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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Culturally Responsive Education: Privilege

This guide provides a starting point to finding resources on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-oppression work at Shepherd University.

Terminology

Privilege

"Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do. Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is definitely an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.”

- Peggy McIntosh, cited and linked below

 

Even though privilege doesn't merely have to do with one's race, here in America white privilege is often what is first thought of or addressed when privilege is discussed. Here, we hope to eventually add more resources to address more than just race-based privilege. There is a page in this guide dedicated to the ideas of whiteness, white superiority, and white supremacy. 

Privilege & Intersectionality - Some areas of privilege

  • White Privilege
  • Male Privilege & Masculinities
  • Straight & Cis Privilege
  • Class Privilege & Economic Inequality
  • (Dis)ability and Ableism
  • Language Privilege and Code Switching
  • Age & Ageism
  • Nationalism, Citizenship, Immigration & Geography
  • Physical Appearance
    (Body Size, Hair, Colorism)
  • Family Structure privilege
  • Christian & Religious Privilege
 

Featured Books & eBooks - click on titles to access

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 Articles 

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Featured Videos

Use the links below to access the films featured here, or consider searching in the library's collection to find related streaming films.

 
 

Featured Podcast

The exerpt below comes from an article called "Understanding Race and Privilege" from the National Association of School Pscyhologists.
 

Self-Reflection Questions

Wildman & Davis (1995) explain that “the lives we lead affect what we are able to see and hear in the world around us.” As such, an important first step to understanding the concept of group-based privilege and how it can shape peoples’ perspectives, experiences, and interactions is to examine our own experience. We can be the beneficiary of privilege without recognizing or consciously perpetuating it. Learning to see one’s own privilege as well as that of groups and systems can create an important pathway to self-discovery. Some questions to consider are listed below.

  1. When was the last time you had to think about your ethnicity, race, gender identity, ability level, religion, and/or sexual orientation? What provoked you to think about it or acknowledge it?
  2. When watching TV or a movie, how likely are you to watch shows whose characters reflect your ethnicity, race, gender, ability level, religion, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation?
  3. When using social media, how diverse is your feed? How diverse are your friends and followers? How diverse are those that you follow?
  4. How do you respond when others make negative statements towards individuals of a different ethnicity, race, gender, ability level, religion, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity than yourself?
  5. How often do you go to social settings where the majority of individuals are of a different ethnicity, race, gender, ability level, religion, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity than yourself?
  6. How diverse is the community in which you live?
  7. How do you feel when you are in a community that is different than your neighborhood?
  8. How would you make your neighborhood more inclusive and sensitive?
  9. If you recognized your privilege, what did you do with this realization?

National Association of School Psychologists. (n.d.). Understanding race and privilege. National Association of School Psychologists. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.nasponline.org/ resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/diversity-and-social-justice/social-justice/ understanding-race-and-privilege