Catherine Strickland’s Power & Privilege Discovery Circle has scheduled their next meeting for Wednesday, February 20th at 7pm in room RS305. Catherine writes the following:
I was heartened and excited by our meeting last night. Hopeful that we will create a trusting and encouraging community to explore the issues of power and privilege and what we can do, both as individuals and collectively, to subvert hierarchies and challenge norms that maintain injustice and inequity.
Here is a link to the article that Dave suggested for our next meeting: https://lifehacker.com/the-difference-between-being-middle-class-and-poor-1832057673
And a link to a short video on “The myth of Responsibility": https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=242&v=h-GkUHI2888
In addition, we agreed that we would all come with two stories to share, one that is about a time when we experienced NOT having power and privilege, and one when we did. Below are some suggested questions to ask yourself as you recall these memories to help deepen your understanding and interpretation of the stories.
Story when we did not experience privilege:
How did you feel both during and after the experience?
What specific action or statement did not work for you and why?
What could others who held privilege in that situation have done to transform the experience for you?
Story when we have privilege:
Many of us have so many experiences, both conscious and unconscious, of having privilege. I invite you to explore an experience that was particularly intense for you in terms of seeing how your privilege lead to another’s and your own suffering.
What specifically did your privilege give you access to?
Are you really willing to give this up in order to create a more just world?
Reflecting on question 3 above, who might you have done differently to transform the experience of the other person/people who did not hold privilege?
