality I experience between social groups and the disadvantages of homophobic oppression, that has taught me how to be more racially and ethnically diverse, so that as identifying as a white female, I can understand the implications of what it means to unlearn oppressive behavior. Recently coming out as a lesbian has been difficult for me in my...
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...Privilege, Power, and Oppression Name Institution Privilege, Power, and Oppression I am not merely an individual; I am a product of a system of privilege. This is Tim Wise's position about how the community participates in constructing an individual. His primary concern is social privilege. Maybe the privilege never favored him, and privilege made him work hard. The system of privilege shaped the direction of his life. The hardships caused by lack of privilege and the real life brought by privilege is his construction: a product of the system of privilege. He is conscious about the power and legacy of privilege in the society (Tisdell, 1993). He says that Politicians often talk about issues like housing, poverty, healthcare and education, but they rarely link them to the role that racism plays in the United States. He adds that the media often reports personal crimes while under-reporting organized and traditional discrimination. In the country, Black and Latino males are most prospective to have their cars stopped and searched for drugs. Tim’s argument regarding the color-blind perspective relates completely to the issue of the privilege system. In the system, color-blindness is treated like an inability. Talking about the realities race, oppression and white privilege make people uncomfortable. There are races that feel superior and their position oppresses the minorities. Institutional privilege and inequality exist in every society, including...
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...Practice: Disentangling Power Dynamics at Personal and Structural Levels Izumi Sakamoto and Ronald O. Pitner Izumi Sakamoto, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Toronto, Canada. She received her MA in social welfare from Sophia University, Japan, and her MSW, MS (psychology) and Ph.D. (social work and social psychology) from the University of Michigan, USA. Her research interests include anti-oppressive social work, gender and immigration, cultural influences on the self and identities, and cultural negotiation processes of newcomers. Ronald O. Pitner, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of social work at Washington University in Saint Louis, USA. He received his MA in psychology from the University of Tennessee, USA, a MSW and Ph.D. (social work and social psychology) from the University of Michigan, USA. His research interests are broadly defined in terms of social cognition, stereotyping, prejudice, race and ethnicity, multicultural social work. Correspondence to Izumi Sakamoto, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 246 Bloor St West, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada. E-mail: Izumi.Sakamoto@utoronto.ca Summary One of the limitations of anti-oppressive perspectives (AOPs) in social work is its lack of focus at a micro and individual level. AOPs should entail the social worker’s addressing the needs and assets of service users, challenging the oppressive social structure and, most importantly, critically challenging the power dynamics in the service-provider/...
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...Male privilege…In black and white Dorrell Anthony Alexander Western Washington University What is “Privilege”? When we speak of privilege, what exactly are we speaking of? Many find it easy to get the basic fundamentals of a “right” and a “privilege” confused, so for foundational purposes, I would like to lay out how they differ. First, let’s talk about two of the different kinds of rights; “natural” and “legal”. According to Merriam-Webster (2013) Natural rights are “rights which are "natural" in the sense of "not artificial, not man-made”; “as in rights deriving from logic, from human nature, or from the edicts of a god”. They are ”universal”, (they apply to all people, and do not derive from the laws of any specific society),”They exist necessarily, inhere in every individual, and can't be taken away” ( Merriam-Webster, 2013). For example, it has been argued that humans have a natural right to life. They're sometimes called inalienable rights. Legal rights, in contrast, are “rights based on a society's customs, laws, statutes or actions by legislatures” (Merriam-Webster, 2013). An example of a legal right is the right to vote of citizens. “Citizenship, itself, is often considered as the basis for having legal rights, and has been defined as the "right to have rights"(Broidy and Agnew, 1997), Legal rights are sometimes called civil rights or statutory rights which Broidy and Agnew (1997) believe are “culturally and politically relative”, since they depend on a specific...
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...MGMT6012 Management Perspectives Sydney Week 5 3/21/2016 Organisational Diversity 3/21/2016 Diversity What does “diversity” mean to you? How does it apply in the workplace? 3/21/2016 Introduction • Diversity is always a sensitive issue. • People who belong to a “minority” group often feel labelled, stereotyped, and marginalised in the workplace; • People who belong to the “majority” group are often unaware of the consequences of the collective action of the majority. 3/21/2016 Introduction • We all hold bias and prejudices simply because we notice difference and it is important not to try to obliterate difference and diversity in an attempt to redress prejudice. • Ignoring difference, for example, can be as damaging as highlighting it in a negative manner. 3/21/2016 Introduction • The literature around inclusiveness is the direction in which this field of study and practice is going. • The idea that we work towards an inclusive workplace for everyone, recognising everyone as a diverse member of the organisation is important, and leverages the strengths that differences bring in to the workplace rather than squashes them. 3/21/2016 What We Cover • The concepts of diversity, exclusion and inclusion • Different roots of diversity in the workplace • The experience of prejudice in the workplace and the limitations it places on organisational performance 3/21/2016 Objectives By the end of this module...
