SETTING THE STAGE AND

UNDERSTANDING
OPPRESSION

9.2.20
Community Intervention
Leaning In
■ Critical stance- knowledge is socially constructed and that education is a
political project embedded within a network of social institutions that
reproduce inequality.
■ Challenging out concept of being ‘open minded’
■ Categories DO matter, success isn’t merely based on merit.

■ How do you respond when your worldview is challenged?

Unearthing Tension

■ We are underprepared to engage in the course content in scholarly ways.

– Why does the article say that ‘students are not prepared to think
critically’?
■ Most of us have very strong feelings and opinions about the topics
examined in social justice courses.
– Look at the statements on page 4. Why are they problematic, according to
the author?
Maximize your learning

■ Strive for intellectual humility.

■ Recognize the difference between opinions and informed knowledge.
■ Let go of personal anecdotal evidence and look at broader societal patterns.
■ Notice your own defensive reactions, and attempt to use these reactions as
entry points for gaining deeper self-knowledge.
■ Recognize how your own social positionality (such as your race, class,
gender, sexuality, ability-status) informs your perspectives and reactions to
your instructor and those whose work you study in the course.
Maximize your learning (cont)

■ Consider frameworks
– How can you step outside of your own experience and examine life from
another person’s point of view?
■ Other questions to consider:
– What about my life in relation to my race/class/gender might make it
difficult for me to see or validate this new perspective?
– What do my reactions reveal about what I perceive is at risk were I to
accept this information?
Maximize your learning (cont)

■ Positionality - the concept that our perspectives are based on our

positions within society. Positionality recognizes that where you stand in
relation to others in society shapes what you can see and understand.
■ You can’t separate culture from what we consider knowledge and facts.
■ How does the ‘water’ of culture that you swim in shape your view of the
world around you?
■ Tree Example- Let’s discuss!
Calling In
■ We are programmed to punish people for their mistakes.
■ Calling in is offering compassion and space for learning.
■ Should we only ‘call in’ verses ‘call out’?
■ Engaging in productive conversations with people who we have reason to
trust, vs people who demand we not hurt their feelings.
Preparing Yourself
■ Who is organizing in spaces you care about?
■ Who is making laws that affect your community?
■ Who represents you?
– https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
Some Basic Civics

■ State and Local Politics

– Governor and his cabinet
– Mayors and Commissioners
– The Georgia House and Senate (one senator and one representative,
based on location, two year terms)
– One session a year- usually January through March
Basic Civics (cont)

National Politics
■ President
■ Supreme Court
■ Legislature
– House of Representatives- based on where you live in your state (2 year terms)
– Senate- based on your state (2 per state, 6 year terms)
– Meet year round with various recess times.
Oppression

■ What is oppression?
■ De-humanization of those who are oppressed.
■ When the oppressed become the oppressor
■ Liberation must be made with the oppressed, not for.
Oppression

■ Two distinct Stages

■ Understanding of the oppression and commitment to changing it.
■ When change happens, it evolves to total liberation.
■ Oppression is violence
■ By freeing themselves, the oppressed free the oppressors
■ True change is not role reversals, but liberation.
Oppression

■ Challenges when members of the oppressive group join the oppressed in the quest for
liberation.
■ Connect this concept back to the discourses from last week. Do you see the
connections?
■ Self depreciation of those who are oppressed.
■ Important for those from oppressor class to view things from an empowerment
perspective.