CHS281Recap and assignment guidanceThis module addressed

CHS281
Recap and assignment guidance
This module addressed creative approaches to the primary
curriculum.
What is creative in all these approaches is the fact that they do
not focus on one subject at any one time and as a result they do
not follow a ‘traditional, conventional even conservative’ way
of teaching school subjects to pupils.
Hence, we talk about pedagogic approaches that are promoting
connections.
Cross-curricular (connecting curriculum) is a major theoretical
underpinning of these approaches. Barnes labelled cross-
curriculum approaches as liberating.
Barnes (2012, p.236) argued that: “Today cross-curricular
approaches are believed to open up a narrowed curriculum,
ensure greater breadth and balance and potential give each child
the opportunity to find what Robinson and Aronica (2009) call
their ‘element’”.
Barnes (2012, p.239-240) argued that: “…neuroscience,
psychology and social science lead us to suspect that effective,
lasting, transferable learning in both pure subject and cross -
curricular contexts may be generated by: emotional relevance,
engagement in fulfilling activity, working on shared challenges
with others.”
Throughout the course of this module we saw how different,
creative, pedagogic (inherently cross-curricular) approaches
attempted to strike such emotional relevance with pupils, such a

motivating engagement and all these within a ‘sharing’ context
with others.
HOWEVER: The cross-curricular dimensions are essentially the
responsibility of the teachers, especially in terms of devising,
expediting and completing projects.
Cross-curricular teaching is not an easy task – teachers need to
be mindful of their planning; Barnes (2012, p.248) tells us
about: ‘…spurious links were often made between too many
subjects, and little sense of progression or subject record
keeping were possible.’ This is why teachers need to carefully
decide which subjects can contribute and carefully write up
learning objectives accordingly.
What is the theoretical underpinning of cross-curricular
approaches?
Cross-curricular approaches reflect a constructivist and social
constructivist approach to learning.
In constructivism, the basic idea is that the individual learner
must actively construct knowledge and skills.
Dewey, Bruner, Vygotsky, Piaget have contributed to this
notion of constructivism in learning.
Cognitive constructivism draws mainly from Piaget’s work on
his theory of cognitive development. Piaget proposed that
individuals construct their knowledge through experience and
interaction with the environment.
Social constructivism with Vygotsky its main proponent, claims
that the social context of learning is also very important.
Creative approaches

Story
Project/problem-based
Enquiry
Outdoors
Environmental Education
Education for sustainability
Margaret Dolnaldson (1978) Children’s Minds – embedded/dis-
embedded contexts.
Szurnak and Thuna (2013, p.550-551) argued that: “Narrative is
a powerful tool for teaching and learning for many reasons. The
power of narrative lies in the fact that it harnesses the strategies
the brain already uses for learning. The following elements of
narrative in teaching are particularly resonant:
A. Narrative makes something abstract more
concrete/immediate.
B. Narrative contextualizes information by creating the
framework for students to place the new knowledge into (and
thus improve their retention and understanding).
C. Narrative allows students to have more immediate emotional
experiences that they can relate to (and therefore remember).”
Enquiry and Problem-based approaches
Drayton and Falk (2001, p.26) argued that:
“The teacher in the inquiry-oriented classroom makes room as a
natural part of the curriculum for the design of investigations
and the practice and critique of reasoning and use of evidence,
along with lecture, discussion, reading, calculation, and
demonstration… Participants in the inquiry-oriented classroom
take collaboration among the students for granted, and the
layout of the class likely reflects the practice of frequent
consultation… Each student must have opportunities for sense-
making, knowledge use and representation, peer review, and

feedback from the teacher.”
Coffman (2017, p.84) argued that: “For students to be
substantially and authentically engaged, it is important to
interact with the content in a deep and thoughtful manner…peer
feedback is encouraged, students reflect on their work, and
specific learning goals are carried out”.
Outdoor
Eco-schools
Forest-schools
Focus on the outside (and not only especially with the eco-
school approach).
Rickinson et al; (2004, p.16) grouped benefits of outdoor
approaches in 4 categories:
“Cognitive – concerning knowledge, understanding and other
academic outcomes
Affective – encompassing attitudes, values, beliefs and self-
perceptions
Interpersonal/social – including communication skills,
leadership and teamwork
Physical/behavioural – relating to fitness, physical skills,
personal behaviours and social actions.”
Environmental Education
The Tbilisi Conference (UNESCO, 1977) presented as well the
3-fold definition for environmental education; education FOR
the environment, ABOUT the environment and IN/THROUGH
the environment.
Education FOR the environment is concerned with developing
positive attitudes and fostering positive actions towards the

environment.
Education ABOUT the environment refers to knowledge of the
environment that pupils can acquire on many topics, such as
climate, water, plants, animals, air.
Education IN/THROUGH the environment refers to the
environment as a resource which pupils can use in order to carry
out in-depth investigations.
Education for Sustainability
Tom Marcinkowski (2010) argued that: “Although EE has had a
longer history than ESD…ESD is much broader in scope than
EE. As such, ESD, like SD, seeks to address social goals (e.g.
access to food and water, healthcare, and education; basic
literacy), economic development goals (e.g. alleviating poverty,
improving living standards), and technological developments
(e.g. cleaner and more efficient technologies to serve local
needs), as well as environmental goals.” (2010, p.41).
We can claim that both EE and EfSD can be seen as a pedagogic
approaches aiming to promote a social change which can
involve people in active participation towards just and
democratic societies.
Written assignment:
Discuss a range of creative approaches to the delivery of the
curriculum and identify amongst them features that promote
learning in the primary school. Achieves learning outcomes
K1,2,3 and S2 (2000 words – 80% weighting)
Key areas to address in this element of assessment are:
Knowledge of creative approaches in the delivery of the NC.
You should be able to name a range of different approaches we
examined throughout the module. Name them and briefly
describe them (e.g. definitions)

Understanding of their main features.
What is creative and/or unique about these approaches? How do
they deviate from conventional/teaching practices? What
particular prominent features they possess? What kind of
similarities they share and what kind of differences are there
amongst these approaches? For instance, different approaches
may highlight different perspectives (e.g. focus on nature as in
the outdoors or in environmental education, or on society and a
particular topic/issue as in education for sustainability or in
project and enquiry approaches).
Understanding of how the use of creative approaches relate to
learning theories.
What learning theories better reflect the characteristics and
processes that these creative approaches follow? How do these
learning theories promote effective teaching practices? Explain
why.
The ability to discuss links between the creative and cross-
curricular approaches to teaching and learning identifying
benefits and limitations.
Prominent theoretical approaches (e.g. connected curriculum,
embedded contexts, social interactions) are reflected in these
approaches. Highlight strengths and limitations when it comes
to the deliver and practice of these approaches (e.g. subject
integrity, challenges in planning, assessment, etc.).
References

Barnes, J. (2012). Cross-curricular learning 3-14. London: Sage.
Donaldson, M. (1978). Children’s Minds. London: Harper
Perennial.
Szurmak, J. and Thuna, M. (2013). Tell me a story: the use of
narrative as a Tool for Instruction. From:
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferenc
es/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/SzurmakThuna_TellMe.pdf
[Accessed 27/1/2021]
Coffman, T. (2017). Inquiry-based learning, 3rd edition.
Lanham Maryland, Rowman and Littlefield.
Drayton, B and Falk, J. (2001). Tell-Tale Signs of the Inquiry-
Oriented Classroom. NASSP (National Association of
Secondary School Principals), Bulletin, 85, 24. DOI:
10.1177/019263650108562304
Rickinson, M. Dillon, J. Teamey, K. Morris, M. Choi, M. Y.
Sanders, D. and Benefield, P. (2004). A review of Research on
outdoor learning. London: Field Studies council.
Marcinkowski, T. (2010). Contemporary challenges and
opportunities in environmental education: Where are we headed
and what deserves our attention? The Journal of Environmental
Education, 41, 1, 34-54.
UNESCO (1977) ‘The Belgrade Charter: global framework for
environmental education’, vol.8, part 4, p.57-58.
Chegg account info:
· Username/email= [email protected]
· Password= Bliss524!
· Book title: Racial and ethnic groups (15th ed)

Sources you can use from the course:
·
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/arts/television/16fence.ht
ml
·
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/10/30/decade_of_fire_fil
m_1970s_bronx
·
r
124 Chapter 8
In this sense, being on the hook is one of those things that dis-
tinguish adults from children—adults are and children aren't.
W11en
I'm on the hook, I feel called on to use my power and authority
as an
adult to take responsibility, to act, to make things happen.
Being
"involved" makes me part of something larger, and I can't stand
alone
as an isolated individual. Being "obliged" means more than just
being
burdened, because it also connects me to people and makes me
aware
of how I affect them. And being. "committed" to something
focuses
my potential to make a difference and bonds me to those who
feel
the same way.
Off the hook, I'm like a piece of wood floating with the current.

