Defining Contested Concepts (Weber, Lynn)

Question 1

What type of systems are race, class, gender, and sexuality considered to be?

Answer 1

Social Systems

Question 2

Define “social systems.” Briefly describe what each adjective means in relation to social systems.

Answer 2

Patterns of social relationships among people that are:

1. Complex - intricate and interconnected
2. Pervasive - widespread throughout all societal domains
3. Variable - always transforming
4. Persistent - prevailing over time and across places
5. Severe - serious in consequences for social life
6. Power Based - stratified, centered in power

Question 3

When does oppression exist?

Answer 3

It exists when
- one group
has historically gained
1. power and
2. control
over valued assets of society by:
- exploiting the labor and lives of other groups
and then by
- using those assets to secure its position of power in the future.

Question 4

Describe the nature of an exploitative relationship.

Answer 4

The welfare of the dominant group is dependent on the poverty and efforts of another.

Question 5

What type of relationship best describes exploitation?

Answer 5

A power relationship resulting from AND reinforcing the unequal distribution of productive assets in society.

Question 6

What is the pervasive belief system which masks the fundamental unfairness of exploitative relationships?

Answer 6

It is a belief system which interprets the inequalities as a “natural” outcome of each group’s presumed superior or inferior traits.

Question 7

What is Social Location?

Answer 7

An individual’s or group’s social “place” in the race, gender, class, sexuality hierarchies as well as other critical social hierarchies.

Question 8

What is the central principle which both underlies social hierarchies as well as contributes to the preservation of these hierarchies?

Answer 8

These hierarchies are intersecting systems of power relationships.

Question 9

What analogy did Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres (2002) provide regarding how intersecting social systems work.

Answer 9

Those systems operate similar to “zero-sum game.”

Games have winners and losers.

Question 10

Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres (2002) described the intersecting systems of power as a “zero-sum game.” How did they describe the dominant group? Explain what allows them to remain dominant.

Answer 10

The dominant group are the winners, they have the advantage on three aspects.

They have the power to:
1. Design or manipulate the rules
2. Win the game through force or competition
3. Spin the story (i.e. name the game, tell the story of the game, its significance, why they won)

Question 11

When understanding heterosexism as a system of power relations, what is the dominant group and how do they “win the zero-sum game?”

Answer 11

The dominant group is heterosexuals.

How they win:
1. Set the laws and
acceptable practices
governing intimate life <– the rules
2. Advantages go to those who conform (i.e. hold the right to marry, adopt, file taxes as a married couple etc) <–the winners
3. The rationale for the unequal treatment lies in how the dominant group labels others as less than fully human (i.e. deviants, sexual predators etc) through the media and knowledge experts <– the spin

Question 12

What are the four primary systems of social inequalities?

Answer 12

1. Race
2. Class
3. Gender
4. Sexuality

Question 13

Why is race, class, gender, and sexuality focused on in this book as systems of oppression?

Answer 13

1. The book focuses on inequalities found in the States (i.e. each has an immense history as powerful organizers of social hierarchy embedded in the most important institutions)
2. Subordinate groups have struggled in large-scale social movements of resistance against those oppressions
3. The analysis of these oppressions provides the tools to analyze other dimensions of inequality

Question 14

What is the reason as to why intersecting systems of oppression are so difficult to understand and define?

Answer 14

The reasons are contained within the nature of these systems of oppression.

Every social situation is affected by society wide historical patterns that are not necessarily apparent to the participants and that are experienced differently depending on the people involved.

Question 15

Why is it that systemic patterns of inequality can also be obscure to those disadvantaged by them?

Answer 15

Those disadvantaged often lack access to information and resources that the dominant groups control.

Question 16

What is the dominant ideology regarding belief systems in the States? Why is this ideology inherently problematic?

Answer 16

1. The dominant ideology is that the States is a gender-blind, race-blind, class-less, and sexually-restrained society.
2. This ideology obscures oppression and its history.

Question 17

Why is denial and blindness used as the bases for social policy?

Answer 17

1. Members of privileged groups are not
   disadvantaged and people within these groups find dismissing the claims of oppressed groups as unreal, easy
2. In education and mass media, people do not systematically learn about the totality of the experiences of subordinate groups

Question 18

What is the relevance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Answer 18

It was fought for and won primarily by African Americans however, it also expanded protections against discrimination to women, religious minorities, and all racial groups

Question 19

Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres (2002) compare the experiences of women and people of color to that of a miner’s canary. Explain why they made this comparison.

Answer 19

• Miners used to take a canary with them into the mines to signal whether the air was safe to breathe.
• When the atmosphere was safe, the canary thrived.
  When the atmosphere was toxic, the canary became sick or died.

Members of oppressed groups are the canary, they signal when the “atmosphere” is not healthy.
- Oppressed groups experiencing high death rates from lack of access to medical care, high infant mortality rates, declining college graduates etc signals that something is wrong with the “atmosphere.”

