Download AHE 199 - Intro to Conceptual Frameworks _Identity

Personal/Social Identity Development:
Who am I? Who are my people?
Christopher E Hughbanks
AHE 199 Lecture
Residence Education
University Housing and Dining Services
Oregon State University
Powerpoint Adapted From: Adams, M., Bell, L. & Griffin (2007) “Teaching for
Diversity and Social Justice,” New York: Routledge.
Delimitations
We focus on social justice issues in the
United States
 This one way to understand the dynamics
of social justice and oppression
 This is a snap shot of a dynamic process

Diversity Education
•Focuses on appreciating differences
between social identity group
•Group’s traditions, language, style of dress,
cultural practices, religious beliefs and
practices …
•Lacks an emphasis on power dynamics or
differential access to resources and
institutional support needed to live safe,
satisfying, productive lives
Social Justice Education
•Focuses on understanding the social
power dynamics that result in some
social groups having privilege, status,
and access while other groups are
disadvantaged, oppressed, and denied
access
•Focuses on individual and social action
to eliminate oppression
Identity
•A specific marker of how we define
ourselves at any particular moment in life
(Kirk & Okazawa-Rey)
•A set of behavioral or personal
characteristics by which an individual is
recognizable as a member of a group
(American Heritage dictionary)
Identity Continued
• Comes about through the interaction between
one’s internal sense of who one is (based
upon one’s social grouping) and the views of
oneself and one’s group reflected back by
others in society (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey)
•Different contexts may highlight different
dimensions of identity
•Salience of identities varies in different
situations and throughout life (Tatum)
Identity Formation
•An ongoing process - the result of a complex interplay
among individual decisions and choices, life events,
community recognition and expectations, and societal
categorization, classification and socialization - micro,
mezo and macro level (Kirk & Okazwa-Rey)
• Answers Questions;
•Who Am I? Who do I want to be?
•Who do others think I am and want me to be?
•Who and what do societal and community
institutions say I am?
•Which social groups do I want to affiliate with?
Personal Identities
•Characteristics that make you an individual
•How we see and feel about ourselves
•Personality, hobbies, activities, geographic
location, academic or social issues
Social Identities / Social
Groups
•Social Group (How people see / categorize
me):
•A collection of people who share a range of
physical, cultural or social characteristics within
one of the categories of social identity (Harro,
2000)
•e.g., woman, Mexican, middle class, bi-sexual,
Catholic, etc
•Social Identity - (How I see myself)
•One’s sense of oneself as belonging to a
particular social group (Harro, 2000)
Some Social Identity Categories
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Sex
Race
Class
Religion
Ability / Disability
Age
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Gender
Sexual Orientation
Ethnicity
Culture
Language
Example Social Identity Categories and Social
Group Memberships
Social Identity Categories Social Group Members
Race
Black, White, Asian, Latino, Native
American, Multiracial
Sex
Female, Male, Intersex
Gender
Men, Women, Transgender,
Genderqueer
Religion
Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu,
Buddhist, Mormon
Sexual Orientation
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Heterosexual
Class
Owning, Upper Middle, Middle,
Working Class, Poor
Ability
Disabled, Temporarily Able-Bodied
Age
Elders, Adults, Young People
Questions?
Social Location
• The point where all the features embodied in
a person overlap (multiple identities)
•A way of expressing the core of a person’s
existence in the social and political world
placing us in relationships to other, the
dominant culture of the US and the rest of the
word
•We live with multiple identities, some are
privileged and some are targeted
Social identity groups have
different statuses

Advantaged
(agent, dominant, privileged)
– People within each social identity category
with greater access to social power and
privilege

Targeted
(oppressed, disadvantaged)
– People within each social identity category
whose access to power is limited or denied
Privilege

Unearned access to resources (social power)
only readily available to some people as a
result of their advantaged social group
membership.
 Examples:
– Feeling physically safe in most places
– Having connections to help you reach career
goals
– Having access to Health Care
– Having your family legally sanctioned and
protected through marriage
– Being seen as an individual rather than
stereotyped as a member of a social group
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice: A set of negative personal beliefs
about a social group that leads individuals to
pre-judge people from that group or the group
in general, regardless of individual differences
among members of that group.
Discrimination: The act of denying members of
a particular group equal access to societal
resources (ie. education, jobs, housing, health
care, etc.) - occurs when prejudiced feelings
move into the realm of behavior
Oppression

