Race & Racism

1. Race & Racism • Definition • Significance • Commonalities and Differences among Women • Privilege • Racism • Intersections of race and class • Attitudes

2. Definition • biologically transmitted traits that members of a society deem socially significant • Socially constructed • Varies across time and location • Language • Census

3. Significance • Effect on…

4. Commonalities & Differences among Women • What do women have in common? • Variation by race

5. Privilege • Who do you see when you look in the mirror? (Maria Lugones) • White woman: I see a woman, this defines who I am. • Black woman: I see a black woman; I see both race and gender when I look at who I am, I can't separate the two. • White man: I was thinking that I just saw a human being.

6. Privilege • McIntosh (Reading #8)

7. Racism • Examples • Types of Racism (Gloria Yamato) • aware/blatant • aware/covert • unaware/unintentional • unaware/self-righteous • self-inflicted (internalized oppression)

8. Racism • Language • Why is this important? • Examples

9. Intersections of Race & Class • Frontline • Joe Feagin’s work on middle class blacks • Sites of discrimination • Range of discriminatory actions • Responses to discrimination

10. Attitudes • NY Times poll ’05 (n=1,764) • Do you favor or oppose programs that make special efforts to help people get ahead who come from low-income backgrounds, regardless of their gender or ethnicity? • 84% favor, 10% oppose, rest don’t know

11. Attitudes • In order to make up for past discrimination, do you favor or oppose programs that make special efforts to help minorities get ahead? • 59% favor, 30% oppose, rest don’t know