DAR Study Group: Discussion of Privilege

Brought to you by the Pedagogies for Social justice project at the UoW, DAR fosters dialogue and learning for social change in HE.

You are invited to the third gathering of the “DAR” (decolonisation and anti-racism) study group: your modern-day book club that aims to foster the learning and dialogue that is needed in any effort towards social justice in higher education. We offer a space that facilitates the analysis and discussion of texts, media and news, in the hope that you will join us as we call these into question, reflect on our own ideas and practices, and stretch our understandings beyond the colonial and racist confines of the academy. The study group is brought to you by the Pedagogies for Social justice project, which is a student-staff partnership at the University of Westminster, hence this invitation extends to all students, academics and staff across the institution.

This session is dedicated to understanding privilege in particular, the importance of recognising our privileges and identifying the situations in which we benefit because of them. Privilege typically refers to the unearned advantages we have because of different aspects of our identity. For instance, being able-bodied, cis-gendered, young, heterosexual, and white or white-passing are all examples of the different characteristics that can afford individuals privilege within certain systems and social situations. Intersectionality theory is useful for understanding privilege as it highlights that the different elements of our identity overlap and intersect to create our experience of privilege and discrimination. Some individuals face multiple barriers but also hold certain privileges, which compound to create unique challenges. And although we cannot control the amount of privilege we have, we do have some control over how we use our privilege to demonstrate allyship, hence this session will also consider the ways in which our privilege can be used to help others.

Before the session, we encourage you to engage with the following resources as they will guide our discussion:

1. “Rethinking Privilege” by Mariam Veiszadeh — YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFXhLDgLnc&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

2. Black, L. L., & Stone, D. (2005). Expanding the definition of privilege: The concept of social privilege. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 33(4), 243-255. https://library-collections-search.westminster.ac.uk/permalink/44WST_INST/1b7kp0c/cdi_proquest_journals_235986579

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The session will be led and moderated by the following students:

Lauren Nader – Business Management Marketing BSc

Aminul Schuster — Biomedical Science BSc

Lalita Gurung — Sociology with Criminology BA

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We aim to create a principled space for open and respectful communication. In signing up to the session you are agreeing to the following guides:

- We have zero tolerance for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, ableism, ageism and any other form of discriminatory behaviour.

- We have zero tolerance for prejudice based on class, faith/religion, language ability, gender presentation, physical ability, learning difficulty or mental health.

- We do not assume anyone’s gender (if in doubt ask or use gender neutral pronouns until specified otherwise)

- If we are called out, we redirect defensive behaviour and use the space as an opportunity to reflect and learn