“The colour of your skin, your gender, disability and sexual orientation all interact to affect your lived experience and contribute to unequal outcomes in ways that cannot be attributed to one dimension alone."

―Adwoa Bagalini, World Economic Forum

Day 3: Who Are You?

On Day 3 of the Challenge, we will examine intersectionality as it crosses into race and privilege while we further dig into “Who We Are” and how we define ourselves, our values, and our individual privilege.



Our experiences of the social world are shaped by our ethnicity, race, social class, gender identity, sexual orientation, and numerous other facets of social stratification. Some social locations afford privilege (e.g., being white) while others are oppressive (e.g., being poor). These various aspects of social inequality do not operate independently of each other; they interact to create interrelated systems of oppression and domination. The concept of intersectionality refers to how these various aspects of social location “intersect” to mutually constitute individuals’ lived experiences.

READ

You are privileged. You are oppressed. This is intersectionality.

Intersectionality teaches us that identity is complex, made up of a variety of factors including race, gender, class, ethnicity, age, sexuality, and physical ability. How these aspects of self intersect and interact with power structures and cultural interpretations to shape our experiences of privilege, power, disadvantage, and oppression are at the crux of discussions about intersectionality.

Let's Talk About Race

This is a helpful reference for understanding racial identity development from the National Museum of African American History & Culture.

WATCH

What is Privilege (3:51)

Learn how to take meaningful action as an ally. Allyship at Work helps you understand your privilege and positional power and learn specific actions you can take to show up as an ally.



The Power of Privilege: Tiffany Jana at TEDxRVAWomen (14:57)

Tiffany has directed organizational development, marketing, and community outreach initiatives for over 10 years. She founded TMI Consulting, the world's first Diversity and Inclusion Certified Benefit Corporation. TMI Consulting recently designed and facilitated a very successful series of transatlantic cooperative civic-engagement workshops in the US and the EU for the German Marshall Fund as well as a Congressional Leadership series of bipartisan dialogues on race and democracy.

LISTEN

Identities (49:10)

From Pico Iyer, "My home is where I find my identity, where I create my identity which is an ongoing phenomenon." Each of us has a sense of who we are, where we come from, and what we believe. But is identity assigned at birth? Shaped by circumstance? Or is it something we choose that changes over time? In this radio segment from NPR, TED speakers describe their journeys to answer the question: Who am I?

What are intersectionality, privilege and positionality? (5:38)

Brandeis University Vice President for Diversity, Mark Brimhall-Vargas, explains these topics in just five minutes in this podcast.

How to Check Your Privilege (25:01)

Being unaware of people’s experiences of inequality like racism or sexism, often inadvertently and unwillingly leads to behaviors that are racist and sexist. We are simply blind to inequality. Being able to learn about inequality without ever having to experience it, is really the ultimate privilege. But just like inequality, when we deny our privilege we are blinded by it. Privilege makes it easy to deny other people’s experiences of inequality and keeps us from seeing the workplace in the way others see it. Denial is what keeps inequality alive in workplaces today. When leaders and employees see how being a part of the dominant group gives them access to power and privilege, they will also become aware of the unique position they are in to dismantle the very inequality they benefit from.

How Privileged Are You?

This quiz was featured on Buzzfeed India, so some of the questions are related to class/caste, but most are universally relatable. At the end of the quiz, you will receive a score related to the privilege you do - or do not - benefit from based on your identities.

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