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...STATEMENT OF CULTURAL COMPETENCE IN TRAINING AND EDUCATING PEOPLE OF COLOR It is both a privilege and a pleasure to address the National Minority AIDS Council to provide you with an essay of my credentials. My credentials for being placed in this position as candidate of the Training of Trainers span my medical academic career, which began when I was an undergraduate student of Nutrition at Hunter College in New York City. My exposure to the realities of the medical system as it relates to blacks and other minorities continued through my experiences at the Ryan White Clinic for HIV (Fulton County Government) in Atlanta Georgia and subsequently at my current home base Rainbow Preventive Services founded in September of 2007. During that time span from my undergraduate years to the present, I have not only witnessed some dramatic events and developments regarding the delivery of health care to the nation’s medically neediest populations, I have also been privileged to play a role in them. Examples are my developing a Lactation Education program at Broward County Community College, teaching Nutrition as Adjunct Faculty in Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus and as a Trained Trainer for Bright from the Start Georgia Child Care Trainer and Reviewer. Ultimately founded Rainbow Preventive Services (RPS Inc.) to be located in downtown Atlanta in the near future. www.rps-agency.com. This agency is dedicated to decreasing healthcare disparities by preventing HIV...
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...Running Head: COUNSELING AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Stepping up Counseling Responsibilities in a Socially Unjust Society Abstract Social Justice has been an emerging issue over the last century in today’s service environment of helping professionals. I reviewed several articles where the main theme is; we live in a world of systems that allow for injustice and oppression. The Professional Counselor’s work deals with many of the symptoms that permit for this injustice and oppression. The articles had similar recurring traits that are stressed as important practices that need to be adopted by Professionals in the helping field to increase awareness of social justice and implement actions for change in a socially unjust society. I will explain the four main attributes: knowledge, awareness, research and advocacy and explain how education and focus in each area will contribute to the social justice inequities in the communities we practice. If professional counselors want to promote social justice, to be effective, there has to be a movement to take action on the burdensome stigmatisms and unfortunate inequities that human beings bring to professionals about the communities they live in. Social justice and the counseling profession have roots that goes back to the 1900’s. It has always been understood from a social work point of view that problems such as depression, anxiety, and abuse often derive from economic...
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...Gail Holmewood “They deported my brother because they say he is economic migrant not political refugee Huh! They know nothing about how they treat gypsies in Central Europe. But what do you know? How can you help me?” In this essay I will describe the client and my reactions to the client. What are power, rank, oppression, minority, racism, diversity, prejudices, and worldview? How I will work in anti- oppressive way. What I can offer this client. What difficulties I envisage. Conclusion. , An economic migrant is someone who comes from the EEA, and who makes a voluntary choice to leave their home country and seek work else where. They have a legal right to travel and to work in different countries within the EU. A political refugee is someone who flees from a stat or country or regime because their political views leave them in danger of persecution even death so that they flee to a friendly nation for protection. My client is a 22 year old Eastern European Caucasian male. He is of average height, has dark brown eyes and short jet black hair. His clothes of jeans, a sweat shirt and trainers are of a shabby appearance and he emits a strong unpleasant body odour. His spoken English is quite good although at times it is not always clear, so I feel that I will have to do a lot of clarification with him. At this stage I do not think it is necessary...
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... religion, and even personal beliefs. However, a common issue today is sometimes people do not embrace each other’s characteristics. Characteristics of a person describe their features and qualities. In today's society multiple people experience oppression, the cause of that is those individuals interpret and express their power of language differently. This is a problem because certain groups or cultures experience oppression due to the power of language. Language evolves our ideas and beliefs into reality...
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...People of color have always faced diversity in the U.S. Instead of using this as a strength and banding together to fight this moral injustice, racial minorities have partaken in a sort of “oppression Olympics” in which they focus more on which group faces more oppression rather than how they can work to eliminate their oppression collectively. While all people of color may fight this battle together, one cannot assume that they are joined by synonymous oppressions and will enact the exact same strategies for salvation. This theory runs into conflicts when we assume all groups face and handle oppression and racial disparity in the same ways. This conflict occurs because these groups are associated with “organizing over shared victimhood”. Because...
