Module 1 - Anzovino Ch 1 - Diversity, Opression, Privilege Flashcards
What has diversity come to represent in Canada?
Diversity is an enduring Canadian value that promotes social inclusion, equity, belonging, and shared identity.
How is diversity commonly used in modern contexts?
Diversity is used as a framework for social inclusion, equity, and belonging but also as a concept in strategies, policies, mission statements, and educational outcomes.
What is a key limitation of the “celebratory approach” to diversity?
It fails to address unequal power relations, histories of oppression, and systemic privilege, often reducing diversity to superficial events and stereotypes.
What is a criticism of diversity initiatives that focus on celebrating difference?
They often trivialize diversity, reducing it to special events or cultural tokens, like in the early days of Canadian multiculturalism.
What does the “difference approach” to diversity often fail to address?
It reinforces privilege by valuing dominant group characteristics while marginalizing others, creating oppression through a sameness/difference dichotomy.
What is the goal of an anti-oppression approach to diversity?
To promote equity, justice, and inclusion while challenging oppression, privilege, and systemic discrimination.
How does the anti-oppression framework address power and privilege?
It centers the experiences of marginalized communities, allowing them to define issues, create solutions, and lead efforts for social change.
What is necessary for meaningful inclusion in diversity initiatives?
Marginalized communities must define their issues, determine their leadership structures, and create their solutions, rather than being tokenized.
What is critical social theory?
A cluster of theoretical perspectives aimed at transforming society to liberate oppressed groups, including feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and structural theorists.
What are the three levels of oppression?
Individual, cultural, and structural levels.
What does it mean to be oppressed?
Being excluded from full participation and active citizenship due to real or perceived membership in a non-dominant group.
What ideologies support oppression?
Victim blaming: Believing people are responsible for their oppression.
Stereotyping: Assuming all members of a group are the same.
Essentialism: Believing hierarchy is natural.
Might is right: Majority rules at the expense of minorities.
Myth of meritocracy: Believing everyone can succeed with effort.
Survival of the fittest: Assuming competition for resources is natural.
Why is oppression not static?
Experiences with oppression change over time and vary based on social and historical contexts.
Can someone be both an oppressor and oppressed?
Yes, depending on their identity and context, individuals can simultaneously experience privilege and oppression.
What should anti-oppressive practice focus on?
Challenging oppression at all three levels (individual, cultural, and structural) as sites of resistance and liberation.
What are the three levels of oppression described in the PCS model?
Personal level: Negative stereotypes, prejudice, and behaviors.
Cultural level: Dominant groups impose hierarchical values, norms, and practices.
Structural level: Oppression institutionalized through laws, policies, and systems.
What is oppression at the personal level?
Negative stereotypes or prejudice toward non-dominant groups, expressed through intentional aggression (e.g., bullying, violence) or covert behaviors (e.g., avoidance, hostile tones).
How is oppression maintained at the cultural level?
Dominant groups universalize their norms, values, and beliefs as superior, often using language and discourse to reinforce power structures.