On the hook, I have forward motion and a rudder to steer by.
Off the
hook, I live in illusion and denial, as if I can choose whether to
be
involved in the life of our society and the consequences it
produces.
But involvement is something that comes with being alive in the
world
as a human being. On the hook is where I can live fully in the
world
as it really is.
Trying to live off the hook puts members of .privileged groups
inside a tight little circle that cuts them off from much of what
it
means to be alive. They have to work to distance themselves
from most
of humanity, because they can't get close to other people
without
touching the trouble that surrounds privilege and oppression.
Men liv
ing off the hook distance and insulate themselves from women,
whites
from people of color, heterosexuals from lesbians and gay men,
the
nondisabled from those with disabilities, the middle and upper
classes
from the working and lower classes. And the more diverse and
inter-
connected the world becomes, the harder it is to sustain the
illusion
and the denial day after day, the more it takes to maintain the
dis-
tance and deny the connection. The result of illusion and denial
is to
become like the person who loses the ability to feel pain and

risks bleed-
ing to death from a thousand tiny cuts that go unnoticed,
untreated, and
unhealed.
Sooner or later, dominant groups must embrace this hook
they're
on, not as some terrible affliction or occasion for guilt and
shame but
as a challenge and an opportunity. It's where they've been,
where they
are, and where they're going.
~~
~~
CHAPTER 9
What Can We Do ?
The
challenge we face is to change patterns of exclusion, rejection,
privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence that are
every-
where in this society and have existed for hundreds (or, in
the case of
gender, thousands) of years. We have to begin by thinking
about the
trouble and the challenge in new and more productive
ways as out-

lined in the preceding chapters. Here is a summary of the
tools we've
identified so far.
Large numbers of people have sat on the sidelines and
seen them-
selves as part of neither the problem nor the solution.
Beyond this,
however, they are far from homogeneous. Everyone is
aware of peo-
ple who intentionally act out in oppressive ways. But
there is less atten-
tion given to the millions of people who know
inequities exist and
want to be part of the solution. Their silence and
invisibility allow priv-
ilege and oppression to continue. Removing what
silences them and
stands in their way can tap an enormous potential
of energy for
change.
The problem of privilege and oppression is deep
and wide, and
to work with it we have to be able to see it clearly
so that we can talk

about it in useful ways. To do that, we have to reclaim
some difficult
language that names what's going on, language that
has been so
125
126 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 127
misused and maligned that it generates more heat than light. We
can't
just stop using words like racism, sexism, ableism, and
privilege, however,
because these are tools that focus our awareness on the problem
and
all the forms it takes. Once we can see and talk about what's
going
on, we can analyze how it works as a system. We can identify
points of
leverage where change can begin.
Reclaiming the language takes us directly to the core reality
that
the problem is privilege and the power that maintains it.
Privilege
exists when one group has something that is systematically
denied to
others not because of who they are or what they've done or not
done
but because of the social category they belong to. Privilege is a
fea-
ture of social systems, not individuals. People have or d'on't

have prix
ilege depending on the system they're in and the social
categories
other people put them in.
In dealing with the problem of privilege, we have to get used to
being surrounded by paradox, such as those having privilege not
knowing it. Also paradoxical is the fact that privilege doesn't
neces-
sarily lead to a "good life," which can prompt people in
privileged
groups to deny resentfully that they even have it.
For several centuries, capitalism has provided the economic
context
for privilege and oppression. As such, it has been and continues
to be
a powerful force, especially in relation to class, gender, and
race. Its
effects are both direct and indirect. Historically, it was the
engine that
drove the development of modern racism. In a less direct way, it
creates
conditions of scarcity that set the stage for competition, fear,
and antag-
onism directed across differences of race, ethnicity, and gender.
Through the class differences that it creates, it also shapes
people's
experience of privilege and the lack of it. This is an example of
the
matr~ of domination (or matr~ of privilege) through which the
vari-
ous forms of difference and privilege interact and shape one
another.
Difference takes many forms, but the most important are those

characteristics that are difficult or impossible to change and
that other
people think they can identify just by looking at someone.
Oppression
also takes many forms, most notably avoidance, exclusion,
rejection,
unequal access to resources and rewards, and violence. Just as
privi-
leged groups tend not to be aware of privilege, they also tend
not to
be aware of how it happens from one moment to the next.
Although disadvantaged groups take the brunt of the trouble,
priv-
ileged groups are also affected by it, partly because misery
visited on
others comes back to haunt those who benefit from it, especially
in
the form of defensiveness and fear. But trouble also affects
privileged
groups directly by limiting and shaping .the lives of people who
have
privilege. The trouble also affects entire social systems, from
families
to corporations and schools to communities, societies, and
global
political and economic systems.
The greatest barrier to change is that dominant groups, as we've

discussed, don't see the trouble as their trouble, which means
they
don't feel obliged to do something about it. This happens fora
vari-
ety of reasons—because they don't know the trouble exists
in the first
place, because they don't have to see it as their trouble, because
they
see it as a personal rather than a systemic problem, because
they're
reluctant to give up privilege, because they feel angry and
deprived
and closed to the idea that they have privilege, because they're
blinded
by prejudice, because they're afraid of what will happen
if they
acknowledge the reality of privilege and oppression.
The two main approaches to change in organizations do little
about these barriers. The "tin cup" approach and "business case"
argu-
ment aren't powerful enough to engage members of dominant
groups
over the long haul required for change. Those choices are the

horns
of the diversity dilemma on which most organizations find
themselves
today.
A third choice is to think about the trouble as
everyone's
responsibility—everybody's "hook"—and nobody's fault. This is
espe-
cially useful for members of privileged groups who have a hard
time
seeing themselves in relation to privilege without feeling guilty.
It's
easy to fall into this trap because people tend to use an
individualis-
tic model of the world that reduces everything to individual
intentions
and goodness or badness. A powerful and liberating
alternative comes
from the fact that we're always participating in something
larger than
ourselves, social systems. To understand privilege and
oppression,
we
have to look at what we're participating in and how we

participate in
relation to paths of least resistance. This means we can be
involved in
a society's or organization's troubles without doing
anything wrong
and without being bad people.
~,
Privilege is created and maintained through social systems that
are dominated by, centered on, and identified with privileged
groups. A
racist society, for example, is white-dominated, white-centered,
and white-identified. Since privilege is rooted primarily in
systems—such as families, schools, and workplaces—change
isn't simply a matter of changing people. The solution also has
to include entire systems whose paths of least resistance shape
how people feel, think, and behave as individuals, how they see
themselves and one another.
As they work for change, it's easy for members of privileged
groups
to lose sight of the reality of privilege and its consequences and
the
truth that the trouble surrounding privilege is their trouble as
much as anyone else's. This happens in large part because
systems of privi-
lege provide endless ways of seeing and thinking about the
world that

make privilege invisible. As we have seen, these include
denying and
minimizing the trouble, blaming the victim, calling the trouble
some-
thing else, assuming everyone prefers things the way they are,
mistak-
ing intentions with consequences, attributing the trouble to
others and
not their own participation in social systems that produce it, and
bal-
ancing the trouble with troubles of their own. The more aware
peo-
ple can be of how all of this limits their effectiveness, the more
they
can contribute to change both in themselves and in the systems
where
they work and live.
With this approach, we can begin to think about how to make
our-
selves part of the solution to the problem of privilege and
oppression.
To do that, we first have to deal with some powerful myths
about how
change happens and how people contribute to it.
MYrH l: "IT'S ALWAYS BEEN
THIS WAY, AND IT ALWAYS WILL"
f you don't make a point of studying history, it's easy to slide -
into
the belief that things have always been the way we've known
them
to be. But if you look back, you find that white privilege has
been a

feature of human life for only a matter of centuries, and there is
abundant evidence that male privilege has been around for only
seven
thousand years or so, which isn't very long when you consider
that
t~tlman beings have been on the earth for hundreds of thousands
of
years.l So when it comes to human social life, the smart money
should
t~~ on the idea that nothing has always been this way or any
other.
This idea should suggest that nothing zoill always be this way
or
ally other, contrary to the notion that privilege and oppression
are
here to stay. If the only thing we can count on is change, then
it's
hard to see why we should believe for a minute that any kind of
social
system is ,permanent. Reality is always in motion. Things may
appear
to stand still, but that's only because humans have a short
attention
span, dictated perhaps by the relative shortness of our lives. If
we take

