Social Change

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Social Change

• Combating the consequences of disempowered bodies
  
• 02/04/09

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A few minutes to reflect

• How are you feeling about what weve been
  studying?

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Outline

• Oppression and its bodily consequences what can
  we do about it?
• Privilege, oppression, and social change Allan
  Johnsons Privilege, Power, and Difference and
  others
• Examples of individuals making big differences
• Applying your learning to our program

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The problem with studying social problems.

• Depression
• Desperation
• Lack of agency
• Apathy
• Belief that we cant change things the problem
  seems so much bigger than each individual.

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The problem with studying social problems.

• These are powerful forces working against change.

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The problem with studying social problems

• "The belief that some changes are impossible is
  like a narcotic that lulls us into a reverie that
  can't be broken up from the inside" (Babbie 169).

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What can we do about it?

• Understand how systems of privilege and
  oppression work
• Cognitive liberation
• Learn how individuals can turn angst into action

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Systems of privilege and oppression
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SOCIAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP PROFILE
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SOCIAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP PROFILE

• Agent group a group of people with greater
  access to social power and privilege based upon
  their membership in their social group.
• Target group a group of people whose access to
  social power is limited or denied based upon
  their membership in their social group.

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YOUR PROFILE
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Exercise 1

• Reflect on your social group membership and your
  status as agent or target in these groups.
• Read about the characteristics of oppression.
• Answer independently, then discuss with your
  neighbor
• What are some examples of oppression at each
  level (individual, institutional, and
  societal/cultural) that weve been learning about
  in our program?

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Exercise 1

• Power and the body bodily consequences of
  oppression
• What are some examples of oppression at each
  level (individual, institutional, and
  societal/cultural) that weve been learning about
  in our program?

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Why dont we work for change, even though we are
disturbed by oppression?

• Soul of a Citizen (Loeb)
• Privilege, Power, and Difference (Johnson)

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Loeb Barriers to working for change

• cynicism
• despair
• hopelessness
• belief that our individual actions wont matter
• underestimating our power
• retreat into private life
• lack of connection (to people, the environment,
  historical efforts for change)

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Loeb Barriers to working for change

• removal from the consequences of our actions
• economic uncertainty
• denial
• resignation in the face of seemingly overwhelming
  problems
• saturation
• compassion fatigue

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Loeb Barriers to working for change

• by retreating into private life, We dont escape
  from the world so much as submit to it. We
  conspire in our own defeat (1999 91).

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What can we do about it?

• cognitive liberation
• believe you can make a difference
• believe the status quo isn't permanent

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What can we do about it?

• sociological paradox
• society and social institutions can have profound
  influences on our lives
• society is made up of all of us, and thus social
  change must begin with one person

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Now what?

• We know were in a privileged position.
• But why dont we always feel privileged?
• What can I do?

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You must read this book.
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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Privilege is paradoxical
• its more about the social categories we belong
  to than us as individuals

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Privilege is paradoxical
• Its more about the social categories we belong
  to than us as individuals
• Rich white men may lose it all in a stock market
  crash, but race, gender, and class privilege
  still exist

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Privilege is paradoxical
• We can be privileged without feeling privileged

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Privilege is paradoxical
• We can be privileged without feeling privileged
• Does gender privilege exist even if Ive never
  felt disadvantaged as a woman?

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Privilege is paradoxical
• We belong to many social categories, so we may be
  privileged in some circumstances and
  disadvantaged in others.
• We feel our disadvantages more than our
  advantages.

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Privilege is paradoxical
• Privilege doesnt always make you happy
• Privilege can exact a cost from those who have it
  

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• To have privilege is to participate in a system
  that confers advantage and dominance at the
  expense of other people, and that can cause
  distress to those who benefit from it (Johnson
  2001 39).

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• What does it mean to be an individual within a
  system of privilege and oppression?

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• there is no such thing as giving up ones
  privilege to be outside the system. One is
  always in the system. The only question is
  whether one is part of the system in a way which
  challenges or strengthens the status quo.
  Privilege is not something I take and which I
  therefore have the option of not taking. It is
  something that society gives me, and unless I
  change the institutions which give it to me, they
  will continue to give it, and I will continue to
  have it, however noble and egalitarian my
  intentions (Brod in Johnson 2001 36).

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Our society is like a Monopoly game
• Monopoly a box of stuff

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Our society is like a Monopoly game
• People have a range of possible motivations
  (compassion, altruism, greed) until they begin
  playing the game

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Our society is like a Monopoly game
• Because of the rules of the game, we are more
  likely to behave in greedy ways than in
  altruistic ways

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Our society is like a Monopoly game
• Like our society, the system of Monopoly loads
  the odds of our behavior in certain directions by
  offering us paths of least resistance to follow.

