Idea of privilege

he idea of privilege (including concepts such as White privilege, Male privilege, Able bodied privilege, thin privilege, heterosexual privilege etc.) tends to be one of the concepts that gets the most push-back, particularly from members of dominant groups. While most people are fairly on board with ideas of discrimination and poor treatment of minority groups, they have a much harder time seeing the advantages that come for simply being part of a majority group.

1. What were your ideas of the concept of privilege before coming to this class? Is this a concept that you have struggled with?

One of the reasons privileges is such a difficult topic is because we tend to see it manifest at the micro or individual level- because of this people tend to think they are being personally chided when they are told that they have privilege. However, privilege is actually a larger social structural issue.

2. Discuss how privilege is related to the social structure?

3. How do stereotypes and prejudice create and reinforce privilege?

4. How do these examples help with the understanding of privilege?

5. Because privilege is often based on stereotypes how do we combat it?

6. How do we undo privilege for majority groups (and thus equalize chances of minority groups) without majority groups feeling they are being discriminated against?

Make sure you answer all questions and use only class resources. All resources must be followed by in-text-citation and references for full point.

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