Not all students– and ourselves– notice the multiple axes of privilege and power (and their lack) we experience in our day-to-day life. Like ideology, racism and other forms of discrimination sometimes manifest themselves in invisible, taken-for-granted forms– which is why unpacking the ‘invisible knapsack,’ to use Peggy McIntosh’s words, can be so challenging. You can provide your students with multiple ways to understand the complex intersectional axes of privilege and power, and help them surface what may otherwise be unstated (or even unknown). Helping them see, understand, and articulate their own complex positionalities, their varied relationships with and within different power structures, is important and enlightening. You may also help them recognize the complicated and insidious nature of power and privilege: that is, how an individual may be simultaneously privileged, and not-privileged, but differently so, depending on context, circumstance, and community. Some forms of privilege may be linked to advantages that many students may not realize they have (or that they lack). Recognizing and naming that privilege (along with acknowledging the corresponding challenges that others less privileged may thereby face) can help engender empathy and understanding for the plight of others; conversely, recognizing and naming how they themselves may be disadvantaged (for instance, as a first-generation college student) helps a person name and understand something that is felt, rather than acknowledged, named, and addressed in dominant narratives; it helps individuals see the systemic nature of oppressive institutions and beliefs. Power/privilege work addresses questions such as:
- What kinds of hidden, taken-for-granted advantages’ might I enjoy in my own life?
- What are the forms of institutional constraint that I might also face?
- How might each of these forms of advantage, or disadvantage, shift– depending on where I am, over time and considering differing spaces that I occupy?
- How might forms of taken-for-granted advantage be embodied in taken-for-granted physical objects around us? (for example, lack of easy access to campus buildings, or to use McIntosh’s classic example, that bandages are often pink or beige in color, rather than tan or chocolate?)
- How can I myself be aware of my own forms of privilege and power, as I help my students become better aware of and attend to the multiple forms of privilege (and its lack) that they may experience in their own daily lives?
- How might that awareness inform exchanges and dialogues with others– for example, the other students in class?
Approach #1 – privilege activity: Sometimes I pair Peggy McIntosh’s reading on privilege with versions of the privilege walk (and depending on the class, I ask students not to physically walk, but to mark this on a sheet of paper). From here, I may invite them to think of where they are in relation to the ‘finish line.’ I also ask them to think about the nature of different axes of identity, in terms of which may be hidden (a mental disability), and which are apparent (e.g., skin color). How might a ‘hidden’ or ‘obvious’ aspect of one’s identity affect how a person is seen, or not? I may ask students to bring up / raise examples of taken-for-granted assumptions of identity (McIntosh’s bandaid comes to mind, but I’ve had students share powder puffs and other related examples, too). A Barbie and Ken doll, with their exaggerated body parts, can be a great way to analyze societal assumptions about female and male beauty.
Activity 2 – Power Line: Another related exercise is one I learned from a community partner who worked on empowering homeless people. To do this exercise, I draw a line across the board, then invite students to name something my partner called “power dyads.” Typically, I model a first example, as in Professor / Student – placing the word “Professor” on the top of the line, and over the word “Student.” Then I go around the room multiple times, asking for examples. At various points, I may insert an example that has students considering groups of people: for instance, those who speak English as their first language, and those who speak it as a second or third language; those with a college education and those not; etc. Yet I also invite students to complicate the dyads they create (for instance, that the power the professor had could in turn be overseen when placed in relationship to the power of the dean or college administrator). The point is that power shifts, depending on context, but is also deeply rooted in institutional and societal hierarchies. Eventually, when there are enough examples on the board, I may ask something like: “What do you imagine the feelings are, of people who are on top?” (Words like entitled, privileged, content, etc. may come to mind.) Then I ask for words that describe how the people on the bottom half of the line may feel (worried, anxious, angry, etc.). Two other questions: What happens when an individual experiences multiple forms of oppression (as in being in the bottom half of the line): e.g., someone who may speak English as a second language, doesn’t have a college education, and was recently released from a prison? Finally I ask questions like: What can we do to adjust the power line, so instead of being horizontal (one person over another), it were vertical instead? What has to change for this shift to happen? Who might not want this change, and why? (I’ve not done this yet, but positioning this activity with Crenshaw’s video on intersectionality, where she talks about how the African American female workers’ complaints about lack of job opportunity, because their identities as both AA and female are not recognized as interlocked, could be really interesting.)
Reflective questions:
- What are the possible limits, as well as opportunities, of the teaching activities cited above? In other words, what do these exercises “miss”?
- How might you develop or change these activities, in your own FYW sections?