The Trouble With Difference

1
The Trouble With Difference
2
This is not a class about minority communities.

• Its a class about the social construction of
  difference. How it is accomplished, its
  affects, and how it operates as an on-going
  process.

3
Is Inequality Natural

• Cant we all just get along?
• Maybe we cant.
• What are dominant cultural arguments that support
  the importance of inequality?
• On what grounds is the perpetuation of inequality
  important or valuable?

4
The Trouble is Difference

• Sociologists present a social constructionist
  view of the trouble.
• How difference is defined, constructed, enacted
  and perpetuated is what establishes inequality.
• Difference by itself is not problematic. It is
  rather that in Western culture, privilege and
  oppression center around social categories
  defined by difference.
• Differences at each juncture means different
  opportunities, experiences, and interpretations.

5
Difference is Learned.

• How is Difference Learned?
• One of these things is not like the other, one
  of these things doesnt belong
• That which is different needs to be eliminated.

6
Difference is Not Innocuous

• Difference in Western culture always implies
  hierarchy (Foucault, 1979).
• One is ranked based on ones ascribed
  characteristics.
• How are we judged by race, class, gender, sexual
  orientation, ableness?

7
Privilege

• McIntosh (1993), privilege exists when one group
  has something of value or access to something of
  value that is denied to others primarily because
  of the groups to which that individual belongs,
  rather than along meritocratic principles.

8
Oppression

• By contrast, oppression is simply a limiting of
  options (Collins, 1991 Frye, 1983).

9
Privilege and Oppression

• It is crucial that one understand that these are
  not individual issues, but social structural
  ones. Though individuals may not actively work
  to enforce these differences, those in dominant
  categories inevitably benefit from privilege, and
  those in subordinated or marginalized categories
  face a narrower range of options and odds for
  acquiring other forms of privilege.

10
Discussion Activity

• List 5 facets of your identity (ie. Gender, race,
  ablebodiedness, sexual orientation, age etc.)
• In what ways does each characteristic lead to you
  being privileged and/or oppressed. Be sure to
  consider this in terms of the range of options
  open to you.
• Join with a group of four. Share your answers.
• Discuss with the class.

11
Privilege and Media Frames

• Privilege means more than simply having more
  options, but also involves framings and
  interpretations of behavior (Dworkin Wachs,
  1998 Frye, 1983 Johnson, 2001).
• Those with privilege are protected from blame and
  stigma, which is displaced onto subordinated
  categories.
• For example, Dworkin Wachs studied HIV
  athletes. Blame for contagion is displaced onto
  women and the minority status of men, whereas
  imperatives of masculinity that may be
  problematic, remain unquestioned.

12
Introducing the Matrix of Domination

• Interlocking axes of identity. The matrix
  consists of ones different ascribed and achieved
  statuses. Patricia Hill Collins coined the
  idea.
• Conceptually, the matrix is a valuable tool
  because it reveals how ones status is not based
  on one facet of identity, but on many which
  intermix in a variety of ways to shape
  experiences, privilege and oppression.
• Hence, one can be privileged on one axes, but
  subordinated on another.

13
Interrogating the Matrix

• What does the matrix acknowledge?
• Please give examples of the matrix in action.

14
The Complexity of Identity

• Those on the dominant side of a binary of
  inequality are inherently privileged, while those
  on the other suffer the effects of oppression.
• But what the matrix of domination shows us, is
  that sometimes the same person is in different
  positions in the hierarchy.

15
The Machinations of Privilege

• Certain traits or characteristics are positive
  when applied to some and negative when applied to
  others.
• Can you give us an example?
• Some are faced with stigmatized options.
• Failings are displaced on to subordinated
  categories of identity and success is attributed
  to dominant ones.

16
Seeing Privilege and Oppression

• As noted by MacIntosh (1993), privilege and
  oppression are visible in two forms unearned
  entitlements and conferred dominance.

17
Unearned Entitlements

• Refers to what we should all have, but some
  dont. Being safe in public places, being
  treated respectfully, being paid equitably for
  labor, and so forth.

18
Conferred Dominance

• Refers to the privilege of authority. It gives
  one group the right to power over another.

19
Why Havent We Solved the Problem Yet?

• Systems of Privilege are Self-Perpetuating
• Systems of difference tend to protect and reify
  privilege in 3 ways.
• 1) Privileged aspects of identity are publicly
  praised and celebrated.
• 2) Ideological Repair Work acts as a Defense
  Systems that deflect blame and criticism for
  transgression away from dominant categories onto
  subordinated facets of identity.
• 3) Structural/Individual Conflations- Structural
  Issues are only acknowledged as individual
  failures (Linked to subordinate categories.

20
Categories of Difference

• Gender/Sex
• Race/Ethnicity
• Class
• Sexual Orientation

21
Gender/Sex

• How do we distinguish by Sex/Gender in our
  culture?
• Why do we distinguish by Sex/Gender in our
  culture?

22
Sexuality

• Moving from poles to a continuum.
• What constitutes normal sexual behavior?
• Sexual behavior as a social construct.

23
Difference is Profitable

• What we should never forget- DIFFERENCE IS
  PROFITABLE- capitalist systems benefit from the
  idea that we must display visible
  gender/sexuality related differences.

24
Understanding Race and Ethnicity

• Race- a group of people who perceive themselves
  and are perceived by others as possessing
  distinctive hereditary traits.
• Racial Group- minorities and the corresponding
  majorities that are classified according to
  obvious physical differences. Each society
  defines obvious physical differences according to
  its own power structure.
• Ethnicity- Denotes a group of people who perceive
  themselves and are perceived by others as sharing
  cultural traits ie. language, religion, family
  customs, food preferences.
• Ethnic Group- groups set apart from others
  because of their national origin or distinctive
  cultural patterns.

25
The Problem with Race

• Racial categories are socially constructed and
  change over time.
• There is more variation within, than between
  groups.
• There is no genetic basis for current conceptions
  of race.
• As a political concept, it is simultaneously
  cohesive and divisive.

26
Two Ideas of Racial Difference

• 1) Physical
• Medical Propensities
• Pop-Cultural Truism
• 2) Social/cultural
• Primarily cultural- more like ethnicity.

27
Class

• What Makes Up Social Class?
• Income
• Wealth
• Occupation
• Level of Education

28
Is Class Visible? Cultural Capital

• Different forms of capital individuals possess
  confer value. Ie. Economic capital. But one
  also has cultural capital- embodied, objectified
  or institutionalized skills, knowledge, networks,
  and shared experiences that confer value.
  (Bourdieu, 1984)

29
In What Ways Is Class Made Visible Today?

• Give some examples of how social class is
  identified?
• How do you feel when you are confronted by people
  of different class backgrounds?
• What stereotypes (positive or negative) do we
  hold about individuals of different class
  backgrounds?

30
Structural Inequality- Capitalism

• The only goal of a capitalist system is increased
  profit. There are no ethics involved.
• Profit is obtained by turning raw materials into
  marketable goods and successfully selling them.
• Role of stock market- -Problem The tendency is
  for the rate of profit to decline.
• The tendency is for the rate of profit to
  decline. Hence, cheap labor and increasingly
  cheaper labor is needed to combat this tendency.

31
Do You Really Want Equality?

• What privileges must one give up to increase
  social equity?