Transcript Document

The Relevance of Affirmative Action
and the difference between Diversity
and Social Justice
Carmen Milagros Vélez Vega
Associate Professor & Chair
Social Sciences Department
University of Puerto Rico,
Medical Sciences Campus
School of Public Health
Critical Constructionist Framework
From a critical constructionist perspective changes in
language in and of itself constitutes a means for
transformation of social constructions and what results
from these.
• Social constructions are the shared understandings
about our social context.
– They are dynamic, we develop them though interaction
– They change and can be changed with purpose…
For example: What is a Puerto Rican Student, a Student with
Disabilities, a Student with an LGBT identity, a Student that
comes from an economically challenged background?
Social Determinants of Health
• SDH are the economic and social
conditions that influence the
health
of
individuals,
communities, and jurisdictions
as a whole (WHO, 2011).
SDH include, but are not limited to:
(CDC, 2010).
– early childhood
development;
– income, and income
distribution;
– education,
– social exclusion;
– employment, and
work;
– the social safety net;
– food security,
– health services
– housing,
– job security;
– economic and social
conditions
Diversity vs Social Justice
• The term diversity captures the
differences among social groups,
but not the ways in which these
differences are shaped by systems
of domination, subordination, and
inequality.
Adams, 2008, NYU FRN seminar.
[email protected]
Social Justice vs Diversity
• The term social justice captures the
emphasis upon social structures and
practices by which one social group,
whether knowingly or unconsciously,
exploits other social groups for its
advantage. Social justice requires not the
elimination of differences, but the
elimination of domination, subordination,
and inequality.
Challenging Our Own Comfort Zones,
as well as those of our students and colleagues
Action
Fear
Threat
Information
Awareness
Adams, 2008, NYU FRN seminar.
[email protected]
Some Distinctions
Diversity Approaches generally
focus on
Social Justice Education
approaches generally focus on
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appreciating social differences
without analyses of power and
privilege
or differential access to
resources and institutional
support needed to live safe,
satisfying productive lives
Goal is appreciation and
awareness
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understanding the structural
dynamics of unequal social
power that
results in some social groups
having privilege, status,
access
that are denied to other
groups.
Goal is an understanding and
analysis that results in
individual and social action to
interrupt and/or eliminate
oppression
Adams, 2008, NYU FRN seminar.
[email protected]
Social Oppression
• A social condition that establishes and
maintains many forms of advantage and
disadvantage based on real or presumed
social group memberships.
• Social oppression operates on individual,
institutional and societal/cultural levels
Adams, 2008, NYU FRN seminar.
[email protected]
Some Social Identity Categories
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Sex
Race
Class
Religion
Ability/Disability
Age
• Gender
• Sexual
Orientation
• Ethnicity
• Language
• Nationality
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Manifestations of Social Oppression
Racism
Ableism
Sexism
Classism
Ageism
Ethnocentrism
Religious
Oppression
Heterosexism
Transgender
Oppression
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Examples of Social Identity Categories
and Social Group membership
Social Identity Categories
Social Group Members
Race
Black, White, Asian, Latino, native American, Multiracial
Sex
Female, Male, Intersex
Gender
Men, Women, Transgender, Genderqueer
Religion
Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, Espiritista,
Santería…
Sexual Orientation
Lesbian, Gay, bisexual, Heterosexual
Class
Owning Class, Poor, Upper Middle, Middle/Middle, Working class
Ability
Disabled, Temporarily Able-bodied
Age
Elders, Adults, Young People
Levels of the Manifestations of Oppression
intentional and unintentional
• Individual attitudes and/or behaviors. (e.g.
acts of violence, prejudice, ignorance, hatred)
• Institutional policy, practice, norms
• Cultural assumptions, norms and practice
Conclusions or More Questions?
• What must be done to continue correcting these
great social injustices and provide opportunities
and supports for students that are diverse and
oppressed that belong to groups protected under
Affirmative Action Policies?
• How do we do justice to the demographic and
economical changes that have brought to light
the many other groups of people that face
disparate educational opportunities?
A useful tool for exploring the complexity of
Diversity vs Social Justice
Based on:
Five Faces of Oppression by Iris Marion Young,
in Justice and the Politics of Difference.
This text is available at:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/isoke001/engaging_ju
stice/Five%20Faces%20of%20Oppression.pdf
Worksheet: in pairs give examples of each of
the “5 faces of oppression”
• Exploitation
• Marginalization
• Powerlessness
• Cultural imperialism
• Violence & the normalization of violence
Worksheet: 5 faces x levels
Individual
Institutional
Cultural &
Societal
Exploitation
Marginalization
Powerlessness
Cultural
Imperialism
Violence &
normalization
of violence
June 9, 2008
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A Systemic and Complex Analysis of
Affirmative Action Policies
• Taking into consideration the difference
between Diversity and Social Justice
framework and Policies.
• Looking into the complexity of human
identities and contexts where ethnicity, sex,
and others are frequently intersecting
identities in one person.
• We must consider which are the social and
material differences that interfere with
opportunities; not only to be admitted to
Institutions of Higher Education, but also with
the survival in an unfamiliar social context to
which we have no reference or map to guide
us.