3.1 Key Terms
Review the following key terms and concepts that underpin this module:
Power
Power is unequally distributed globally and in society; some individuals or groups wield greater power than others, thereby allowing them greater access and control over resources. Wealth, whiteness, citizenship, patriarchy, heterosexism, and education are a few key social mechanisms through which power operates. Although power is often conceptualized as power over other individuals or groups, other variations are power with (used in the context of building collective strength) and power within (which references an individual’s internal strength). Learning to “see” and understand relations of power is vital to organizing for progressive social change.
Privilege
Privilege can be defined as a group of unearned cultural, legal, social, and institutional rights extended to a group based on their social group membership. Individuals with privilege are considered to be the normative group (such as those belonging to cisgender, white, able-bodied and other dominant groups), leaving those without access to this privilege invisible, unnatural, deviant, or just plain wrong. Most of the time, these privileges are automatic and most individuals in the privileged group are unaware of them. Some people who can “pass” as members of the privileged group might have access to some levels of privilege.
Having privilege does not mean that you never encounter hardship, but rather that the hardship that you encounter is not a result of your belonging to a privileged social group.
Oppression
Oppression is the systemic and pervasive nature of social inequality woven throughout social institutions as well as embedded within individual consciousness. Oppression fuses institutional and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that shape most aspects of life in our society. You will learn more about bias later in the module.
Marginalization
Marginalization refers to a social process by which individuals or groups are (intentionally or unintentionally) distanced from access to power and resources and constructed as insignificant, peripheral, or less valuable/privileged to a community or “mainstream” society. To what extent these groups are marginalized is context-specific and reliant on the cultural organization of the social site in question. In addition, marginalization describes a social process, so as not to imply a lack of agency.
Inclusion
Inclusion is the active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity, where each person is valued and provided with the opportunity to participate fully in creating a successful and thriving community. It also means creating value from the distinctive skills, experiences and perspectives of all members of our community, allowing us to leverage talent and foster both individual and organizational excellence.
Diversity
In broad terms, diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. It means respect for and appreciation of differences in ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, ability, sexual orientation, faith, socio-economic status and class. But it’s more than this. It includes differences in life experiences, learning and working styles and personality types that can be engaged to achieve excellence in teaching, learning, research, scholarship and administrative and support services.
Equity
Equity is the guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all. It requires the identification and elimination of barriers that prevent the full participation of some groups. This principle acknowledges that there are historically under-served and underrepresented populations in the social areas of employment, the provision of goods and services, as well as living accommodations. Redressing unbalanced conditions is needed to achieve equality of opportunity for all groups.
People sometimes wonder about the difference between equity and equality. The cartoon images below from the 4thbox project from the Center for Story-based Strategy Links to an external site. are helpful in explaining what equity and equality (and, even better, liberation) look like.
In all of the three images above, three people of different heights are trying to watch a baseball game. In the first image titled "equality," these people stand behind a fence, each standing on a box of the same size. The tallest person can see past the fence, the person in the middle just sees over the fence, and the smallest person can't see at all. Everyone receives "equal" support (i.e., the same box) but has different outcomes.
In the second image titled "equity," the tallest person has no box, the person in the middle still has one box, and the smallest person has two boxes. Everyone can see past the fence. Everyone gets what they need for equal opportunity to watch the game.
The third image is titled "liberation" because barriers have been removed. There is no fence, and boxes are no longer necessary for them to see the game.