CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE 
FALL 2013 
 
Week 2.  Conceptual Frameworks, continued 
 
Assignments for Week 2 
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DISCUSSION POSTINGS DUE BY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 11:59 P.M. 
 
Read ABCHPZ Section 1, “Conceptual Frameworks,” Introduction and Chapters 1-5, pp. 1-45 

Discuss  
Chapter 1: Tatum's “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who am I’?” 
 Tatum describes identity as “complex.” What are the factors that make identity “complex”?  
 Can you give examples of Tatum's view that a people tend to be more aware of their own “subordinate” identities than of their “dominant” identities? If so, why do you think that is? 

Chapter 2: Kirk and Okazawa-Rey's “Identities and Social Locations: Who am I? Who Are My People? 
 Kirk and Okazawa-Rey emphasize the importance of community in creating and fostering one's sense of social identity. Can you name one or more examples of “community” or “people” who have been formative in shaping your social identity — with examples of how they were formative? 
 What is your understanding of the difference between “micro,” “meso,” and “macro” levels at which you might experience your social identities differently? Give one or two examples of each. 

Chapter 3: Johnson's “The Social Construction of Difference” 
 Johnson quotes James Baldwin's statement that “No one is white before he/she came to America. It took generations, and a vast amount of coercion, before this became a white country.” He uses this statement to illustrate the “social construction of reality” by which racism, sexism, ableism have no significance outside systems of privilege or disadvantage. Can you provide examples of how systems of privilege and disadvantage — concerning race, or gender, or any other system of advantage and disadvantage — may have changed over time, as the “social construction of reality” itself changed?  

 Johnson distinguishes between “diversity”/“difference” (“difference” need not imply inequality) and “privilege”/“oppression” (in which inequality is rationalized or justified by differences). Provide at least four examples of “differences” that do no convey inequality, and three examples of situations in which “differences” have been used to justify privilege and oppression?  

Chapter 5: Young's “Five Faces of Oppression” 
 Here's how Young defines oppression: “Its causes are embedded in unquestioned norms, habits, and symbols, in the assumptions underlying institutional rules and the collective consequences of following these rules … in short, the normal processes of everyday life.” Provide three examples of “the normal processes of everyday life” that fit Young's definition and explain the oppressive consequences of these normal processes of everyday life. 
 How does Young's explanation of oppression differ from the explanation given by Bell, Hardiman, Jackson, Griffin? How is it similar? Do the two explanations look at different aspects of oppression as an overarching phenomenon in human societies?