This document provides reflection questions for students who were absent from a diversity and social justice class. It includes 4 learning activities that ask students to reflect on topics discussed in class like inclusion, exclusion, privilege, and social construction of criteria that advantage some groups. Students are asked to consider how personal and structural factors contribute to their experiences and to reflect on how privilege operates in subtle ways. They are also asked to watch two short videos that illustrate how privilege impacts relationships and communities, and how those with privilege are often unaware of it.

1. Daily "Reflection Questions" (for students absent on Mon, Jan 30th)...
Daily "Reflection Questions" (for students absent on Mon, Jan 30th)
(Introductory Unit - Lesson Six)
due by Fri, Feb 3rd
and if you need more time to complete the amount of this handout that you would like,
please just send me an email indicating that you would like to have additional time
This handout is designed to provide information about the "Learning Activities" that we
used in class on
Mon, Jan 30th. (All of the information you need for these "Learning Activities" are contained
in this
handout. There are no other handouts besides this one.)
You can type your responses to these questions into this document, then "Save" it, and
submit it in D2L.
Important Note: The first three Learning Activities are summaries of "mini-lectures" that I
shared during
class. Please read through them slowly and carefully - and think about the questions that
each "mini-lecture"
contains.
Learning Activity #1: Some questions about your stories of "inclusion", "exclusion"< and
"marginalization"
Chimamanda Adichie, the speaker of the TedTalk entitled, "The Danger of a Single Story",
made the following
points:
n Stories matter.
n Many stories matter.
n Your stories matter.
n Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to
empower and to
humanize.
n Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
I believe that, the more we explore the content of our stories, the more we understand them
. . . which empowers
us to draw more lessons and energy from our stories.

2. So I asked students to reflect on several questions:
n In each of your stories - "inclusion", and "exclusion" or "marginalization" - to what extent
were:
o "personal factors" involved (i.e. the beliefs, attitudes and actions of another person or
group of
people")?
o "structural factors" involved (i.e. the ways in which an organization or community is
organized
and operates)? (note: the terms "systemic" and "institutional" are also used to refer to these
kinds of
factors)
§ Note: I shared that, in my experience, throughout my years of teaching, of reading the
stories
submitted by students, the vast majority of stories refer primarily, even entirely, on
"personal
factors" . . . and that I believe this pattern suggests that we, as a US society, teach/socialize
people to recognize and respond to "personal factors", whereas "structural factors" remain
quite
invisible, and even when we notice them, we are often not empowered to address them
n In each of your stories - "inclusion", and "exclusion" or "marginalization" - how did you
respond to the
experience:
o immediately?
o over time?
n People sometimes say, "this experience actually made me stronger." Was it the experience
made you
stronger - or was it the way you responded to the experience that made you stronger?
o Note: To illustrate this question, I referred to the Love/Hate poem that a former student of
mine
shared with me, which they had written as part of their therapy in response to the
experience of
being raped. The student clearly is not saying "I'm glad that I was raped", or "the experience
of
rape made me stronger"; rather, it is the choices that they made, supported by therapy, that
strengthened them
Question: What thoughts, feelings, and/or questions do the perspectives in this Learning
Activity cause in you?
(6 sentences minimum)
Learning Activity #2: Why is this happening? Who decides to make it happen - and to keep it
happening?
I invited students to think about:
n the high school checklist activity (i.e. which of the criteria gave people advantages, which
of the criteria

3. marginalized or excluded people)
n the "Social Structures and Participation" handout (i.e. the "imaginary high school" that
was very
positive on an "interpersonal level" [people were friendly and kind], but had numerous
"structural
factors" that marginalized or excluded people [the curriculum, the ways in which funding
was used, the
physical design of the buildings])
I asked students why are these criteria being used in this way, and why are these "structural
factors" in place.
n are these criteria and these structural factors "natural/normal" - or are they "socially
constructed" (i.e.
created and maintained by human beings)
I then invited students to think about the "Diversity diagram" that we used the day before in
class (i.e. the one
with categories like "age", "race", "gender", "amount of education", "sexual orientation",
"work experiences",
etc) . . . . and about how some qualities related to each of the categories are "advantaged"
and others are
"marginalized" or even "excluded" . . . such as "people who do not experience mental health
issues" are viewed
positively, while "people with mental health issues" are often negatively judged and treated.
I asked students why are these criteria being used in this way:
n are these criteria "natural/normal" - or are they "socially constructed" (i.e. created and
maintained by
human beings)
To support the idea that such criteria are "socially constructed", I talked about examples of
where the
"definition" of race in US history has changed, including:
n after the US "winning" the war with Mexico in the 1850s, a new border was drawn
between the US and
Mexico, which meant that those Mexican people who now lived north of that new border
were
"racialized"; for example, those who had significant landholdings were considered "white" . .
. and, over
time, they became considered "people of color"
n when people from a variety of European countries first came to the US - such as people
from Ireland,
from Italy, and from a number of East European countries - they were initially considered
"non-white"
n at one point in US history, if a person had even just 1/32nd of their ancestry who was
African-American,
they were considered "non-white" (because they could then be used and controlled) . . . but