the long view—the- really long view—we can see that
everything is in
process all the time.
Some would argue that everything is process, the space between
one point and another, the movement from one thing toward
another.
What we may see as permanent end points—world capitalism,
West
ern civilization, advanced technology, and so on—are actually
tempo-
rary states on the way to other temporary states. Even
ecologists, who
used to talk, about ecological balance, now speak of ecosystems
as
inherently unstable. Instead of always returning to some steady
state
after a period of disruption, ecosystems are, by nature, a
continuing
process of change from one arrangement to another. They never
go
back to just where they were.
Social systems are also fluid. A society isn't some hulking thing
that sits there forever as it is. Because a system happens only as

peo-
ple participate in it, it can't help being a dynamic process of
creation
and re-creation from one moment to the next. In something as
sim-
ple as a man following the path of least resistance toward
control-
ling conversations (and a woman letting him do it), the reality
of
male privilege in that moment comes into being. This is how we
do
male privilege, bit by bit, moment by moment. This is also how
indi-
viduals can contribute to change: by choosing paths of greater
resis-
tance, as when men don't take control and women refuse their
own
subordination.
Since people can always choose paths of greater resistance or
create new ones entirely, systems can only be as stable as the
flow
of human choice and creativity, which certainly isn't a recipe
for

permanence. In the short run, systems of privilege may look
unchange-
able. But the relentless process of social life never produces the
exact
same result twice in a row, because it's impossible for everyone
to par_
ticipate in any system in an unvarying and uniform way. Added
to this
are the dynamic interactions that go on among systems—
between cap-
italism and the state, for example, or between families and the
economy—that also produce powerful and unavoidable tensions,
con-
tradictions, and other currents of change. Ultimately, systems
change
because they can't help it.
An oppressive system often seems stable because it limits
people's
lives and imaginations so much that they can't see beyond the
limita-
tions. This is especially true when a social system has existed
for so
long that its past extends beyond collective memory of anything
dif-
ferent. As a result, it lays down terms of social life—including
various
forms of privilege—that can easily be mistaken for some kind of
nor-
mal and inevitable human condition.
But this situation masks a fundamental long-term instability

caused
by the dynamics of oppression itself Any system organized
around one
group's efforts to control and exploit another is ultimately a
losing
proposition, because it contradicts the essentially uncontrollable
nature of reality and does violence to basic human needs and
values.
For example, as the last two centuries of feminist thought and
action
have begun to challenge the violence and break down the denial,
patriarchy has become increasingly vulnerable. This is one
reason
male resistance, backlash, and defensiveness are now so intense.
Many
men complain about their lot, especially their inability to
realize ideals
of control in relation to their own lives,2 women, and other
men. Fear
of and resentment toward women are pervasive, from worrying
about
being accused of sexual harassment to railing against
affirmative
action.
No social system lasts forever, and this fact holds especially for
oppressive systems of privilege. We can't know what will
replace exist-
ing social systems, but we can be confident that they will go,
that they
are going at every moment. It's only a matter of how quickly, by
what
means, and toward what alternatives, and whether each of us
will do
our part to make change happen sooner rather than later and
with

less rather than more human suffering in the process.
MYTH 2: GANDHPS PARADOX
AND THE 1VIYTH OF NO EFFECT
hether we help change systems of privilege depends on how we
handle the belief that nothing we do can make a difference,
that the system is too big and powerful for us to affect. The
complaint
is valid if we look at society as a whole, because we aren't
going to
change it in our lifetime. But if changing the entire system
through
our own efforts is the standard against which we measure the
ability
to do something, then we've set ourselves up to feel powerless.
It's not
unreasonable to want to make a difference, but if we have to see
the
final result of what we do, then we can't be part of
change that's too
gradual and long term to allow that. We also can't be part of
change
that's so complex that we can't sort out our contribution from
count-

less others that combine in ways we can never grasp. The
problem of
privilege and oppression requires complex and long-term
change cou-
pledwith short term work to soften some of its worst
consequences. This
means that if we're going to be part of the solution, we have to
let go
of the idea that change doesn't happen unless we're
around to see it.
To shake off the paralyzing myth that we cannot,
individually, be
effective, we have to alter how we see ourselves in relation to a
long-
term, complex process of change. This begins by altering
how we
relate to time. Many changes can come about quickly enough
for us
to see them happen. When I was in college, for example,
there was
little talk about gender inequality as a social problem,
whereas now
there are more than five hundred women's studies programs
in the

United States. But a goal such as ending privilege takes more
than this
and far more time than our short lives can encompass. If
we're going
to see ourselves as part of that kind of change, we can't
use the human
life span as a significant standard against which to
measure progress.
To see our choices in relation to long-term change,
we have to
develop what might be called "time constancy," analogous to
what psy-
chologists call "object constancy." If you hold a cookie in front
of
very
young children and then put it behind your back while
they watch,
they can't find the cookie because they apparently
can't hold on to
the image of it and where it went. They lack object
constancy. In other
words, if they can't see it, it might as well not even exist.
After a while,

I
children develop the mental ability to know that objects or
people
exist even when they're out of sight. In thinking about change
and
our relation to it, we need to develop a similar ability in
relation to
time that enables us to carry within us the knowledge, the faith,
that
,significant change happens even though we aren't around to see
it.
Along with time constancy, we need to clarify for ourselves
how
our choices matter and how they don't. Gandhi once said that
noth-
ing we do as individuals matters but that it's vitally important to
do it
anyway. This touches on a powerful paradox in the relationship
between society and individuals. Imagine, for example, that
social sys-
tems are trees and we are the leaves. No individual leaf on the
tree
matters; whether it lives or dies has no effect on much of
anything.
But collectively, the leaves are essential to the whole tree
because they
photosynthesize the sugar that feeds it. Without leaves, the tree
dies.
So leaves matter and they don't, just as we matter and we don't.
What each of us does may not seem like much, because in
important

ways, it isn't much. But when many people do this work
together they
can form a critical mass that is anything but insignificant,
especially in
the long run. If we're going to be part of a larger change
process, we
have to learn to live with this sometimes uncomfortable
paradox.
A related paradox is that we have to be willing to travel without
knowing where we're going. We need faith to do what seems
right
without necessarily being sure of the effect that will have. We
have to
think like pioneers who may know the direction they want to
move in
or what they would like to find, without knowing where they
will wind
up. Because they are going where they've never been before,
they can't
know whether they will ever arrive at anything they might
consider a
destination, much less the kind of place they had in mind when
they
first set out. If pioneers had to know their destination from the
begin-
ning, they might never go anywhere or discover anything.
In similar ways, to seek out alternatives to systems of privilege,
we
have to move away from social life organized around privilege
and
oppression and move toward the certainty that alternatives are
possi-
ble, even though we may not have a clear idea of what those are
or

ever experience them. It has to be enough to question how we
see
ourselves as people of a certain race, gender, sexual orientation,
dis-
ability status, and class, or examine how we see capitalism and
the
scarcity and competition it produces in relation to our personal
striv-
~ xlg to better our own lives, or look at how privilege and
oppression
work and how we participate. Then we can open ourselves to
experi-
ence what happens next.
When we dare ask core questions about who we are and how the
world works, things happen that we can't foresee. But they don't
hap-
pen unless we move, if only in our minds. As pioneers, we
discover what's
possible only by first putting ourselves in motion, because we
have to
move in order to change our position—and hence our
perspective—on
where we are, where we've been, and where we might go. This
is how
alternatives begin to appear.

The myth of no effect obscures the role we can play in the long-
term transformation of society. But the myth also
blinds us to our own
power in relation to other people. We may cling to
the belief that
there is nothing we can do precisely because we
subconsciously know
how much power we do have and are afraid to use
it because people
may not like it. If we deny our power to affect
people, then we don't
have to worry about taking responsibility for how we
use it or, more
significant, how we don't.
This reluctance to acknowledge and use power comes
up in the
simplest everyday situations, as when a group of friends
starts laugh-
ing at a racist or sexist joke and you have to
decide whether to go
along. It's just a moment among countless such
moments that consti-
tute the fabric of all kinds of oppressive systems.