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Paths of least resistance social norms
• loading the odds of our behavior in certain
  directions
• how often do we even consider facing the rear of
  the elevator?

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• But just by following the norms (or playing by
  the rules of the game), we are perpetuating the
  status quo, which means that were not doing
  anything to combat the inequality and privilege
  that exist in our society.

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• As long as we participate in social systems, we
  dont get to choose whether to be involved in the
  consequences they produce. Were involved simply
  through the fact that were here. As such, we
  can only choose how to be involved thats where
  our power lies, and also our responsibility
  (Johnson 2001 95).

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• oppression depends on a social environment that
  makes it easy for people to stand by and do
  nothing

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• Most white people in the United States are not
  racist because they act from feelings or thoughts
  of racial hostility or ill will. All thats
  required of most white people in order for racism
  to continue is that they not notice, that they do
  nothing, that they remain silent (Johnson 2001
  115).

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Systems of privilege and oppression

• There are barriers that keep well-intentioned
  members of dominant groups stuck in a place where
  they dont see themselves as part of the solution
  (Johnson 2001 82).

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Barriers

• guilt, unhappiness, not feeling privileged
  personally
• anger, fear, discomfort, defensiveness,
  resentment, detachment, inattention, ignorance,
  and the luxury of obliviousness

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Barriers

• Targets of oppression are always on the hook.
• Agents have the luxury of letting themselves off
  the hook by denying the oppression or resisting
  making changes

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Ways we let ourselves off the hook

• Deny and minimize

• There are no gays or lesbians where I work, so
  sexual orientation isnt an issue here.
• Affirmative has turned the tables now white
  men are in trouble

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Ways we let ourselves off the hook

• Blame the victim

• If they (African-Americans, poor people) worked
  harder and got an education, theyd be okay.

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Ways we let ourselves off the hook

• Its better this way

• Explaining segregation by saying that people
  naturally prefer to live and associate with
  their own kind.

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Ways we let ourselves off the hook

• It doesnt count if you dont mean it

• White faculty inadvertently calling only on white
  students in class. (Consequences matter whether
  or not theyre matched by intention.)
• It was a joke!

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Ways we let ourselves off the hook

• Sick and tired

• Here we go again eye-rolling when someone
  mentions patriarchy, racism, poverty,
  gay-bashing We dont want to feel
  uncomfortable. Weve got troubles of our own.

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Consequences

• 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
  cant get close to other people without touching
  the trouble around privilege and oppression. Men
  living off the hook distance and insulate
  themselves from women, whites from people of
  color, heterosexuals from lesbians and gay men,
  the middle and upper classes from the working and
  lower classes. And the more diverse and
  interconnected the world becomes, the harder it
  is to sustain the illusion and the denial day
  after day, the more it takes to maintain the
  distance and deny the connection. They become
  like the person who loses the ability to feel
  pain, and bleeds to death from a thousand tiny
  cuts that go unnoticed, untreated, and unhealed
  (Johnson 2001 136).

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• Humans are social creatures. We need each other.

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What can we do to make positive changes?

• See tomorrows chapter from Johnson!
• Dont believe in the myth that its always been
  this way, and it always will be.

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What can we do to make positive changes?

• Take a very long view of social change change
  can happen and we can be part of it, even if
  were not around to see it happen.

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What can we do to make positive changes?

• Take paths of greater resistance in everyday
  interactions
• refuse to be silent, even if it means standing up
  against a joke your friend makes
• set an example so people can see other possible
  types of behavior (introduce exceptions to the
  norm)

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Personal applications of Johnson

• Answer questions.
• Discuss with a peer.
• Put in your portfolio.

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What can we do to make a better society?

• A tour of other writers work.

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The Cycle of Liberation (Harro)

• social change and liberation from oppression
  involve work on many levels
• Intrapersonal
• Interpersonal
• Community
• Societal
• Cultural

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The Cycle of Liberation

• Commonalities in successful liberation movements
• core of self-love, balance, and support
• self-empowerment and consciousness-raising
• community-building
• building coalitions
• changing institutions/making systemic changes
• maintaining change (including taking care of
  self)

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What is necessary for social change?

• Which of these strategies/characteristics will
  help you work for a better world?
• Soul of a Citizen (Loeb)

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What is necessary for social change?

• taking time to figure out what you want to fight
  for
• rejuvenation
• having the view that we have one hundred years to
  change the worldkeep a sustainable pace and
  maintain your reserves

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What is necessary for social change?

• dont get too attached to the results of your
  actionssavor the everyday work (dont live for a
  future goal live in the present and enjoy it)

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What is necessary for social change?

