Topics: The role of privilege and oppression in equity-minded practice

Applying the equity vs. equality debate to child welfare practice
Intersectionality, privilege & oppression
Wrestling with our own social locations

Step 1: Watch the video and do the reading.

Step 2: Explore the "Privilege Lists" document which contains hyperlinks to various lists. Explore the two example privilege/oppression matrices.

Step 3: Complete a privilege/oppression matrix for yourself. Below are some questions to reflect on as you go through the process of completing your matrix. You do not need to write or share responses to these questions.

What was your experience in completing your matrix? Have you ever considered ways in which you experience privilege and oppression based on your social identities in your professional practice? If not, what did it mean for you to do it now? If so, how was this different? What did you learn about yourself in relation to others professionally? How fixed or fluid have your identities been professionally? In other words, are there identities you hold now that you did not in the past? How fixed or fluid is the salience of your identities professionally? In other words, how might the meaningfulness of an identity shift based on timing or context? How are your professional experiences shaped by the interaction of your identities? For example, how might your class status influence your experience of your gender identity?

Step 4: Post to online discussion

Step 5: Review the prompts we'll discussion in session

A note on the language:

Debates regarding how to write about identity abound. One article that captures the spirit and scope of these debates as related to race is presented by the Columbia Journalism Review (Perlman, 2015), which recommends capitalizing Black, but not White. Arguments in favor of capitalizing White are made by Appiah (2020) and the National Association of Black Journalists (2020) who argue for the explicit recognition of White racial identity through capitalization. The language in the first and second modules of this course reflects the wishes of the instructors, who choose to capitalize both Black and White when referring to racial identity, for example. When discussing concepts such as whiteness and white supremacy, we do not use capitalization. We encourage the readers of this work to make their own decisions about language use based on a thoughtful review of the literature and based on their contexts.

Appiah, K. (2020, June 18). The case for capitalizing the B in Black. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/time-to-capitalize-blackand-white/613159/

National Association of Black Journalists (2020, June 11). Statement on capitalizing Black and other racial identifiers. https://www.nabj.org/news/512370/NABJ-Statement-on-Capitalizing-Black-and-Other-Racial-Identifiers.htm

Perlman, M. (2015, June 23). Black and white: Why capitalization matters. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/language_corner_1.php