But it's a crucial
moment, because the group's seamless response to the
joke affirms
the normalcy and unproblematic nature of it in a
system of privilege.
It takes only one person to tear the fabric of
collusion and apparent
consensus. On some level, each of us knows that we have
this poten-
tial, and this knowledge can empower us or scare
us into silence. We
can change the course of the moment with
something as simple as vis-
ibly not joining in the laughter, or saying "I don't
think that's funny."
We know how uncomfortable this can make the
group feel and how
they may ward off their discomfort by dismissing,
excluding, or even
attacking us as bearers of bad news. Our silence, then,
isn't because
nothing we do will matter. Our silence is our not
daring to matter.
Our power to affect other people isn't simply the

power to make
them feel uncomfortable. Systems shape the
choices people make
primarily by providing paths of least resistance. Whenever we
openly
choose a different path, however, we make it possible for others
to see
both the path of least resistance they're following and the
possibility
of choosing something else.
If we choose different paths, we usually won't know if we're
affect-
ing other people, but it's safe to assume that we are. When
people
know that alternatives exist and witness other people choosing
them,
things become possible that weren't before. When we openly
pass up
a path of least resistance, we increase resistance for other
people
around that path, because now they must reconcile their choice
with
what they've seen us do, something they didn't have to deal with
before. There's no way to predict how this will play oizt in the
long
run, but there's certainly no good reason to think it won't make
a
difference.

The simple fact is that we affect one another all the time
without
knowing it. When my family moved to our house in
northwestern
Connecticut, one of my first pleasures was blazing walking
trails
through the woods. Some time later I noticed deer scat and
hoofprints
along the trails, and it pleased me to think they had adopted the
trail
I'd laid down. But then I wondered if perhaps I had followed a
trail
laid down by others when I cleared "my" trail. I realized there is
no
way to know that anything begins or ends with me and the
choices I
make. It's more likely that the paths others have chosen
influence the
paths I choose.
This suggests that the simplest way to help others make
different
choices is to make them myself, and to do it openly. As I shift
the pat-
terns of my own participation in systems of privilege, I make it
easier
for others to do so as well, and harder for them not to. Simply
by set-
ting an example—rather than trying to change them—I create
the
possibility of their participating in change in their own time and
in
their own way. In this way I can widen the circle of change
without
provoking the kind of defensiveness that perpetuates paths of
least

resistance and the oppressive systems they serve.
It's important to see that in doing this kind of work, we don't
have
to go after people to change their minds. In fact, changing
people's
minds may play a relatively small part in changing systems. We
won't
succeed in turning diehard misogynists into practicing
feminists, for
example, or racists into civil rights activists. At most, we can
shift the
odds in favor of new paths that contradict the core values that
systems
of privilege depend on. We can introduce so many exceptions to
the
paths that support privilege that the children or grandchildren of
diehard racists and misogynists will start to change their
perception of
which paths offer the least resistance. Research on men's
changing atti-
tudes toward the male provider role, for example, shows that
most of
the shift occurs between generations, not within them.3 This
suggests
that rather than trying to change people, the most important
thing we

can do is contribute to shifting entire cultures so that forms and
val-
ues that support privilege begin to lose their "obvious"
legitimacy and
normalcy, and new forms emerge to challenge their privileged
place in
social life. And when this happens, the structures of privilege—
segregation and the unequal and oppressive distribution of
wealth,
power, resources, and opportunities—become harder to
maintain.
In science, this is how one paradigm replaces another.4 For
hun-
dreds of years, for example, Europeans believed that stars,
planets, and
the sun revolved around Earth. But Copernicus and Galileo
found that
too many of their astronomical observations were anomalies that
didn't
fit the prevailing paradigm: if the sun and planets revolved
around
Earth, then they wouldn't move as they did. As such
observations accu-

mulated, they made it increasingly difficult to hang on to an
Earth-
centered paradigm. Eventually the anomalies became so
numerous
that Copernicus offered a new paradigm, which he declined to
pub-
lish for fear of persecution as a heretic, a fate that eventually
befell
Galileo when he took up the cause a century later. Eventually,
how-
ever, the evidence was so overwhelming that a new paradigm
replaced
the old one.
In similar ways, we can see how systems of privilege are based
on
paradigms that shape how we think about difference and how we
organize social life in relation to it. We can openly challenge
those
paradigms with evidence that they don't work and produce
unaccept
able consequences for everyone. We can help weaken them by
openly
choosing alternative paths in our everyday lives and thereby
provide

living anomalies that don't fit the prevailing paradigm. By our
exam-
ple, we can contradict basic assumptions and their legitimacy
over and
over again. We can add our choices and our lives to tip the
scales
toward new paradigms that don't revolve around privilege and
oppres-
sion. We can't tip the scales overnight or by ourselves, and in
that
sense we don't amount to much. But, as Gandhi noted, it is
crucial
where we choose to place what poet Bonaro Overstreet called
"the
stubborn ounces of my weight":
STUBBORN OUNCES
(To One Who Doubts the Worth of Doing Anything
If You Can't Do Everything
You say the little efforts that I make
will do no good; they will never prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where Justice hangs in balance.
I don't think

I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
In favor of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.5
It is in small and humble choices that privilege, oppression, and
the
movement toward something better actually happen.
STUBBORN OUNCES: Wf-IAT CAN WE DO?
There are no easy answers to the question of what can we do
about
the problem of privilege. There is no twelve-step program, no
neat set
of instructions. Most important, there is no way around or over
it: the
only way out is through it. We won't end oppression by
pretending it
isn't there or that we don't have to deal with it.
Some people complain that those who work for social change
are
being "divisive" when they draw attention to oppressive systems
orga-
nized around one form of privilege or another. But when
members of
dominant groups mark differences by excluding or
discriminating
against subordinate groups and treating them as "other," they
aren't
accused of being divisive. Usually it's only when someone calls
atten-
tion to how differences are used as a basis for privilege that the
charge
of divisiveness comes up.

~ In a sense, it is divisive to say that privilege exists, but only
insofar
as it points to divisions that already exist and to the perception
that
the status quo is normal and unremarkable. Privilege promotes
the
worst kind of divisiveness because it cuts us off from one
another and,
by silencing us about the truth, cuts us off from ourselves as
well. Not
only must we participate in privilege and oppression by li ving
in this
society, we also must act as though they don't exist, denying the
real-
ity of our own experience and its consequences for people's
lives,
including our own.
What does it mean to go out by going through? What can we do
that will make a difference?
Acknowledge That Privilege and Oppression Exists
A key to the continued existence of every system of privilege is
unaware-
ness, because privilege contradicts so many basic human values
that it
invariably arouses opposition when people know about it. The
Soviet

Union and its East European satellites, for example, were
riddled with
contradictions so widely known among their people that the
oppressive
regimes fell apart with an ease and speed that astonished the
world. An
awareness of privilege and oppression compels people to speak
out, to
break the silence that any system depends on to continue.
This is why most cultures of privilege mask the reality of
oppres-
sion by denying its existence, trivializing it, calling it
something else,
blaming it on those most victimized by it, or diverting attention
from
it. Instead of treating oppression as a serious problem, we go to
war
or get embroiled in controversial "issues" such as capital gains
tax cuts
or "family values" or immigrant workers. There would be far
more
active opposition to white privilege, for example, if white
people lived

with an ongoing awareness of how it actually affects the
everyday lives
of those it oppresses as "not white." As we have seen, however ,
the vast
majority of white people don't do this.
It's one thing to become aware and quite another to stay that
way.
The greatest challenge when we first become aware of a critical
per-
spective on the world is simply to hang on to it. Every system's
paths
of least resistance invariably lead away from critical awareness
of how
the system works. In some ways, it's harder and more important
to pay
138 Chapter 9
What Can We Do? 139
attention to systems of privilege than it is to people's behavior
and the
paths of least resistance that .shape it. As we saw earlier, for
example,
the structure of capitalism creates large social patterns of
inequality,
scarcity, and exploitation that have played and continue to play
a

major role in the perpetuation of various forms of privilege and
oppression. It is probably wishful thinking to suppose we can
end priv-
ilege without also changing a capitalist system of political
economy
that allows an elite to control the vast majority of wealth and
income
and leaves the rest of the population to fight over what's left.
But such
wishful thinking is, in fact, what we're encouraged to engage in
most
of the time—to cling to the idea that racism, for example, is just
a
problem with a few bad whites, rather than seeing how'it is
connected
to a much larger matrix of privilege and oppression.
By not looking at the institutions through which humans
organize
economic and social life, we also engage in the fantasy that
solving the
problem of privilege is only a matter of changing how
individual peo-
ple think. I have, of course, spent most of this book talking
about the
importance of changing how we think about these issues, and I
haven't
suddenly changed my mind. We have for a long time been stuck
in
our ability to deal with these issues, and changing how we think
is a
key to getting unstuck.
By itself, however, changing how we think won't be enough to
solve the problem. Privilege will not simply go away as the
result of a

