the history of privilege and oppression (lecture 2)

Question 1

etic vs. emic

Answer 1

Etic: when we look at a situation from the outside

• Often will make comparisons based on our own experiences
• Tendency is to judge something rather than understand

Emic: when we look at something from the inside

• Willing to step inside someone else’s world
• Allows for one to be a critical thinker without passing judgement

Question 2

what is comfort zone

Answer 2

Things we are comfortable talking about (status quo)

• We are on our learning edge when we are learning new information
• The more knowledge you get about something, the more your comfort zone grows
• Sometimes when we get knowledge and information we challenge it, don’t believe it or we feel threatened, when that happens we shrink our comfort zone (we do not want to do this); when we experience these feelings we need to lean into the conversation more

Question 3

comfort vs. safety

Answer 3

• Comfort: when you are exploring familiar information, you are not triggered, not challenged, or experiencing emotional response
• Discomfort: exploring unfamiliar information and are experiencing emotional response
• Safety: knowing one’s surroundings, awareness that someone is looking out for you

Question 4

what is the social construction of difference

Answer 4

• Everything is relevant for example there is only white because there are people of color
• There is a belief that the way our culture defines something like race or gender is done in an objective sense
• Historically these classifications have little to do with objective characteristics and everything to do with preserving white power and wealth

Question 5

what is the racial ideology of white supremacy

Answer 5

Belief system that rationalizes and reproduces white advantage in the political, social, and cultural institutions of society. This belief system holds that white people, white culture, and things associated with whiteness are superior

Question 6

what are the three rationalizations of white supremacy

Answer 6

1) Genocide/colonialism
2) Slavery/capitalism
- Control of black bodies for economic gain
3) Positioning/war
- When you take over a land with force, you will always be met by force

Question 7

how is history still present today

Answer 7

-Exploitation and rationalization
happens to people of color and marginalized groups
-The reality of oppression and dispossession that built white wealth at the outset of discovering America through the exploited labor of enslaved Africans and the stolen land of Natives and justified this process through an ideology of racial superiority
-Extended to other groups of color (Latino/as and Asians) who were viewed as inferior and/or foreign

Question 8

how was race constructed and defined

Answer 8

• Meanings were constantly changing because of political struggles
• Race is a concept that signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies
• Race plays a role in structuring and representing the social world

Question 9

what is the importance of citizenship

Answer 9

• Voting
• Bringing family members to the US
• Obtaining citizenship for children born abroad
• Traveling with a US passport
• Becoming eligible for federal jobs
• Becoming an elected official
• Obtaining federal student aid

Question 10

what does oppression result in

Answer 10

• Disadvantage for targeted groups (chronic and cumulative)
• privilege for advantaged groups (compounding and cumulative)

psychological impact
-internalized dominance
-advantaged -> to self
-internalized subordination
targeted -> to self