Week 2 of the Equity Challenge!
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.

We encourage you to download the 21 Week Equity Challenge tracking tool. If you’re taking the challenge as part of a group, download a free discussion guide to help facilitate conversations.

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.
Week 2: Understanding Privilege
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 effect a person (source).
 
Having privilege can give you advantages in life, but it is not a guarantee of success.
 
 
“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
 
Week 2 Challenge
With the definitions above in mind, do at least one of the following:
Read:

Why It's Important to Think About Privilege — and Why It's Hard (7-minute read)
Social Worker Kathleen Ebbitt shares her journey to acknowledging, critiquing, and accepting her privilege, and her tactics for talking about privilege with others. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-its-important-to-think-about-privilege-and-why/

Who Gets to Be Afraid in America? (7-minute read)
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.
 
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (12-minute read)
American feminist scholar Peggy McIntosh lists the ways she recognizes white privilege operating in her life in this 1989 article.
Watch:

What is Privilege? (3:59)
See how privilege shows up differently for this group of co-workers who take the privilege walk.
 
The Urgency of Intersectionality (18:41)
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 en español disponibles.)
 
Note: for longer videos, you may save time by watching at 1.5X playback speed.
Listen:

Chelsea Handler on White Privilege (25-minute listen)
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.
Act:

How Privileged are You? (5-minute quiz)
Take this self-assessment by BuzzFeed to discover where you are on a privilege spectrum.
Local Resources
A weekly book discussion group reading books on race and racism.

A yearlong, faith-based series of interactive and multidimensional public events. The series goal is to increase our understanding of how we think and feel about racism, resulting in actions that can help to transform us as individuals and the systems of racism in our country. 

The YWCA of SEW Wisconsin offers a variety of trainings about different facets of equity, such as structural racism, cultural differences, social transformation and more.

Higher Expectations engages community partners, aligns efforts, and maximizes resources to promote excellence and equity in education and employment outcomes in Racine County.
Learn more about the 21-Week Equity Challenge, review previous emails and resources, and share additional resources by visiting UnitedWayRacine.org/Equity.