change in individual consciousness. Ultimately, we'll have to
apply our
understanding of how systems work to the job of changing
systems
themselves—economic, political, religious, educational, and
familial.
To return to my earlier discussion of the game of Monopoly: we
have
two choices if we don't like the consequences that result from
playing
it. One is to do what I did and stop. But since we don't have the
option
of not participating in our society, we're left with the second
choice,
which is to change the game.
Since there is a lot of resistance to following such paths, the
easi-
est thing to do after reading a book like this is to forget about
it. Main-
taining acritical consciousness takes commitment and work.
Aware-
ness is something that either we maintain in the moment or we
don't.
And the only way to hang on to an awareness of privilege is to
make
that awareness an ongoing part of our lives.
Pay Attention
Understanding how privilege and oppression operate and how
you
participate is where working for change begins. It's easy to have
opin-

ions, but it takes work to know what you're talking about. The
sim-
plest way to begin is to make reading about privilege part of
your life.
Unless you have the luxury of a personal teacher, you can't
under-
stand this issue without reading. Many people assume they
already
know what they need to know because it's part of everyday life.
But
they're usually wrong, because just as the last thing a fish would
dis-
cover is water, the last thing people discover is society itsel f
and some-
thing as pervasive as privilege.
We also have to be open to the idea that what we think we know
is, if not wrong, so deeply shaped by systems of privilege that it
misses
most of the truth. This is why activists talk with one another
and spend
time reading one another's writing, because seeing things
clearly is
tricky. This is also why people who are critical of the status quo
are so

often self-critical as .well—they know how complex and elusive
the
truth really is and what a challenge it is to work toward it.
People work-
ing for change are often accused of being orthodox and rigid,
but in
practice they are typically among the most self-critical people
around.
There is a huge literature on issues of privilege available
through
any decent library system, although you'd never know it to
judge from
its invisibility in the mass media and mainstream bookstores.
For that
reason, it's a good idea not to rely on the media for a
meaningful
analysis. As large capitalist enterprises, the media have a vested
inter-
est in ignoring most of what is known about privilege,
especially any-
thing that seriously questions the status quo. Instead, they
routinely
focus on issues that have the least to do with privilege and
oppression,

that reflect the flawed individualistic models of social life, and
that set
subordinate groups against one another.
The media would rather discuss whether women and men have
different brains, for example, than examine the reality of male
privi-
lege. And they are only too happy to give front-page coverage
to any
woman willing to criticize feminism, or any person of color
willing to
attack affirmative action or blame other people of color for their
dis-
advantaged position in society. At the same time, the media
ignore
most of what is known .about privilege. Most feminist work, for
exam-
ple, is virtually invisible to book reviewers, journalists,
editorial writers,
columnists, and the audience for trade books. So, if you want to
know
what's going on, it may take an interlibrary loan request or a
special
order at the bookstore. But you can do more. You can also tell

librar-
ians and bookstore managers how surprised and disappointed
you are
that they don't stock such essential reading for understanding
the
world.
As you educate yourself, avoid reinventing the wheel. Many
peo-
ple have already done a lot of work that you can learn from.
There's
no way to get through it all, but you don't have to in order to
develop
a clear enough sense of how to act in meaningful and 'informed
ways.
A good place to start is a basic text on race, class, and gender
(these
books increasingly include discussions of sexual orientation and
dis-
ability as well; see the Resources section of this book). Men
who feel
there is no place for them in women's studies might start with
books
about patriarchy and gender inequality that are written by men.
In the
same way, whites can begin with writings on race privilege
written by
other whites. Sooner or later, however, dominant groups will
need to
turn to what people in subordinate groups have written, because
they
are the ones who have done most of the work of figuring out
how prix
ilege and oppression operate.
Reading is only the beginning. At some point you have to look

at
yourself and the world to see if you can identify what you're
reading
about. Once the phrase "paths of least resistance" becomes part
of
your active vocabulary, for example, you start seeing them all
over the
place. The more aware you are of how powerful those paths are,
the
more easily you can decide whether to go down them each time
they
present themselves.
It helps to live like anthropologists, participant-observers who
watch and listen to other people and themselves, who notice
patterns
that come up again and again in social life. You can pretend
you're a
stranger in a strange land who knows nothing about where you
are
and know that you know nothing.,. This approach keeps you
open to
recognizing faulty assumptions and the surprise of realizing that
things
aren't what they seem. Following this path is especially
challenging for
dominant groups, whose privilege tells them they shouldn't have
to
work to figure out someone else, that it's up to "others" to
figure them
out. It's easy for them to fall into the trap of being Iike
impatient,
arrogant tourists who don't take the initiative to educate

themselves
about where they are. But taking responsibility means not
waiting for
others to tell you what to do, to point out what's going on, or to
iden-
tify alternatives. If dominant groups are going to take their
share of
responsibility, it's up to them to listen, watch, ask, and listen
again, to
make it their business to find out for themselves. If they don't,
they'll
slide down the comfortable blindered path of privilege. And
then
they'll be just part of the problem and they will be blamed and
they'll
have it coming.
Learn to Listen
Attentive listening is especially difficult for members of
dominant
groups. If someone confronts you with your own behavior that
sup-
ports privilege, step off the path of least resistance that
encourages

you to defend and deny. Don't tell them they're too sensitive
or need
abetter sense of humor, and don't try to explain away what you
did
as something else than what they're telling you it was. Don't
say you
didn't mean it or that you were only kidding. Don't tell them
what
a
champion of justice you are or how hurt you feel because of
what
they're telling you. Don't make jokes or try to be cute or
charming,
since only access to privilege can lead someone to believe these
are
acceptable responses to something as serious as privilege and
oppres-
sion. Listen to what's being said. Take it seriously. Assume for
the time
being that it's true, because given the power of paths of
least resis-
tance, it probably is. And then take responsibility to do
something
about it.

A student of color in one of my classes, for example, once
told me
that she noticed my cutting her off during class, something
she didn't
think I did with white students. I could have weighed in with
my pro-
fessorial authority and said it wasn't true, that she was
imagining it,
that I treat all my students that way, that she was being too
sensitive,
that I trammel all over the country speaking about issues of
inequality
and injustice, so certainly I was above such things. But
what I said to
her was that I was truly sorry she'd had that experience. I
wasn't aware
of doing that, I told her, and the fact that I didn't consciously
mean
to was beside the point.
To respond in this way, I had to de-center myself from my posi-
tion of privilege and make her experience and not mine the
point of
the conversation. I ended by telling her I would do everything I

could
to pay attention to this problem in the future to make sure it
didn't
happen again.
Note that my goodness or badness as a person was not the i ssue.
The issues were the existence of pervasive racist patterns
through
which privilege is enacted every day, and the part all of us play
in it,
and my willingness to take responsibility for paying attention to
my
own behavior as a participant. I believe that most of the time,
mem-
bers of subordinate groups are not looking for dominant groups
to
feel ashamed or guilty, because this will do nothing in itself to
improve
their own lives. In my experience, their true goal is to end
privilege
and oppression and get dominant groups to commit themselves
to
doing whatever they can to make that happen.
Little Risks: Do Something
The more you pay attention to privilege and oppression, the
more
you'll see opportunities to do something about them. You don't
have
to mount an expedition to find opportunities; they're all over the
place, beginning with you. As I became aware of how male
privilege
encourages me to control conversations, for example, I also
realized
how easily men dominate group meetings by controlling the

agenda
and interrupting, without women's objecting to it. This pattern
is espe-
cially striking in groups that are mostly female but in which
most of
the talking nonetheless comes from a few men. I would find
myself
sitting in meetings and suddenly the preponderance of male
voices
would jump out at me, an unmistakable sign of male privilege in
full
bloom.
As I've seen what's going on, I've had to decide what to do
about
this little path of least resistance and my relation to it that leads
me
to follow it so readily. With some effort, I've tried out new
ways of lis-
tening more and talking less. At times my methods have felt
contrived
and artificial, such as telling myself to shut up for a while or
even
counting slowly to ten (or more) to give others a chance to step
into
the space afforded by silence. With time and practice, new paths
h~ivc
become easier to follow, and I spend less time monitoring
myself. Bur.
awareness is never automatic or permanent, because paths of
least
resistance will be there to choose or not as long as male
privilege
exists.

