In the first analytical study of where the American upper-class lives and vacations, Stephen R. Higley explores the ways in which upper-class residential places are created and maintained. Drawing on the Social Register as a main source of data, Higley examines the intersection of class, status, and geography, and demonstrates the ways in which physical proximity solidifies upper-class consciousness.
Developing Cultural Humility offers a unique look into the journeys of psychologists striving towards an integration of multiculturalism in their personal and professional lives. Contributing authors—representing a mix of “cultural backgrounds” but stereotypically identified as “White”—engage in thoughtful dialogue with psychologists from underrepresented communities who are identified as established and respected individuals within the multicultural field. The contributing authors discuss both the challenges and rewards they experienced in their own journeys and how they continue to engage in the process of staying connected to their cultural identity and to being culturally responsive. In addition, psychologists who represent historically disenfranchised communities have similarly reflected on their own journey, while offering commentary to the personal stories of White psychologists. This text is useful for stimulating discussions about privilege, power, and the impact race has on either bringing people together or creating more distance, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It demonstrates to readers how to engage in the process of examining one’s own “culture” in more intentional ways, and discusses the implications as we move towards engaging in more dialogue around multicultural issues.
How are social inequalities experienced, reproduced and challenged in local, global and transnational spaces? What role does the control of space play in distribution of crucial resources and forms of capital (housing, education, pleasure, leisure, social relationships)? The case studies in Geographies of Privilege demonstrate how power operates and is activated within local, national, and global networks. Twine and Gardener have put together a collection that analyzes how the centrality of spaces (domestic, institutional, leisure, educational) are central to the production, maintenance and transformation of inequalities. The collected readings show how power--in the form of economic, social, symbolic, and cultural capital--is employed and experienced. The volume’s contributors take the reader to diverse sites, including brothels, blues clubs, dance clubs, elite schools, detention centers, advocacy organizations, and public sidewalks in Canada, Italy, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Mozambique, South Africa, and the United States. Geographies of Privilege is the perfect teaching tool for courses on social problems, race, class and gender in Geography, Sociology and Anthropology.
The death of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests have made clear to everyone the vicious reality of racism that persists today. Many of those privileged enough to be distanced from racism are now having to come to terms with the fact that they continue to prosper at the detriment of others. Having spent the last four years researching, writing, and speaking about the benefits of diversity for society, June Sarpong is no stranger to educating and challenging those that have been enjoying the benefits of a system steeped in systemic racism without realising its true cost. In The Power of Privilege, June will empower those fortunate enough not to be 'otherised' by mainstream Western society to become effective allies against racism, both by understanding the roots of their privilege and the systemic societal inequities that perpetuates it. The Power of Privilege offers practical steps and action-driven solutions so that those who have been afforded privilege can begin undoing the limiting beliefs held by society, and help build a fairer future for all.
How can teachers bridge the gap between their commitments to social justice and their day to day practice? This is the question author Adam Howard asked as he began teaching at an elite private school and the question that led him to conduct a six-year study on affluent schooling. Unfamiliar with the educational landscape of privilege and abundance, he began exploring the burning questions he had as a teacher on the lessons affluent students are taught in schooling about their place in the world, their relationships with others, and who they are. Grounded in an extensive ethnographic account, Learning Privilege examines the concept of privilege itself and the cultural and social processes in schooling that reinforce and regenerate privilege. Howard explores what educators, students and families at elite schools value most in education and how these values guide ways of knowing and doing that both create high standards for their educational programs and reinforce privilege as a collective identity. This book illustrates the ways that affluent students construct their own privilege,not, fundamentally, as what they have, but, rather, as who they are.
For every group that is oppressed, another group is privileged. In Undoing Privilege, Bob Pease argues that privilege, as the other side of oppression, has received insufficient attention in both critical theories and in the practices of social change. As a result, dominant groups have been allowed to reinforce their dominance. Undoing Privilege explores the main sites of privilege, from Western dominance, class elitism, and white and patriarchal privilege to the less-examined sites of heterosexual and able-bodied privilege. Pease points out that while the vast majority of people may be oppressed on one level, many are also privileged on another. He also demonstrates how members of privileged groups can engage critically with their own dominant position, and explores the potential and limitations of them becoming allies against oppression and their own unearned privilege. This is an essential book for all who are concerned about developing theories and practices for a socially just world.
How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court—and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of color The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts. Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice. Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today’s criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.
From one of the world’s leading voices on white privilege and anti-racism work comes this collection of essays on complexities of privilege and power. Each of the four parts illustrates Peggy McIntosh’s practice of combining personal and systemic understandings to focus on power in unusual ways. Part I includes McIntosh’s classic and influential essays on privilege, or systems of unearned advantage that correspond to systems of oppression. Part II helps readers to understand that feelings of fraudulence may be imposed by our hierarchical cultures rather than by any actual weakness or personal shortcomings. Part III presents McIntosh‘s Interactive Phase Theory, highlighting five different world views, or attitudes about power, that affect school curriculum, cultural values, and decisions on taking action. The book concludes with powerful insights from SEED, a peer-led teacher development project that enables individuals and institutions to work collectively toward equity and social justice. This book is the culmination of forty years of McIntosh’s intellectual and organizational work.
Seeing White: An Introduction to White Privilege and Race, Second Editionis an interdisciplinary, supplemental textbook that challenges undergraduate students to see race as everyone’s issue. The book’s early chapters establish a solid understanding of privilege and power, leading to a critical exploration of discrimination. The authors also draw upon key theoretical perspectives, such as cultural materialism, critical race theory, and the social construction of race to provide students with the tools to discuss racial privilege. The book’s interdisciplinary approach, including perspectives from sociology, psychology, history, and economics provides a holistic and accessible introduction to the challenging issue of race. Throughout the book, compelling, concrete examples and detailed definitions of terminology help students to understand theoretical perspectives and research evidence. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter encourage students to think critically about the theories and evidence, often prompting students to relate the material in the text to their own experiences. New to this Edition New Chapter 4, “White Supremacy and Other Forms of Everyday Racism,” provides a history of white supremacy and its links to racism today New research on racial disparities in health equity helps debunk the idea of race as a biological category (Chapter 2) Revised Chapter 6, “Socioeconomic Class and White Privilege,” offers new material on the economic privilege of whiteness and the uneven distribution of American wealth Expanded history and discussion of Immigration laws including Chinese Exclusion Act, Immigration Act of 1924 and 1965 Hart-Celler Act present immigration in a global context and challenge anti-immigration rhetoric New as well as updated stories on exclusion from white spaces and the normativity of white culture engage students in critical reflection