Question 20

Describe human will in relation to resistance to oppression. What does this have to due with intersecting systems of oppression?

Answer 20

It is the human will to resist oppression and overcome obstacles.

Due to this nature of humans to withstand oppression, dominant group members often take that success to conclude that the oppression either does not exist or is not severe.

Question 21

What are the three major domains of society? What are the institutions associated with each?

Answer 21

1. Ideological Domain
   - media, arts, religion, and education
2. Political Domain
   - government, law, civil and criminal justice, police,
   military
3. Economic Domain
   - major industries (i.e. finance, health care, manufacturing etc)

Question 22

There are three major domains of society as well as institutions associated with each. In what way is each domain organized?

Answer 22

They are organized to reinforce and reproduce the prevailing social hierarchies.

Question 23

Why is education deeply implicated in the economic and political domains?

Answer 23

Education certifies people for different social locations within each domain.

Question 24

What is an example of a cross-cutting institution? Why is it “cross-cutting?”

Answer 24

1. Family
2. It is a social institution that serves to meet people’s basic psychological, emotional, and physical needs however, it also serves as a site where inequality is reproduced in the three major domains

Question 25

Describe how the family, as an institution, relates to each major social domain.

Answer 25

1. Ideological - Ideas that justify the dominant power structure are reinforced 2. Political - The public authority and power of middle and upper class straight, white, males is reinforced in a variety of ways 3. Economic - A place where goods and services are distributed to reinforce the economic power of dominant groups

Question 26

Regarding the three main domains of oppression, what is the power base of each domain?

Answer 26

1. Ideological - control of ideas and knowledge 2. Polity - legitimized direct control over others 3. Economy - control of material goods and resources

Question 27

When understanding the varying levels of societal size, explain how each domain of oppression is exhibited using the example of theatre.

Answer 27

1. Societal/Macro - The writers and producers conceptualize and fund theatrical productions as well as the ideas they promote 2. Community/Meso - The theatre promotes particular dominant values and sensibilities 3. Individual/Micro - The actors, director, and stagehands develop closer relationships with the audience as they bring the ideas of the play to life

Question 28

What is the primary task for dominant groups?

Answer 28

Maintaining their position of control over subordinate groups.

Question 29

Regarding social relations of control, how do dominant groups maintain their position of control over subordinate groups?

Answer 29

Dominant groups must structure each domain in a specific manner. 1. Ideological - Exploitation is explained, justified, and rationalized as well as is seen as a natural, normal, and acceptable part of social life. 2. Polity - The state supports and enforces the exploitative relations. 3. Economy - Allows the exploitative relations to continue, so that the poverty and labour of the exploited enhances the welfare of the exploiters.

Question 30

Society continues without major disruptions every day. What does this serve as a testimony to?

Answer 30

1. The power of dominant groups to effectively control the three major domains resources that are needed by subordinate groups to shift the balance of power 2. The persuasive power of dominant ideologies to convince subordinate group members that the current social hierarchies are acceptable and permanent.

Question 31

What are the two processes of internalized depression which work to pacify subordinate groups? Explain.

Answer 31

1. Self-Negation - Subordinate group members restricting their own lives because they believe the negative views and limits imposed on their group by the dominant ideology. 2. Negation of Others - Subordinated group members restricting the lives of OTHER members of oppressed groups because they believe the negative views of as well as limits imposed on oppressed groups.

Question 32

Education is a critical sight for resistance to all forms of oppression. Why is the case? What is an example of this resistance to oppression?

Answer 32

1. Education is a primary institution responsible for the socialization of the youth; It is key to the future stability of a social order. 2. Establishment of alternative schools by various groups (i.e. bilingual, religious, home schools etc)

Question 33

What has educational system reform been a major focus of?

Answer 33

Various movements: - civil rights - women's rights - lgbtq+ rights - low income

Question 34

Does resistance to oppression also occur at a micro level? If so, how?

Answer 34

1. YES 2. Individuals developing an alternative consciousness, - insisting on self-definition and self-valuation, - refusing to incorporate negative images of their group.

Question 35

"Each is in a continuous process of changing to adapt to the shifts in the other." What is this quotation describing?

Answer 35

How processes of oppression, resistance and empowerment exist in dynamic relation to one another.

Question 36

Cynthia Enloe (1997, 2007) carefully tracked the process of what? How was this observed?

Answer 36

1. The process of globalization 2. Through corporate strategies and actions within the athletic shoe market (specifically, Nike)

Question 37

What did Cynthia Enloe (2007) argue in relation to the successful exploitation of Nike against Asian Nations?

Answer 37

1. The poverty of the people as well as 2. the repressive authoritarian regimes of these nations has made these countries desirable sites for U.S. companies' factories.

Question 38

What did the F.L.A (Fair Labor Association) raise awareness of? Have they done anything else?

Answer 38

1. Worker abuse in Nike's and other companies factories. 2. Successfully negotiated concessions and changes in company practices.