Understanding and Dismantling Privilege

Eat, pray, love

2022-09-12T17:52:37-04:00

The stretched-out Oprah-endorsed Eat, Pray, Love (2007) cultural model—what I call the "'white imagination' of sanctuary"—is a troublesome one as we continue to struggle over neoliberal empire-inspired border racialization projects. In this "white imagination" (hooks, 1992/2015) of sanctuary, the travels to find oneself often include falling in love—and perhaps even finding an orgasmic cup of coffee—as a confirmation of enlightenment. The Eat, Pray, Love peace and sanctuary model effaces the specificities of how the travel between the "Global North" and "Global South" is constructed through guarded nation-state borders and citizenship. In this model, the search for sanctuary à la spiritual awakening is tethered to the discourse of "finding oneself" through transatlantic travels—which requires freedom of mobility across nation-state boundaries—between the "West," e.g., America, to the "East," e.g., India. The discourse of sanctuary bracketed with travel (while drinking sweetened coffee/tea in quaint cafés) is based on "western" (e.g., American) citizenship (and class and race privileges), and it is the legacy of the white traveler on vacation—luxury, leisure, and privilege.

A Philosophy on Discrimination

2022-09-12T17:52:37-04:00

In response to the ongoing discussions of anti-Black racism, I thought about what I can do to help further discussions on Black Lives Matter. I’ve already seen many discussions about policy, and I’ve seen people discuss their own experiences, but I haven’t seen much discussion on how an individual has actually dealt with discrimination. I’m not talking about responding to say microaggressions but psychologically how to understand discrimination in a conceptual framework. That’s what my following reflection discusses: an individual mindset on how to deal with discrimination, since I wish I had learned more about that when I was younger. I don’t have a particularly unique mindset, but I do think this is an important aspect of discrimination that warrants critical thought. I want to preface my comments by saying that I would not change anything about my own experiences. I was very lucky to have great people around me my entire life and would not be where I am without those people or those experiences.

Microaggressions and macro-injustices

2022-09-12T17:52:36-04:00

This article provides a framework that reveals microaggressions as an integral component of systems of social injustice. Microaggressions are a subset of micro-interactions, minute components of everyday interactions such as facial expressions, gestures and words. Research and theory in social cognition provides the context for why microaggressions, usually based in race, gender or sexual orientation, exert such a powerful impact on individual experiences and social behaviors. This framework illuminates why the experiences of dominant-class people who commit microaggressions are often so disparate from those of targeted-class individuals, and why microaggressions exert such power over the recipient. This article also examines the role of microaggressions in sustaining the very macro–systems of oppression and structural injustice from which they arise. This connection has been largely overlooked in scholarly analysis, in part because different scholarly disciplines use different lenses to analyze social systems, e.g., psychology privileges individuals and interpersonal interactions, while sociology focuses populations and social norms. Drawing upon multiple disciplines, this framework recognizes that a multitude of interactions between individual people leads to emergent characteristics at the population level. These characteristics in turn affect individual experience and behavior. The micro constructs the macro; the macro shapes the micro.

#SAYHERNAME and Tell Her Story

2022-09-12T17:52:37-04:00

This project investigates the lack of online news media coverage of two Black women killed by police: Rekia Boyd and Korryn Gaines. Despite their premature deaths, news coverage and mentions of these individuals in three of the top digitally circulating U.S. news sites, CNN, The New York Times, and Fox News, are far lower than for two Black men and one White woman killed under similar circumstances. Ultimately, these disparities in coverage speak to a tendency of media to disregard, erase, and make invisible police violence as one of the manifestations of intersecting oppressions in the lives of Black women.

Path to Empowerment: Strategies to Remedy Barriers to Care for African Nova Scotians Caught at the Intersection of Race and (dis)Ability

2022-09-12T17:52:37-04:00

Abstract

Descriptions of intersectionality frequently rely on images of roads and intersections to represent how multiple systems of oppression converge. In these metaphors, roads represent the route by which negative forces of exploitation and oppression travel and interact. Roads and paths can also be used to represent an egress route taken to escape harm and move toward something better. This paper presents the voices of African Nova Scotians who have both identified patterns of harm and suffering within their community and pointed researchers in the direction of improved outcomes for African Nova Scotians living with (dis)Abilities including mental illness and addiction. Their shared observations and experiences identify key barriers to remove and bridges to be built if African Nova Scotians who are caught at the intersection of race and (dis)Ability are to have access to timely and effective care. The article concludes with discussion of pathways to empowerment for those caught at the intersection of race and disability oppression.

Dismantling racism

2022-09-12T17:52:37-04:00

Dismantling white privilege requires anti-racist action of some sort. However, there is little research about the factors that influence White people to engage in anti-racist work or what can be done to promote White anti-racist action. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study to address this question where we interviewed White individuals, we had reason to believe were engaged in an anti-racist activity (n = 6). The research question was as follows: To what extent, if any, are the participants aware of their white privilege, and how do they describe their journey to anti-racist action? Findings suggest that dismantling white privilege is a complex journey. Participants engaged in dismantling work described an evolution of the understanding of their white privilege that included influential people that encouraged critical thinking or empathy and some combination of small and large revelatory moments. Participants also spoke to experiences of backtracking or resisting and a constant balancing act related to managing privilege. Scholarly and practical implications of this study are discussed.