A system that maintains advantage and
disadvantage based on social group
memberships and operates,
intentionally and unintentionally on
individual, institutional, and cultural
levels.
Matrix of Oppression
Social Identity
Privileged
Categories
Social Groups
Border Social
Groups
Oppressed
Social Groups
Ism
(type of
Oppression)
Race
White People
Biracial people
Asian, Black
Latina/o, Native
People
Racism
Sex
Bio Men
Transsexual,
Intersex People
Bio Women
Sexism
AND
Transgender
Oppression
Gender
Gender
conforming Bio
Men and Women
Gender
Ambiguous Bio
Men and Women
Transgender,
Genderqueer,
Intersex People
Sexual
Orientation
Heterosexual
People
Bisexual People
Lesbians, Gay
Men
Heterosexism
Class
Rich, Upper
Class People
Middle Class
People
Working Class,
Poor People
Classism
Ability/Disability
Temporarily AbleBodied People
People with
Temporary
Disabilities
People with
Disabilities
Ableism
Religion
Protestants
Roman Catholic
(historically)
Jews, Muslims,
Hindus, Sikhs
Religious
Oppression
Age
Adults
Young Adults
Elders, Young
People
Ageism/Adultism
Effects and Characteristics of
Social Groups
Advantaged
•Valued
•Privileged
•“Namers”
•“Normal”
•Accepted
•Visible
•Un-self conscious
•Ignorant of target
groups’ experiences
•Dehumanized
Targeted
•Devalued
•Suspected/blamed
•Stereotyped / Labeled
•“Abnormal”
•Excluded
•Invisible
•Conscious of self
•Knowledgeable of
advantaged group
•Dehumanized
Questions to Consider
•What social identities do your close group of friends and family
hold? Are there trends, commonalities?
•Which social identities were the hardest / easiest to identify for
myself?
• Where are my learning edges? Which social identities categories
would I like to learn more about?
• How will my residence hall community get to know each other’s
personal and social identities
•How will I address conflict connected to social identities that
surfaces in my residential community?
Level & Types of
Oppression
Levels of Oppression
•Individual
•Societal/Cultural
•Institutional
INDIVIDUAL
Attitudes and actions that reflect prejudice against a social
group.
• Attitudes
• Beliefs
• Socialization
• Interpersonal interactions
• Individual behaviors
INSTITUTIONAL
Policies, laws, rules, norms, and customs enacted by
organizations and social institutions that disadvantage some
social groups and advantage other social groups.
Media
Government
Employment
Religion
Education
Housing
Legal System
Health Care
SOCIAL/CULTURAL
Social norms, roles, rituals, language, music, and art that reflect
and reinforce the belief that one social group is superior to
another.
Values and norms (Politeness, Etiquette)
 Language (Dialects)
Standards of beauty
 Holidays
Gender roles
Societal expectations

TYPES OF OPPRESSION
Conscious
Knowingly
supporting social oppression
through individual, institutional, and
social/cultural means
TYPES OF OPPRESSION
Unconscious
Accepting
the dominant way of
thinking and justifying oppression
as normal or part of the natural
order.
The unknowing or naive
collusion with the maintenance of
social oppression.
Examples:
Levels & Types of Oppression
Individual
Institutional
Cultural
Conscious
An adult openly dismisses
the thinking of a young
person simply because of
their age.
Someone who has been
convicted of a crime often
cannot vote, rent, or receive
state benefits like welfare.
The media normalizes
violence against women,
women as domestic,
women as sexual objects,
women as subordinant to
men..
Unconscious
Organizing a party at an
expensive restaurant where
your working class friend
must choose between
spending time with you and
having something to eat.
Many U.S. schools plan
vacations around Christian
holidays.
The idea that wisdom
comes with age and that
young people’s ideas should
not be heeded.
More Questions to Consider
•How does oppression impact the RA and CRF positions?
•Where does oppression (racism, classism, homphobia, sexism)
exist on campus and in the residential community?
• How will I address issues of social justice and oppression in my
residential community?
• What offices on campus can help me do this work?
•What questions do I still have? What aspects of oppression were
new to me? Where can I go for more information?
• What happens when an issue arises in the community and I don’t
know what to do?
Questions?