Social Location
Your social location is where you are situated in relation to others around you.
Your social location affects how those around you treat you, what they expect of you, and how they will interpret your actions.
Social Inequality 101
If there is inequality in society, then some people benefit while others suffer from the inequality.
If you believe that a social problem is real, then you either:
Privilege
“The result of our democratic inequality is that the production of privilege will continue to reproduce inequality while implying that ours is a just world.”
Just World Hypothesis
All actions have predictable and just consequences
In our society we often “justify inequality by finding defects in the victims of inequality.” –William Ryan (1976)
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Malcolm X
Who is doing the oppressing?
3 Lessons of Privilege (Shamus Khan)
Hierarchies are natural and can be used to one’s advantage
Experiences matter more than innate or inherited qualities
The way to signal your elite status to others is through ease and openness in all social contexts.
Access v Equality
Do we have a post-race/post-gender/post-class society?
If we allow people of varied backgrounds admission to the world that was formerly controlled by the elite, does that make our world equal?
Equity v Equality
St. Paul’s School
What was the main attribute of ‘successful’ students?
How was success defined differently for
St. Paul’s v Modern day Colleges
What Khan describes is generally the same in terms of:
Extraordinary Achievement
Most common notable trait of St. Paul’s graduates?
Claims of St. Paul’s?
Thus, are these students more deserving of wealth?
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