4. someone
who wanted to be designated as "Native American" had to have at least 1/8th of their
ancestry be "Native
American" (because that would reduce the number of people who had access to the rights
contained in
various treaties between the US government and Native American peoples
I also asked students "who decided" on these criteria and structural factors.
I invited students to consider that they were decided upon by people who gained
advantages from them.
After all, why would someone who is marginalized, or even excluded, by such criteria and
structural factors
decide that they be used?
Question: What thoughts, feelings, and/or questions do the perspectives in this Learning
Activity cause in you?
(6 sentences minimum)
Learning Activity #3: Introducing the concept of "privilege"
We began by comparing:
n the meaning of "privilege" that is contained in the rules on a school bus:
"Riding a bus is a privilege; and you can have access to that privilege as long as you follow
the
rules."
This use of the term "privilege" means that you are able to have something of value (in this
case,
the opportunity to ride on the bus) by doing something (in this case, following the rules)
n the meaning of "privilege" that is studied in "Diversity and Social Justice":
"Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply
because of
the social category they belong to, rather than anything they have done or failed to do."
(Allan Johnson, Privilege, Power and Difference (p. 20)
This use of the term "privilege" means that you are able to have something of value, but not
because of anything that you chose to do, or chose not to do
Examples:
§ You are able to get into a building because you are physically able to do so; but, if you
use a wheelchair, you are not able to get into buildings that have steps - and you didn't
choose to do anything "wrong", because such buildings are just designed that way
§ If you are a man, you are able to get legally married to a woman; but (until a few years
ago) if you are a man, you would have been unable to legally marry another man, not
because of anything you chose to do or not do, but just because the law made such
marriages illegal
Comparing this meaning of "privilege" to the meaning of "privilege and the school bus"
would be
like saying, "You can ride on the bus as long as you are male, and white, and middle or upper
socio-

5. economic class, and heterosexually-oriented, and physically able-bodied . . . but if you are
female (or
non-binary), or a person of color, of living in poverty, or an LGBTQ+ person, or have a
physical
disability, you cannot ride on the bus.
Question: What thoughts, feelings, and/or questions do the perspectives in this Learning
Activity cause in you?
(4 sentences minimum)
Learning Activity #4: Clarifying what "privilege" is - and is not: a couple of short videos
Over the past three years, beginning with the murder of George Floyd, I've been involved in
a variety of
conversations about "white privilege" (and read/heard many other conversations).
Such conversations are often full of emotions of various kinds - which are important to
listen to and seek to
understand.
Such conversations also contain a whole range of different perspectives on not only about
"white privilege"
means, but about what "privilege" in general means - some perspectives that are (at least
fairly) accurate, and
some perspectives are inaccurate (and often significantly so).
I want to address these perspectives by asking that you watch two short videos.
Video #1: Copy and paste the following link into your web-browser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD5f8GuNuGQ&list=PLXoYZ30yYSA6DJjZPTfW0xKGp
yNtnitY&index=3&t=0s
Watch this video
This video offers a strong image about how the reality of "privilege" impacts our
relationships and our
communities.
Please pause . . . and consider: Why does the creator of this video believe what's happening
is wrong?
Isn't it because our relationships and our communities do not need to be broken like that?
Isn't it because we can have relationships of "re-spect" . . . of seeing one another "more
deeply", beyond
judging?
Isn't it because we can have communities of "authentic inclusion" . . . in which each person is
valued for who
they are, in which each person's gifts are appreciated, and in which each person's needs are
addressed?
Video #2: Copy and paste the following link into your web-browser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KlmvmuxzYE
Watch this video.
This video offers an image of the difference between "having privilege" and "being
marginalized/oppressed" -

6. and of how, when we have a form of "privilege", we are often not even aware of it (which
Allan Johnson,
author of Privilege, Power, and Difference refers to as the "luxury of obliviousness")
Please pause . . . and consider: Why does the creator of this video believe what's happening
is wrong?
Isn't it because we can live with one another in ways that each of us has real opportunities
not only to survive,
but to thrive?
Question: What thoughts, feelings, and/or questions do the perspectives in this Learning
Activity cause in you?
(6 sentences minimum)
Once you have completed these "Daily 'Reflection Questions'", "Save" your responses, and
submit it to
the folder in D2L entitled:
"(absent on Jan 30th) Daily 'Reflection Questions'" (Introductory Unit - Lesson Six)"