Understanding Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism, and Class Privilege

1. UNDERSTANDING RACISM,
SEXISM, HETEROSEXISM AND
CLASS PRIVILEGE

2. DEFINING RACISM
• Impact of racism begins early
• Preschool years
• Exposed to misinformation about people different than ourselves
• Most of early information we receive about others does not come from firsthand
experience
• Many grew up in neighborhoods with limited opportunities to interact with people
different from our own families
• Second hand information we do receive
• Distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, incomplete

3. DEFINING RACISM
• Prejudice - Conceived judgment or opinion, usually based on
limited information created by continually being exposed to
misinformation about others
• Cultural Racism – the cultural images and messages that affirm
the assumed superiority of whites and the assumed inferiority of
people of color

4. DEFINING RACISM
• Stereotypes. A widely held but simplified image or idea of a
particular type of person or thing believed in common by others
• What are some common stereotypes?
• What kind of asian are you?
• Internalized Oppression – when member of the stereotyped group
internalizes the stereotypical categories about his or her own group
to some degree

5. DEFINING RACISM
• Can people other than whites be racist?
• Yes. If Racism is defined as racial prejudice.
• No. If there is no advantage based on race. People of color do not benefit
from racism.
• Example on page 110.
• Sexism usually associated with men discrimination against women
because men or men run systems benefit from sexism

6. DEFINING RACISM
• Passive Racism. Bystander acceptance of actions tantamount to
racism
Ex.
• Not speaking out against discriminatory hiring practices
• Laughing when racists jokes are made
• Avoiding dealing with racial related situations

7. RACIAL FORMATION
• Racism. “A system of advantage based on race”
• An ideology that hierarchically organizes groups into different races
• some groups are believed to be superior or inferior to others
• a system of inequality made up of policies and practices in which
opportunity is enabled or limited based on racial identity

8. RACIAL FORMATION
• Racial Identity: a sense of group or collective identity based on
the person’s perception that he or she shares a common heritage
with a particular racial group
• What are some reasons why a person would identify with a
race versus another?
• Rachel Dolezal

9. COLOR-BLIND RACISM
• Abstract liberalism: By framing race-related issues in the language
of liberalism, whites can appear “reasonable” and even “moral,” while
opposing almost all practical approaches to deal with de facto racial
inequality.
• Ex. Opposing affirmative action programs because they give special
treatment to certain groups (ignoring underrepresentation)
• Naturalization: when whites normalize actions or events that could
otherwise be considered racially motivated or racist
• Ex. Everyone just wants to spend time with people who are like them
• Ex. Everyone in upper management is white because that’s the way it is

10. COLOR-BLIND RACISM
• Biologization of Culture: No longer relies on claim that blacks are
biologically inferior, they biologized their presumed cultural practices.
Used as a rationale for explaining racial inequality
• Ex. Minorities are lazy and that’s why they don’t achieve anything
• Minimization of Racism: Although whites and blacks believed that
discrimination is still a problem, they dispute its prominence
• Ex. Whites believe it has all but disappeared; Blacks believe is as
American as apple pie

11. HOMOPHOBIAS AS A WEAPON OF SEXISM
• Who does gender roles serve?
• Men and women who seek power from them
• Who suffers from gender roles?
• Women most completely and men in part
• How are gender roles maintained?
• Weapons of sexism: economics, violence, and homophobia

12. HOMOPHOBIAS AS A WEAPON OF SEXISM
• Lesbian perceived as threat to nuclear family, male dominance and control, to very
heart of sexism
• Gay men perceived as threat to male dominance and control
• Homophobia expressed against them has same roots in sexism as homophobia
against lesbians
• Visible gay men objects of extreme hatred and fear by heterosexual men
• Breaking ranks with male heterosexual solidarity seen as damaging rent in very fabric
of sexism
• Betrayers, traitors who must be punished and eliminated
• Sexisms also affects males
• Rigid, dehumanizing gender roles

13. HOMOPHOBIA AS A WEAPON OF SEXISM
• Being vulnerable to a homophobic world can lead to losses
• Employment
• Family
• Children
• Heterosexual privilege and protection
• Safety
• Mental health
• Community
• Credibility