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...are all interwoven factors that lead to oppression, as these factors cannot be separated, but must be tackled together as a unit. Black feminists strive to liberate black women from oppression as they believe this will lead to freedom for all, as factors such as racism, sexism and class oppression will then be eliminated, freeing all people from the boundaries and constraints that oppression creates. This theory of feminism emerged as black women felt that they were subject to a harsher form of oppression than white women. This type of feminist movement was a response to the Feminist Movement, and the Black Liberation movement that was occurring at the time. They believed that the Feminist Movement solely helped white, middle-class women, and that it failed to focus on all women, as there were women — like the black women— who were being oppressed not only by gender, but also by race, and class. They too felt that the Black Liberation Movement focused only on the struggles of black men, and that they were sexually oppressed by this movement. They believed that both of these movements failed to recognized black women, as they were an invisible group. It is believed by the black feminists that they too, like the white feminists, struggle with issues concerning gender, but what differentiates them is that they are faced with being unequal on the basis of diversity, making their primary purpose to stop racism, sexism, and class oppression. "Ain't I a Woman?" is a speech that was...
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...Patricia Hill Collins is apart of the sociological community and she also happens to be the first African American woman to hold her role (Higginbotham 2008). Her leadership and independence lead African American woman today. During the 1900’s, Collins and Kimberly Crenshaw conceived the concept of intersectionality that dealt with the lives and experiences of individuals in their diversity (Hobbs, Rice 17). Intersectionality was described as women and men living multiple layers of identities and were experiencing oppression and privilege (Hobbs, Rice 18). Intersectionality explores gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, age, and much more but it is evident to men and women to display the positions of power. Patricia Hill Collins published,...
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...Race, White Privilege, and the Gospel Pre-Presbytery Workshop Presbytery of Chicago October 12, 2010 David Esterline, McCormick Theological Seminary Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship 1 Why work against racism? Theological foundations God created all people good. To deny some people (because of skin color or language) the privileges other have, is to deny God’s good creation. To allow this system—in which some receive advantages simply because of skin color—to go unchecked is to deny that God made all people in God’s own good image. 2 Race Race is a social and political reality, not a biological or genetic reality. There is widespread agreement among scholars that race, as understood in the United States, is a social construct – rather than an objective, scientifically or biologically consistent characteristic of a person or group of persons. 3 Race How is it that there is such certainty about a concept that is so poorly defined? There is no agreement among scholars about a biological or physiological definition that can be sustained. 4 Race “Present-day inequalities between so-called ‘racial’ groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance but products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances.” American Anthropological Association 2006 5 Race Rewards—indicators of well-being—in the U.S. are based on racial group more than on any other characteristic or association...
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...belief system that devalues lesbians, gay males, and bisexuals – or any group that is not exclusively heterosexual. Feminist/ Feminism: women and men should be socially, economically, and legally equal. Women and men who hold these beliefs are feminists, however many people believe in feminist principles, even if they do not identify themselves as feminists. Cultural Feminism: emphasizes the positive qualities that are presumed to be strong in women than in men qualities such as nurturing and caretaking. (Cooperation) Liberal Feminism: emphasizes the goal of gender equality, giving women and men the same rights and opportunities. (Reduce our culture’s rigid gender roles) Radical Feminism: argues that the basic cause of women’s oppression lies deep in the entire sex and gender system, rather than in some superficial laws and policies. (Dramatically change its policies on sexuality and on violence against women) Women-of-Color Feminism: emphasize that feminism must pay attention to other human dimensions such as ethnicity and social class. Similarities perspective:...
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...2012 Ricketts 1 Sexism is defined as, “A system of advantages that serves to privilege men, subordinate women, denigrate women – identified values and practices, enforce male dominance and control and reinforce forms of masculinity that are dehumanizing and damaging to men” (Blood, Tuttle, & Lakey, 1983). It is just another form of discrimination towards those who are underprivileged according to the dominant race, “white men.” According to Warren J. Blumenfeld (2010), the oppression towards women is an individual belief that consists of ideas that are enforced by today’s society. Sexism is a cruel view on the women who provide children and nurturing; women have proven over the years to be just as successful, smart, and athletic and men. There should be no borderline between men and women, such as the gender colors of pink and blue, or the stereotype of how men are fearless and women are emotional. Heterosexism is, “the overarching system of advantages bestowed on heterosexuals, based on the institutionalization of heterosexual norms or standards that privilege heterosexuals and heterosexuality, and exclude the needs, concerns, cultures, and life experiences of lesbians, gay males, and bisexuals” (Warren J. Blumenfeld, 2010). People tend to divide the society into the specific norms of sex and gender categories. In this way, the one’s who abide by society’s norms obtain the privileges and power as they continue to oppress everyone else. Homosexuality has had a variety of...
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