Module 03: Respect for Diversity - Oppression, Power, & Liberation

Question 1

cultural competence

Answer 1

Possessing the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively work with members of a culture.

Question 2

power over

Answer 2

The ability to compel or dominate others, control resources, and enforce commands.

Question 3

deconstructing power and oppression

Answer 3

The reclaiming of power as liberation from oppression. Theoretical concepts such as empowerment and decolonization provide a baseline for community capacity building and self-determination.

Question 4

nationality

Answer 4

A person’s status of belonging to a specific nation by birth or citizenship.

Question 5

community systems approach

Answer 5

An approach that encompasses understanding the interrelated parts and dynamics of a community. Each part has its own organizing processes that influence, and in turn are influenced by, other parts. The total systems then are organized at a higher level that transcends the organizing process of any one part.

Question 6

deconstruct

Answer 6

Deconstruction is a concept central to postmodernism. It is a process of rigorously analyzing and making apparent the assumptions, judgments, and values that underlie social arrangements and intellectual ideas.

Question 7

spirituality

Answer 7

Focuses on an individual’s relationship with a higher power and a quest for meaning.

Question 8

systems of domination

Answer 8

A “social order or pattern that has attained a certain state or property…and [owes] [its] survival to relatively self-activating social processes” (Jepperson, 1991, p. 145). In other words, institutions are enduring, historical facets of social life that shape our behavior. Examples of institutions include the family, marriage, media, medicine, law, education, the state, and work. These institutions can be said to structure thought and behavior, in that they prescribe rules for interaction and inclusion/exclusion and norms for behavior, parcel out resources between groups, and often times rely on formal regulations (including laws, policies, and contracts).

Question 9

decolonial theory

Answer 9

As a revolutionary epistemology, decolonial theory and methods feature critical insights into knowledges from subaltern voices concerned with how the implementation of modern technologies shape colonial structures, inequalities, the daily lives of the colonized, and resistance strategies.

Question 10

context

Answer 10

The surroundings, circumstances, environment, background, or settings which determine, specify, or clarify the meaning of an event or other occurrence.

Question 11

community-based participatory research

Answer 11

Research that involves an exchange of resources and ideas between researchers and the community members as a way of understanding that is guided by community needs, also known as “participatory action research.”

Question 12

religion

Answer 12

Shared systems of beliefs and values, symbols, feelings, actions, and experiences that often focus on relationships with the divine.

Question 13

sex

Answer 13

Biological descriptor involving chromosomes and internal/external reproductive organs.

Question 14

reclaiming of power

Answer 14

The process of claiming and redefining identities; the process can includes naming the places where one needs to take charge and act more powerfully, plan changes and take action that reconnect the person with their inherent power.

Question 15

cultural humility

Answer 15

Ongoing process of learning about other cultures and being sensitive to cultural differences. Cultural humility includes acknowledging one’s own lack of knowledge about aspects of culture and recognizing power dynamics that impact the relationship.

Question 16

exploitation

Answer 16

Exploitation occurs when one social group is able to take for itself what is produced by another group.

Question 17

race

Answer 17

Social construct based on observable physical criteria, such as skin color or other physical features. Racial differences include economic, historical, and other social factors that contribute to a system of disadvantage and privilege.

Question 18

ethnicity

Answer 18

One’s social identity based on culture of origin, ancestry, or affiliation with a cultural group.

Question 19

power from

Answer 19

Is the ability to resist coercion and unwanted commands/demands.

Question 20

culture

Answer 20

Dynamic concept of shared meanings and experiences that are passed down over time and generations. Culture includes shared beliefs, values, practices, definitions and other elements that are expressed through family socialization, formal schooling, shared language, social roles, and norms for feeling, thinking, and acting.

Question 21

disabilities

Answer 21

Visible or hidden and temporary or permanent conditions that provide barriers or challenges, and impact individuals of every age and social group.

Question 22

internalized racism

Answer 22

More than just a consequence of racism, internalized racism is a systemic oppression in reaction to racism that has a life of its own. In other words, just as there is a system in place that reinforces the power and expands the privilege of white people, there is a system in place that actively discourages and undermines the power of people and communities of color and mires us in our own oppression.

Question 23

gender expression

Answer 23

A person’s external expression of being male, female, or other.

Question 24

colonialism

Answer 24

The extension of a nation’s sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced. Colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious, and linguistic structures on the conquered population.

Question 25

gender identity

Answer 25

A person’s inner psychological sense of being male, female, or another category.

Question 26

oppression

Answer 26

Oppression can be described as the collusion of dehumanization and exploitation.

Question 27

aging

Answer 27

The developmental changes and transitions that comes with being a child, adolescent, or adult.

Question 28

sexual orientation

Answer 28

A person’s emotional, romantic, erotic, and spiritual attractions toward another in relation to their own sex or gender.

Question 29

respect for diversity

Answer 29

Acknowledgment, acceptance, and respect for the full range of human characteristics in their social, historical, and cultural contexts.

Question 30

gender

Answer 30

Socially-constructed perceptions of what it means to be male or female in our society and how those genders may be reflected and interpreted by society.

Question 31

colonial matrix of power

Answer 31

Described in four interrelated domains: control of economy (land appropriation, exploitation of labor, control of natural resources); control of authority (institution, army); control of gender and sexuality (family, education) and control of subjectivity and knowledge (epistemology, education, and formation of subjectivity).

Question 32

power to

Answer 32

The ability of people to pursue personal and/or collective goals and to develop their own capacities.

Question 33

intersectionality

Answer 33

An intersectional approach takes into account the historical, environmental, socio-cultural, and political context and recognizes the unique experience of the individual based on the intersection and implications of all relevant grounds.

Question 34

social class

Answer 34

Social construct based on a person’s income or material wealth, educational status, and/or occupational status.

Question 35

dehumanization

Answer 35

Involves redefining the targets of prejudice and violence by making them seem less human (that is, less civilized or less sentient) than other people.

Question 36

privilege

Answer 36

Unearned advantages that individuals have based on membership in a dominant group.

Question 37

disenfranchised

Answer 37

To deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity especially; to deprive of the right to vote.