Hi everyone!

Here is #3 on my list of Things I’ve Learned @ Brescia. I know that my list has been dormant for a little while, and, in fact, my blogging in general has been kinda slow lately. Please forgive me- it’s the end of the year and there is LOTS to do!!

I hadn’t even planned to post this one quite yet, since it’s a bit of a challenging topic. However, I feel like it’s also one of the most meaningful and important things I have learned during my time here and it’s something that I’m still exploring. I was especially reminded of it today while I was reading this post on Racialicious.com. The post is pretty heavy, but what it reminded me of is this:

#8 We ALL have many intersecting identities that make up who we are. This includes our race, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical and psychological abilities, and more. Importantly, these different identities shape the privileges that we have in society (or don’t).

This has been a really tough concept for me to tackle, and it took most of my first year sociology class to really start to explore it and understand what it meant. While it is COMPLETELY beyond the scope of this blog to go into the necessary detail on this, I want to leave you with a bit of an explanation of what I mean by this and some of my thoughts. Basically, my understanding of this is based on four main ideas:

1. There are REAL differences between people and groups of people.

When I grew up I was taught things like “Everybody is equal”. “Girls are just as good as boys.” “The colour of your skin doesn’t determine who you are.” “Deep down, we are all the same.”

I feel that there is something meaningful behind these ideas, because they are trying to point out that people are not better or worse in general because of the characteristics they have, like their race, gender, or physical abilities. Basically, everyone is valuable because they are human. I truly believe this.

However, just because everyone has human dignity does NOT mean that everyone is “the same”. First of all, we are all unique. NO ONE is exactly the same as you in the whole world, which is pretty cool. Second, there are also group differences. Different cultures do things differently. Women may have different experiences than men (giving birth, for one). People with certain physical abilities (such as sight) have different experiences than those who don’t have those abilities, or who have other versions of those abilities (such as colour blindness). While it is not helpful to stereotype these experiences into hard and fast rules (i.e. all women are super emotional), it is equally unhelpful to minimize or deny these differences altogether.

2. People are not “better” or “worse” on the basis of these differences.

I truly believe people are not better or worse because of their differences. I feel that it is important to see differences as just that: differences. Not deficiencies or problems or dysfunctions or things that need to be “fixed” so that they are the “right way”. I strongly feel that pieces of our identity such as our age, sexual orientation, cultural heritage, or income shouldn’t dictate whether or not we are worthy of certain rights. In Canada, this idea is foundational to our society.

However, we may not all believe this all the time. And even when we think we do, we may still have attitudes and practices that aren’t reflective of this belief. This leads to my next important point:

3. Inequality exists in our society.

Sadly, even though we suggest that everyone is equally worthy of basic rights and freedoms such as shelter, food, education, etc., this is not always practiced. In fact, principles and practices that support inequality can become so deeply enshrined in our beliefs and in our social systems that they are invisible to us. We may even get to a point where we blame the victims for being hurt by social inequality: for example, by saying that it is a person who uses a wheelchair’s fault that she never gets to class on time (even though it may be because the building hasn’t been built in a way that it is easy for her to navigate), or that it is a single woman with children’s fault that she lives below the poverty line because she doesn’t “work hard enough” (even though it may be because of the demands of raising children alone, harsh restrictions around welfare, or issues with domestic violence). Sadly, this can get to a point where we have been victimized so many times that we start to internalize these beliefs ourselves (e.g. women feeling, on some level, that they are inferior to men).

Although developing an awareness of inequality can be extremely challenging, painful, and controversial, it can also be incredibly eye opening and transformative, leading to meaningful positive change. If you would like to explore some of the different forms inequality, here are some resources:

• The White Privilege Checklist — This checklist helps to unpack some of the racial privileges that exist in our society.
• The Male Privilege Checklist – Here is a similar checklist later designed to help identify some of the gender privileges that exist in our society.
• Class Differences- People Like Us – This website exposes some of the hidden class differences that exist. You might want to try some of the games at the bottom.
• Apology of the Canadian Government to First Nations People – This is just the beginning of an awakening to the horrible injustices and inequality experienced by First Nations people in Canada. This is the Prime Minister’s official apology to First Nations people for the terrors that were inflicted on them in Residential Schools. These schools, as Prime Minister Harper says, wre intended to “kill the Indian in the child” by taking children, often forcibly, from their homes and families and placing them into residential schools where they were often abused and neglected and were separated from their families and culture. The impact of these residential schools has been profound and is an ongoing contributor to the inequalities faced by First Nations people.
• Understanding Disabilities — Here are some resources from the Ontario Government about disability awareness.

These and many other examples show that inequality exists in our society.

4. Sometimes we benefit from inequality, and sometimes we are hurt by it.

Although we may agree that inequality is “bad” and that experiencing inequality can be extremely painful, what we may not realize is that we may actually benefit from and perpetuate some of the inequalities that exist.

For example, what kinds of privileges and benefits would results from being:

• A young, white, heterosexual woman with a learning disability from an upper class family
• A middle-aged black heterosexual man from a middle class family who suffers form depression
• A middle-aged homosexual woman from a lower class family who immigrated recently from Taiwan
• An old, white, heterosexual man from a lower class background
• A young, heterosexual man from the Chippewa First Nation from a middle class background
• A middle-aged homosexual woman who is deafblind from an upper class family

Although all of these people may experience inequality because of their race, social class, abilities, etc., they may ALSO be benefiting from other structures and holding them in place. For example, a black male may experience racism, but he still benefits from “male privilege”. Likewise, a woman from an upper class may experience sexism, but she may still benefit from structures that exploit lower-income individuals (that is some of what the article I posted at the beginning is trying to address). While we may be struggling to “get up”, we may be simultaneously keeping others down.

So now what?

So NOW what? Even if you have accepted that inequality exists, that it does not uphold human dignity and basic rights, and that you both benefit from it AND suffer the consequences of it, what next?

Well, I certainly don’t claim to have the answer to that question, as I am wondering the exact same thing. However, I do feel that it is a process of discovery: of raising your own consciousness and healing from some of the oppression you have suffered, as well as “becoming an ally” to others who are oppressed. On that note, I highly recommend “Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People” by Anne Bishop as a starting point. She not only explains the things I have just attempted to address in much greater detail, but goes further to explore how you can begin to heal yourself and be an ally to others. On that note, I would like to leave with a quote of hers:

“[I have a] vision of the world I would like to live in, a world based on cooperation, negotiation, and universal respect for the innate value of every creature on earth and the Earth herself. [A] world where no one doubts that to hurt anyone or anything is to hurt yourself and those you love most, a world where everyone works to understand how everything we do will affect future generations.”

I have this same vision of the world and Brescia has helped me to realize it more fully. Thank you for letting me share it with you!

Peace,

Kate