Welcome to week 2 of the Equity Challenge! Today, we continue our focus on developing a shared understanding of equity language and concepts. If you are just joining the challenge, please be sure to visit our website to review our week 1 topic: understanding race and racial identity.
Generally, we recommend around 20 minutes to review the weekly email, consider the week’s topic, and engage with materials shared. Some weeks may have more content to choose from, and you won’t be able to get to everything. It is up to you which of the resources/challenge activities you engage with. We’ve scheduled “reflections” every few weeks so that you can look back on previous weeks’ topics and revisit the resources.
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Week 2: Understanding Privilege |
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Privilege: the unearned social, political, economic, and psychological benefits of membership
in a group that has institutional and structural power (source).
There are many types of privilege. We commonly hear about privilege because of race or gender, but privilege also exists for different groups based on religion, sexuality, ability, class, or education level. Identifying with multiple groups may lead to simultaneously experiencing privilege and oppression. Intersectionality is a lens for exploring and understanding how different identities and different forms of discrimination interact and affect a person (source).
Having privilege can give you advantages in life, but it is not a guarantee of success.
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“Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is definitely an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.”
- Peggy McIntosh
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WEEK 2 CHALLENGE
With the definitions above in mind, do at least one of the following:
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Social Worker Kathleen Ebbitt shares her journey to acknowledging, critiquing, and accepting her privilege, and her tactics for talking about privilege with others.
Ibram X Kendi, Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, shares a personal perspective on recent race violence and outlines the frightening reality incumbent of being Black in the United States.
American feminist scholar Peggy McIntosh lists the ways she recognizes white privilege operating in her life in this 1989 article.
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See how privilege shows up differently for this group of co-workers who take the privilege walk.
Kimberlé Crenshaw examines the reality of race and gender bias and how the two can combine to create even more harm. Using the term "intersectionality" to describe this phenomenon, she examines how, if you're standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you're likely to get hit by both. (Subtítulos disponibles en español.)
Note: for longer videos, you may save time by watching at 1.5X playback speed.
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In 2019, comedian Chelsea Handler made a documentary on Netflix called, Hello Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea, where she explored the idea of white privilege. Sam Sanders talks to Chelsea about what she's learned since then, her latest book, Life Will Be the Death of Me...and You Too!, and coming to terms with both her own white privilege and herself.
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Take this self-assessment by BuzzFeed to discover where you are on a privilege spectrum.
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Share your reflections or additional resources about today’s topic on social media using #EquityChallenge - or send us a note at [email protected].
Learn more about the Challenge and review weekly topics by visiting
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UNITED WAY OF WISCONSIN | www.unitedwaywi.org
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