Privilege and Intersectionality Flashcards
What are political cleavages?
Deep and persistent divisions in society that significantly influence the political system (macro level).
They are a part of the political environment; structure our political norms and values, and institutions, as well as a source of political demands and expectations.
We are politically socialized to recognize certain cleavages as more relevant than others.
What is political identity?
Refers to those aspects of an individual’s identity that matter politically. (Micro-level).
Those aspects of an individual’s identity that shape their political values, beliefs, expectations, demands, etc.
Can change over time and space, and are closely linked to political cleavages.
What are subjective and objective political identity?
Subjective political identity is self-defined, the aspects of your identity you think are politically salient.
Objective political identity is defined by others, the assumed aspects that others think matter to your political outlook.
What happens when a person’s subjective and objective political identities do not match up?
- Misdirection of political information towards someone
- Feelings of political alienation
- Question self of what is or isn’t politically salient, of what political decisions should be or need to be made
What is intersectionality?
Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how co-existing categories of identity interact in ways that create complex systems of oppression and power, and describes the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as gender, race and class.
Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.
What is privilege?
A set of unearned benefits given to people who fit into a specific social group.
What is oppression?
Describes an entrenched relationship of dominance and subordination between categories of people in which one benefits from the systemic abuse, exploitation and/or injustice directed towards the other.
Maintained by a complex network of social, political, and economic constraints ranging from laws and institutional rules to implicit biases and stereotypes.
Why is it easier to see oppression rather than privilege?
Assumption is that privilege is how it should be, do not want to attribute success to privilege but rather to hard work. Stories that reinforce that people with privilege deserve it because it can be earned by anyone (American dream).
Laws and institutional rules are assumed to be common sense.