• using your anger at injustice to fuel your
  activism at a slow burn rather than at a
  consuming pace
• focus on all the little bits of progress (both
  changing individual lives and changing
  institutions)

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What is necessary for social change?

• work with people whose commitment helps
  strengthen our resolve
• link our attempts at change to all the other
  efforts that other people have made

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What is necessary for social change?

• If we see our political efforts as isolated
  acts, were almost certainly going to grow
  desperate and disheartened. By contrast, viewing
  them as part of an ongoing historical narrative
  helps us feel we have all the time we need to
  act, even given the urgencies of the moment.
  It shifts us from thinking solely about current
  crises, to asking how our efforts can best shape
  the world for generations to come (Loeb 1999
  347).

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Strategies for making change
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What kind of work could you do?

• Providing services
• Education
• Advocacy
• Electoral work
• Organizing

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Strategies for making change

• service provision providing basic services to
  people who need them, often to meet peoples
  needs, such as food, health care, etc.

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Strategies for making social change

• education raising knowledge about issues so that
  people affected by the issues can be informed.

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Strategies for making social change

• advocacy pleading the cause on behalf of the
  individuals or groups affected by the problem

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Strategies for making social change

• electoral work making change through voting,
  legislation, and lobbying officials

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Strategies for making social change

• organizing the process of bringing people
  together in order to use their collective power
  to win improvements in peoples lives and to
  challenge the power structure

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What can we do to make a better world?

• Small acts in our daily interactions

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What can we do to make a better world?

• Impairment vs. disability
• Supporting vs. ostracizing

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Small acts, big impacts
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What can we do to make a better world?

• Combating poverty with community-based kitchens
• Fighting human trafficking
• Social entrepreneurship and microfinancing

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Combating poverty with community-based kitchens

• Greyston Bakery
• Yonkers, NY

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Combating poverty with community-based kitchens

• Greyston Bakery
• Started in 1982 to employ Zen Buddhists
• Makes brownies for Ben and Jerrys
• 180 employees

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Greyston Bakery

• Hires recovering drug addicts, homeless, poor,
  and chronically unemployed people

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Greyston Bakery

• Profits Greyston Foundation
• jobs, housing, health care, and family services
  for the community

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Fighting human trafficking

• Polaris Project

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Polaris Project

• started by two college students in 2002
• modern Underground Railroad

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Polaris Project

• Did field research to learn how to
• find trafficking victims
• build relationships with law enforcement
• link victims with services
• get more community members to care about the
  issue and take action

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Polaris Project

• Now one of the largest anti-trafficking
  organizations in the United States and Japan 
• Serves both citizen and foreign national victims
  of human trafficking

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Polaris Projects approach to combating human
trafficking

• direct outreach and victim identification
• provides social services and transitional housing
  to victims
• operates the central national hotline on human
  trafficking
• advocates for stronger state and federal
  anti-trafficking legislation
• engages community members in local and national
  grassroots efforts

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Combating poverty worldwide

• Microfinancing and Kiva.org

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Kiva.org

• Started by couple in mid-twenties
• Concerned about poverty and the challenges poor
  people in developing world had getting bank loans

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Kiva.org

• microlending lending small amounts to
  individuals in villages to start businesses

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Kiva.org

• Developed an online peer-to-peer microlending
  organization that lets anyone offer microloans.
• When your loan is repaid to Kiva, you can reloan
  the money to another entrepreneur

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Kiva.org

• Average time it takes a loan to be fully funded
  13 hours
• Repayment rate is over 97

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Kiva.org Latest Statistics
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Kiva.org

• My students microloans are supporting
• Farmers in Uganda, Cambodia, Tajikistan
• Taxi business in Paraguay
• Weaving business in Cambodia

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Conclusions

• Liberation from social oppression
• Self-empowerment and cognitive liberation matter
• Be mindful of the paradoxes of privilege
• Taking a path of greater resistance improves our
  humanity
• Change happens on individual, interpersonal,
  institutional, and societal levels
• Little steps can create big changes

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• We must remember that societies remain stable
  because enough individuals define existing
  conditions as satisfactory and that societies
  change because enough individuals define
  situations that were once tolerable as problems
  that must be acknowledged and solved.
• Newman 2000538

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So lets do something

• Combating the consequences of disempowered bodies

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Lecture sources

• Harro The Cycle of Liberation in Readings for
  Diversity and Social Justice
• Johnson Privilege, Power, and Difference
• Loeb Soul of a Citizen
• Newman Sociology The Architecture of Everyday
  Life.
• School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) Building
  Power, Sharpening Minds! The political education
  workshop manual, 2e.