You might be thinking at this point that everything comes down
to changing individuals after all since doing something is a
matter of
people's behavior. In a sense, of course, it's true that, for us, it
all
comes down to what we do or don't do as individuals since
that's what
we are. But the key is to always connect our choices to the
systems we
participate in. When you openly change how you participate in a
sys-
tem, you do more than change your own behavior; you also
change
~ how the system happens. When you change how a system
happens,
i you .change the social environment that shapes other people's
behav-
ior, which, in turn, further changes how the system happens.
And
when you do that, you also help to change the consequences that
i come out of the dynamic relationship between systems
and individu-
als, including patterns of privilege and oppression.

Sometimes stepping off the path of least resistance is a matter
of
directly calling attention to the system and how it's organized.
As you'll
see below, for example, it might involve calling attention to the
dis-
tribution of power and resources in an organization—why are
all the
secretaries women and all the executives men? Why is the
custodial
staff mostly people of color and the management staff entirely
white?
Choosing to call attention to such patterns means changing your
own
behavior, but it does more than that because the focus of your
choice
is the system itself.
i In short, since the world happens as it does through the
dynamic
relationship between individuals and social systems, changing
the
world has to involve both.
As you become more aware, questions will arise about what
goes

on at work, in the media, in families, in communities, in
religious insti-
tutions, in government, on the street, and at school—in short,
just
about everywhere. The questions don't come all at once (for
which
we can be grateful), although they sometimes come in a rush
that can
feel overwhelming. If you remind yourself that it isn't up to you
to do
it all, however, you can see plenty of situations in which you
can make
a difference, sometimes in surprisingly simple ways. Consider
the fol-
lowing possibilities.
Make noise, be seen. Stand up, volunteer, speak out, write
letters, sign
petitions, show up. Every oppressive system feeds on silence.
Don't col-
lude in it. Breaking the silence is especially important for
dominant
groups, because it undermines the assumption of solidarity that
priv-
ilege depends on. If this feels too risky, practice being aware of
how

silence reflects your investment in solidarity with other
dominant-
group members. This can be a place to begin working , on how
you
participate in making privilege and oppression happen: "Today I
said
nothing, colluded in silence, and this is how I benefited from it.
Tomorrow I can try something different."
Find little ways to zuithdrazu support from paths of least
resistance and
people's choices to follow them, starting with yourself. It can be
as simple as
not laughing at a racist or heterosexist joke or saying you don't
think
it's funny, or writing a letter to your senator or representative or
the
editor of your newspaper, objecting to an instance of sexism in
the
media. When my local newspaper ran an article whose headline
referred to sexual harassment as "earthy behavior," for example,
I
wrote a letter pointing out that harassment has nothing to do
with
being "earthy."
The key to withdrawing support is to interrupt the flow of busi -
ness as usual. You can subvert the assumption that everyone's
going
along with the status quo by simply not going along. When you
do
this, you stop the flow, if only for a moment, but in that
moment other
people can notice and start to think and question. It's a perfect
time
to suggest the possibility of alternatives, such as humor that

isn't at
someone else's expense, or of ways to think about
discrimination,
harassment, and violence that do justice to the reality of what's
going
on and how it affects people.
People often like to think of themselves as individuals—
especially
in the United States. But it's amazing how much of the time we
com-
pare ourselves to other people as a way to see how well we fit
in. Any-
thing that disrupts this process in even the smallest way can
affect
taken-for-granted assumptions that underlie social reality. It
might
help to think of this process as inserting grains of sand in an
oyster
to irritate it into creating a pearl of insight, or as a way to make
sys-
tems of privilege itch, stir, and scratch and thereby reveal
themselves
for others to see. Or as planting seeds of doubt about the
desirability
and inevitability of the way things are and, by example,
planting seeds
of what might be.
Dare to make people feel uncomfortable, beginning with
yourself. At the

next local school board meeting, for example, you can ask why
prin-
cipals and other administrators are almost always white and
male
(unless your system is an exception that proves the rule), while
the
teachers they supervise and the lower-paid support staff are
mostly
women and people of color. Or look at the names and mascots
used
by local sports teams and see if they exploit the heritage and
identity
of Native Americans. If that's the case, ask principals and
coaches and
owners about it.7 Consider asking similar kinds of questions
about priv-
ilege and difference in your place of worship, workplace, and
local
government.
It may seem that such actions don't amount to much, until you
stop for a moment and feel your resistance to doing them
worrying,
for example, about how easily you could make people

uncomfortable,
including yourself. If you take that resistance to action as a
measure
of power, then your potential to make a difference is plain to
see. The
potential for people to feel uncomfortable is a measure of the
power
for change inherent in such simple acts of not going along with
the
status quo.
Some will say it isn't "nice" to make people uncomfortable, but
systems of privilege do a lot more than make people feel
uncomfort-
able, and there isn't anything "nice" about allowing that to
continue.
Besides, discomfort is an unavoidable part of any meaningful
process
of change. You can't grow without being willing to challenge
your
assumptions and take yourself to the edge of your competencies,
where you're bound to feel uncomfortable. If you can't tolerate
ambi-
guity, uncertainty, and discomfort, then you'll never get beneath

super-
ficial appearances or learn or change anything of much value,
includ-
ing yourself.
And if history is any guide, discomfort—to put it mildly—is
also
an unavoidable part of changing systems of privilege. As
sociologist
William Gamson noted in his study of social movements, "the
meek
146 Cha ter 9 P What Can We Do? 147
don't make it."8 To succeed, movements must be willing to
disrupt
business as usual and make those in power as uncomfortable as
pos-
sible. Women didn't win the right to vote, for example, by
reasoning
with men and showing them the merits of their position. To
even get
men's attention, they had to take to the streets in large numbers
at
considerable risk to themselves. At the very least they had to be
will-
ing to suffer ridicule and ostracism, but it often got worse than
that.
In England, for example, suffragettes were jailed and, when
they went

on hunger strikes, were force fed through tubes run down their
throats. The modern women's movement has had to depend no
less
on the willingness of women to put themselves on the line in
order
to make men so uncomfortable that they've had to pay attention
and,
eventually, to act.
It has been no different with the civil rights movement. Under
the
leadership of people like Martin Luther King, the movement
was ded-
icated to the principle of nonviolence. As with the movement
for
women's suffrage, however, they could get white people's
attention
only through mass demonstrations and marches, to which whites
typ-
ically responded with violence and intimidation.9 As Douglas
McAdam
showed in his study of that period, the Federal government
intervened
and enacted civil rights legislation only when white violence
against
civil rights demonstrators became so extreme that the
government was
compelled to act.lo
As the African American writer, orator, and abolitionist
Frederick
Douglass put it, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It
never
has and it never will."il As much as anyone, I would like to
believe
Douglass is wrong, that all it takes to end an oppressive system

of prix
ilege is to point out the reality of oppression and the moral
impera-
tive that it not continue, and the receivers of privilege will
somehow
see the light and surrender their privilege without a fight. But
history
provides no reason to believe that to be true.
Openly choose and model alternative Maths. As we identify
paths of least
resistance, we can identify alternatives and then follow them
openly
so that other people can see what we're doing. Paths of least
resistance
become more visible when people choose alternatives, just as
rules
become more visible when someone breaks them. Modeling new
paths
creates tension in a system, which moves toward resolution
(like the
irritated .oyster) . We don't have to convince anyone of
anything. As
Gandhi put it, the work begins with us trying to be the change
we
want to see happen in the world. If you think this has no effect,
watch
how people react to the slightest departures from established
paths
and how much effort they expend trying to ignore or explain
away or

challenge those who choose alternative paths.
Actively promote change in how systems are organized around
~irivilege.
The possibilities here are almost endless, because social life is
com-
plicated and privilege is everywhere. You can, for example,
Speak out for equality in the workplace.
Promote awareness and training around issues of privilege.
Support equal pay and promotion practices for everyone.
Oppose the devaluing of women, people of color, and people
with
disabilities, and the work they do, from dead-end jobs to glass
ceilings.
Support the well-being of mothers, children, and people with
dis-
abilities, and defend their right to control their bodies and their
lives.
Don't support businesses that are inaccessible to people with
dis-
abilities, and tell them why you don't.

