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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Culturally Responsive Education: Whiteness & White Supremacy

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

Terminology

White Supremacy

White Supremacy is "a form of racism centered upon the belief that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds and that whites should politically, economically, and socially dominate non-whites. While often associated with violence perpetrated by the KKK and other white supremacist groups, it also describes a political ideology and systemic oppression that perpetuates and maintains the social, political, historical and/or industrial white domination." 1

White Privilege

White Privilege: Refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.2

Structural White Privilege

Structural White Privilege: A system of white domination that creates and maintains belief systems that make current racial advantages and disadvantages seem normal. The system includes powerful incentives for maintaining white privilege and its consequences, and powerful negative consequences for trying to interrupt white privilege or reduce its consequences in meaningful ways. The system includes internal and external manifestations at the individual, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels.2

Cultural White Privilege

Cultural White Privilege: A set of dominant cultural assumptions about what is good, normal or appropriate that reflects Western European white world views and dismisses or demonizes other world views.2

 

Source Citations:

1) NEA Center for Social Justice. "Racial Justice in Education: Key Terms and Definitions." NEA Center for Social Justice, National Education Association, Jan. 2021, www.nea.org/ professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/racial-justice-education-key-terms-and. Accessed 12 Nov. 2021. 

2) Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Leadership. (n.d.). Racial equity vocabulary. Anne Arundel Community College. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://www.aacc.edu/about/ administrative-offices/ideal/racial-equity-vocabulary/ #:~:text=White%20Privilege%3A%20Refers%20to%20the,without%20being%20conscious%20of%20it.

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From Peggy McIntosh's "White People Facing Race" :

"One of the central elements of white privilege is not having to take the subject of racism seriously." (p2)

"The myth of white racelessness is the notion that white people do not have race or racial experience. In this view, we are just 'normal.' Others have race, which we are led to believe makes problems for them, or us. We who are 'normal' are racially unmarked, and we set the standard for what it is to be human. The participation of white people in systems of dominance or oppression is not seen as racial." (p4)

 

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Source: " White V Whiteness " by Portland Community College , is licensed under a Standard YouTube License.

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