discussion questions and activities

Discussion or Journal Questions

  1.  What were some of the most powerful and memorable insights you gained? In the first section, you examined some of the forms of privilege you benefit from. We all share the experience of benefitting from some form of privilege. Is it possible to opt out? To refuse to benefit from your privilege?

  2.  What is intersectionality? How does examining intersectionality change our understanding of our privilege?

  3.  Re-read and respond to the three questions posed by Messner at the end of his chapter.

  4.  Each chapter in this section examines examples of the ways in which privilege is reproduced and maintained. Identify examples of how this occurs at the individual level as well as at the level of social systems.

  5.  Individual behaviors both shape and are shaped by social systems. Identify examples in this section of how this occurs in terms of the maintenance of privilege.

  6.  Kendall examines the reproduction of class privilege. How does gender shape the ways in which women are involved in perpetuating class privilege?

  7.  Select another social identity, and examine some of the ways in which is it reproduced and maintained over generations.

  8.  Identify examples of resistance found in these readings.

Personal Connections

The following questions and activities are designed to be completed either on your own or in class and then discussed as a group with others. As you share your insights with others, think about the patterns and similarities that emerge, as well as the differences among your answers.

A. The Messages We Learn

       •  Identify three of the most significant socializing institutions in your life, such as family, education, religion, media, sports, law, criminal justice, and so forth. For each institution, list the key messages you received about the following social identities and specific identity groups: race, gender, class, sexual identity, religion, and ability. Have the messages been consistent? Have you heard more about some classifications than others?

       •  Examining the messages identified above, what are some of the ways in which you have experienced or witnessed the reproduction and maintenance of privilege? Discuss one example for each of the institutions you examined.

B. Abandoning the Path of Least Resistance

       •  Identify at least five specific moments/examples throughout your life when you have taken the path of least resistance, and why.

       •  Now identify one specific example in your life today where you see yourself taking the path of least resistance. Why? How does it contribute to the status quo of inequality?

       •  What makes it difficult to not choose the path of least resistance? What are we afraid of? What are the risks? What can we do to make alternative paths more visible? More appealing or compelling?

       •  Try not taking the path of least resistance. How can you change your behavior in one specific case? Select an example where you can change your behavior right now (for example, if you hang out with a group of friends that make racist, sexist, or anti-Semitic jokes, and you usually just ignore it, choose to say something next time).

       •  After making this change, discuss the experience and describe what it felt like. What were the results? Did it have any immediate impact on you or others? Depending upon what you have changed, is this a change you think you can continue to embrace? Work on responding to this question as you work through the next two sections of this text.