Don't support businesses that engage in unfair labor practices,
including union-busting. Support the formation of unions.
Although
the U.S. labor movement has a long history of racism, sexism,
and
ableism, unions are currently one of the few organized efforts
ded-
I icated to protecting workers from the excesses of capitalism.
Become aware of how class divisions operate in social systems,
from
workplaces to schools, and how this results in the oppression of
blue- and white-collar workers. Find out, for example, if staff at
your college or university are paid a living wage, and speak up
if
they aren't. There is a great silence in this country around issues
of class, in part because the dominant cultural ideology presents
the United States as a classless society. Break the silence.
Oppose the increasing concentration of wealth and power in
the
United States and the global economy. The lower, working,
and

lower-middle classes are the last to benefit from economic
upturns
and the first to suffer from economic downturns. Press
politicians
.and candidates for public office to take a stand on issues of
class,
starting with the acknowledgment that they exist.
Object to the punitive dismantling of welfare and attempts to
limit
women's access to reproductive health services.
Speak out against violence and harassment wherever they occur,
whether at home, at work, or on the street.
Support government and private services for women who are
vic-
timized by male violence. volunteer at the local rape crisi s
center
or battered-women's shelter. Join and support groups that inter-
vene with and counsel violent men.
Call for and support clear and effective antiharassment policies
in
workplaces, unions, schools, professional associations, religious
institutions, and political parties, as well as public spaces such
as
parks, sidewalks, and malls.
Object to theaters and video stores that carry violent
pornography.
This doesn't require a debate about censorship just the exercise
of freedom of speech to articulate pornography's role in the

oppres-
sion of women and to express how its opponents feel about it.
Ask questions about how work, education, religion, and family
are
shaped by core values and principles that support privilege. You
might accept women's entry into combat branches of the
military
or the upper reaches of corporate power as "progress," for
exam-
ple. But you could also raise questions about what happens to
peo-
ple and societies when political and economic institutions are
organ-
ized around control, domination, "power over," and, by
extension,
competition and the use of violence. Is it progress to allow
selected
women to share control with men over oppressive systems?
Openly support people who step off the path of least resistance.
When you witness someone else taking arisk—speaking out,
call-
ing attention to privilege and oppression—don't wait until later
to tell them in private you're glad they did. Waiting until you're
alone makes it safer for you but does the other person little
good.
Support is most needed when the risk is being taken, not later
on, so don't wait. Make your support as visible and public as the
courageous behavior that you're supporting.12
Su~i~bort the right of women and men to love whomever they
choose. Raise
awareness of homophobia and heterosexism. For example, ask

school
officials and teachers about what's happening to gay and lesbian
stu-
dents in local schools. If they don't know, ask them to find out,
since
it's a safe bet these students are being harassed; suppressed, and
oppressed by others at one of the most vulnerable stages of life.
When
sexual orientation is discussed, whether in the media or among
friends, raise questions about its relation to male privilege.
Remember
that it isn't necessary to have answers to questions in order to
ask them.
Pay attention to horn different forms of op~iression interact
with one
another. There has been a great deal of struggle within women's
move-
ments, for example, about the relationship between male
privilege and
privilege in other forms, especially those based on race, social
class,
and sexual orientation. White middle- and upper-middle-class
hetero-

sexual feminists have been criticized for pursuing their own
agenda to
the detriment of women who aren't privileged by class or race or
sex-
ual orientation. Raising concerns about glass ceilings that keep
women
out of top corporate and professional positions, for example,
does lit-
tle to help working- or lower-class women. There has also been
debate
over whether some forms of oppression are more important to
attack
first or produce more oppressive consequences than other forms.
One way out of this conflict is to realize that male privilege
isn't
pro~alematic just because it emphasizes male dominance but
because it
values and promotes dominance and control as ends in
themselves. In
that sense, all forms of oppression draw support from common
roots,
and whatever we do that calls attention to those roots
undermines all
forms of privilege. If working against male privilege is seen

simply as
enabling some women to get a bigger piece of the pie, then
some
women probably will "succeed" at the expense of others who are
dis-
advantaged by race, class, sexual orientation, and disability
status. One
could make the same argument about movements for racial
justice. If
it just means enabling well-placed people of color to get ahead,
then
it won't end racial oppression for the vast majority. But if we
identify
the core problem as any society organized around principles of
dom-
ination and privilege, then changing that requires us to pay
attention
to all the forms of privilege those principles promote. Whether
we
begin with race or gender or disability or class or the capitalist
system,
if we name the problem correctly we'll wind up going in the
same gen-

eral direction.
Work with other peo~ile. This is one of the most important
principles
of participating in change. From expanding consciousness to
taking
risks, working with people who support what you're trying to do
makes
all the difference in the world. For starters, you can'read and
talk
about books and issues and just plain .hang out with other
people who
want to understand and do something about privilege and
oppression.
The roots of the modern women's movement were in
consciousness-
raising groups where women did little more than try to figure
out how
their lives were shaped by a patriarchal society. It may not have
looked
like much at the time, but it laid the foundation for huge social
change.
One step down this path is to share a book like this one with
some-
one and then talk about it. Or ask around about local groups and
organizations that focus on issues of privilege. Attend a meeting
and
introduce yourself to the members. After reading a book or an
article
that you like, send an e-mail to the author or write in care of the
pub-
lisher. It's easy to think authors don't want to be bothered by
inter-
ested readers, but the truth is, they usually welcome it and
respond.

(I do!) Make contact. Connect to other people engaged in the
same
work. Do whatever reminds you that you're not alone in this.
It is especially important to form alliances across difference.
What
does this mean? As Paul Kivel argues, one of the keys to being
a good
ally is a willingness to listen for whites to listen to people of
color,
for example—and to give credence to what people say about
their own
experience.13 This isn't easy to do, of course, since members of
dom-
inant groups may not like what they hear about their privilege
from
those who are most damaged by it. It is difficult to heax anger
and not
take it personally, but that is what allies have to be willing to
do. It's
also difficult for members of privileged groups to realize how
mis-
trusted they are by subordinate groups and to not take that
person-
ally as well. Kivel offers the following to give an idea of what
people
of color need from white allies (the same list could apply to
allies
across other forms of difference)
"respect"
"find out about us"
"don't take over"

"provide information"
"resources"
"money"
"take risks"
"don't take it personally"
"understanding"
"teach your children about
racism"
"speak up"
"don't be scared of my
anger"
"support"
"listen"
"don't make assumptions"
"stand by my side"
"don't assume you know
what's best for me"
"put your body on the line"

"make mistakes"
"honesty"
"talk to other white people"
"interrupt jokes and
comments"
"don't ask me to speak for
my people"
One of the most important items on Kivel's list is for whites to
talk
to other white people. In many ways, the biggest
challenge for mem-
bers of privileged groups is to work with one another on issues
of prix
ilege rather than trying to help members of subordinate
groups. Per-
haps the biggest thing that men can do against sexism, for
example,
is to educate other men about patriarchy and
confront other men
about sexist behavior and the reality of male privilege. The
same can
be said about nondisabled people in relation to ableism

and straights
in relation to heterosexism. For members of privileged
groups to
become allies, they must recall Frederick Douglas's
words, that
"power concedes nothing without a demand" and add their
weight to
that demand. When dominant groups work against privilege,
they do
more than add their voices. They also make it more
difficult for other
members of dominant groups to dismiss calls for change as
simply the
actions of "special interest groups" trying to better their
position.
Speaking out is, of course, a hard and risky thing to do,
because
receiving privilege depends on being accepted by other
members of
the privileged group. But it is not possible to both work
to end privi-
lege and hang on to it at the same time.
Don't keel it to yourself. A corollary of looking for company
is not

to restrict your focus to the tight little circle of your own
life. It isn't
152 Chapter 9 What Can
We Do? 153
enough to work out private solutions to social problems and
keep
them to yourself. It isn't enough to clean up your own act and
then
walk away, to find ways to avoid the worst consequences of
privilege
and oppression at home and inside you and think that's taking
respon-
sibility. Privilege and oppression aren't a personal problem that
can
be solved through personal solutions. At some point, taking
responsi-
bility means acting in a larger context, even if that means
letting just
one other person know what you're doing. It makes sense to
start with
yourself, but it's equally important not to end with yourself.
A good way to convert personal change into something laxger is
to
join an organization dedicated to changing the systems that
produce
privilege and oppression. Most college and university campuses,
for
example, have student organizations that focus on issues of
gender, race,
sexual orientation, and disability. There are also national

organizations
working for change, often through local and statewide branches.
Con-
sider, for example, the National Organization for Women (NOS,
the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP),
the National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly
the
National Conference of Christians and Jews), the National Gay
and
Lesbian Task Force, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the
National
Organization for Men Against Sexism, the Feminist Majority,
the
National Abortion Rights Action League, the Southern Christian
Lead-
ership Conference, the National Urban League, the American
Associa-
tion of Disabled Persons (~A.DP), Not Dead Yet, the American
Council
of the Blind, the National Association for the Deaf, ADAPT
(American
Disabled For Attendant Programs Today), and People First.
If all this sounds overwhelming, remember again that you don't
have to deal with everything. You don't have to set yourself the
impos-
sible task of transforming society or even yourself All you can
do is
what you can manage to do, secure in the knowledge that you're
mak-
ing it easier for other people—now and in the future—to see and
do
what they can do. So, rather than defeat yourself before you
start, think

small, humble, and doable rather than large, heroic, and
impossible.
Don't paralyze yourself with impossible expectations. It takes
very lit-
tle to make a difference. Small acts can have radical
implications. As
Edmund Burke said, if the_ main requirement for the
perpetuation of
evil is that good people do nothing, then the choice isn't
between
all
or nothing, but between nothing and something.
Don't let other people set the standard for you. Start where you
are and
work from there. Make lists of all the things you could actually
imag-
ine doing—from reading another book about privilege to
suggesting
policy changes at school or work to protesting against
capitalism to
raising questions about who cleans the bathroom at home—and
rank
them from the most risky to the least. Start with the least risky
and
set
reasonable goals ("What small risk for change will I take today
?") . As

you get more experienced at taking risks, you can
move up your list.
You can commit yourself to whatever the next steps
are for you, the
tolerable risks, the contributions that offer some way—however
small
it might seem—to help balance the scales. As long as
you do some-
thing, it counts.
In the end, taking responsibility doesn't have to involve
guilt and
blame, letting someone off the hook, or being on the
hook yourself.
It simply means acknowledging an obligation to make a
contribution
to finding a way out of the trouble we're all in and
to finding con-
structive ways to act on that obligation. You don't have to do
anything
dramatic or earth-shaking to help change happen. As
powerful as sys-
tems of privilege are, they cannot stand the strain of
lots of people

doing something about it, beginning with the simplest
act of naming
the system out loud.
Racial and Ethnic Groups
Fifteenth Edition
Chapter 11
Muslim and Arab
Americans:
Diverse Minorities
Copyright © 2019, 2015, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives
11.1 Distinguish among Muslim, Arab, and Middle Eastern
Americans
11.2 Describe the Arab American community
11.3 Describe the Muslim American community
11.4 Summarize Muslim and Arab immigration to the United
States
11.5 Explain Islamophobia
11.5 Discuss the contemporary experiences of Arab and Muslim
Americans
Rights Reserved
Slide 2 is list of textbook LO numbers and statements
2

Identifying Arab, Muslim, and
Middle Eastern Americans
Distinguish among Muslim, Arab, and Middle Eastern
Americans
The three identifiers “Arab,” “Muslim,” and “Middle Eastern”
are frequently used interchangeably, but each term applies to
very different people in the United States
Collectively, in the misguided view of orientalism, Middle
Easterners are lumped together and collectively subjected to
prejudice and discrimination but are not eligible for supportive
efforts such as affirmative action
The Arab American and Muslim American communities are
among the most rapidly growing subordinate groups in the
United States
Rights Reserved
Arab Americans
Describe the Arab American community
The term Arab Americans refers to the immigrants and their
descendants from the countries that now make up the Arab
world
Panethnicity—the development of solidarity among subgroups
Deficit model of ethnic identity - model states that others view
one’s identity by subtracting away characteristics corresponding
to some ideal ethnic type
Rights Reserved
Muslim /Arab Americans
Rights Reserved

Muslim Americans
Describe the Muslim American community
Islam in the United States
Jihad, struggle against the enemies of Allah
Black Muslims
Rights Reserved
Immigration to the United States
Summarize Muslim and Arab immigration to the United States.
Significant proportion of African slaves were followers of Islam
Spanish Muslims accompanied explorers and conquistadores to
the Americas
Arabs immigrated as the result of encouragement from U.S.
funded missionary programs in the Middle East
Immediate aftermath of 9/11 led to about a 30 percent decline in
Arabs and Muslims immigrating to the United States because of
their apprehension over the reception they would receive and
increased scrutiny of their entry documents by the federal
government
Opponents of President Trumps travel ban, characterized the
ban as a twenty-first century example of nativism, a set of
beliefs and policies favoring native-born citizens over
immigrants
Rights Reserved
Islamophobia
Explain Islamophobia
Phrase casual Islamophobia describes statements previously
regarded as extreme that are now becoming accepted by large
portions of the general public
Given all this unrest, casual Islamophobia, and continuing

debates over immigration policy as it relates to overseas
Muslims and Arabs, how does this segment of the population go
about its everyday life in the United States?
Rights Reserved
Islam Diversity
Rights Reserved
Contemporary Life in the United States
Discuss the contemporary experiences of Arab and Muslim
Americans
Family Life and Gender
Education
Politics
Rights Reserved
Congressman Keith Ellison
Rights Reserved
Congressman Keith Ellison,
first elected in 2006, was the
first Muslim to have served in
Congress. Here Rep. Ellison is
shown speaking with constituents
in Minneapolis.

11
Copyright
Rights Reserved
Racial and Ethnic Groups
Fifteenth Edition
Chapter 7
African Americans
Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives
7.1 Explain the history of slavery in the United States and how
it influences
life today
7.2 Summarize the accomplishments of Black leaders in the
early twentieth century
7.3 Discuss the reemergence of Black protests
7.4 Summarize the key events and outcomes of the civil rights
movement
7.5 Explain how urban areas in the 1960s and 1970s refocused
Black–White relations
7.6 Describe the role of religion in the African American
community
7.7 Examine how recent immigration is adding to the Black
community

Rights Reserved
Slide 2 is list of textbook LO numbers and statements
2
Slavery
Explain the history of slavery in the United States and how it
influences life today
Slave Codes
The Attack on Slavery
Antislavery advocates, or abolitionists, included Whites and
free Blacks
Slavery’s Aftermath
the White primary, which forbade Black voting in election
primaries
The Legacy of Slavery
Slavery reparation refers to the act of making amends for the
injustice of slavery
Rights Reserved
Legacy of Slavery
Rights Reserved
The United States still finds it
difficult to come to terms with
the power of slavery. Here, we
see men dressed as Confederate
soldiers in a mock battle at
a Civil War reenactment in the
Cascade Mountains of Oregon.

4
The Challenges and Accomplishments
of Black Leaders
Summarize the accomplishments of Black leaders in the early
twentieth century
The Politics of Accommodation
Willing to forgo social equality until White people saw Blacks
as deserving of it
The Niagara Movement
Talented Tenth, theory that privileged Blacks must serve the
other nine-tenths
Rights Reserved
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rights Reserved
Reemergence of Black Protests
Discuss the reemergence of Black protests
Restrictive Covenant
Private contract entered into by neighborhood property owners
stipulating that property could not be sold or rented to certain
minority groups
Rights Reserved
The Civil Rights Movement
Summarize the key events and outcomes of the civil rights

movement
The Struggle to Desegregate Public Schools
de jure segregation
Civil Disobedience
based on the belief that people have the right to disobey the law
under certain circumstances
Martin Luther King, Jr strategy for disobeying unjust law
Actively but non-violently resisting evil
Not seeking to defeat or humiliate
Attacking the forces of evil rather than the people
Willing to accept suffering without retaliating
Refusing to hate the opponent
Acting with conviction that the universe is on the side of justice
Rights Reserved
The Urban Stage
Explain how urban areas in the 1960s and 1970s refocused
Black–White relations
Urban Violence and Oppression
Relative deprivation, conscious feeling of a negative
discrepancy between legitimate expectations and current
actualities
Rising expectations, increasing sense of frustration that
legitimate needs are being blocked
Black Power and #BlackLivesMatter
Rights Reserved
The Religious Force
Describe the role of religion in the African American
community

Historically, Black leaders have emerged from the pulpits to
seek out rights on behalf of all Blacks
The Africans who were brought involuntarily to the Western
Hemisphere were non-Christian
Despite being imposed in the past by Whites, the Christian
faiths are embraced by most African Americans today
Black churches continue to be socially involved in their
communities, but, like White Americans, more African
Americans are becoming unaffiliated with a specific faith
Rights Reserved
The New Immigration
Examine how recent immigration is adding to the Black
community
Substantial flow of immigrants has come from Africa and the
Caribbean
These new additions to the African American community are a
diverse group, including newcomers who first came to study,
others who came to join relatives, and some who came as
refugees
These new immigrants experience all the problems of
transitioning into a new society experienced by other
immigrants
Rights Reserved
Copyright
Rights Reserved

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