Privileged Identity Research Articles

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In this chapter, Mary Louise recounts Toni Morrison's (2017) arguments in The Origin of Others about what grounds peoples’ sorting and ranking of persons they consider unlike them in aspects of race, social class, gender-nonconforming identity, or language background. She recounts how her own Latinx family engaged in such conversation about people they saw as not conforming to expected standards of behavior in 1950's and 1960's small-town New England life. Although they were themselves derided for their social class and language background, they nonetheless held so-called “others” accountable for their religious, marital, employment, or cultural nonconformity. Mary Louise likens her family's cataloguing of the failures of “others” to contemporary perspectives on people seen as outside of those with privileged identities.

DONALD TRUMP: MORBID SYMPTOM OF THE INTERREGNUM TRUMP AS TROPE

The election of Donald Trump raises a number of questions about how and why he was supported by the voters to gain electoral college victory. His election was not due to economic hardships but rather due to his unique ability to mobilize three primary constituents of the republican party: its billionaire elites, evangelical Christians and racist white nationalists. His appeal rested upon the authoritarianism of these constituencies, as well as fears of the loss of privileged Identities based on race, religion and/ or gender, disdain toward immigrants, fearing the “decline” of the nation and ressentiment toward corrupt elites.

Racial battle fatigue and activist burnout in racial justice activists of color at predominately White colleges and universities

ABSTRACTActivist burnout scholarship has inadequately considered challenges marginalized-identity activists, such as racial justice activists of color, experience in the course of their activism – challenges from which privileged identity activists, such as white racial justice activists, are protected. This article attempts to address this gap through a phenomenological study examining activist burnout in racial justice activists of color whose primary sites of activism are predominantly white colleges and universities in the United States at which they work. In order to stretch activist burnout theory to differentiate unique marginalized-identity activists’ burnout causes from general causes that do not consider specific activist identities, the lens of racial battle fatigue is employed. Findings show that, although participants shared many causes of burnout that are consistent with general non-identity-specific causes described in existing literature, racial battle fatigue hastened their burnout while their activist commitments elevated their battle fatigue.

Subalternity, Neoliberal Seductions, and Freedom: Decolonizing the Global Market of Social Change

In this essay, working through our journeys as academic-activists collaborating with subaltern communities in the global South on social change processes, we perform autoethnographically a politics of decolonizing the neoliberal reproduction of social change in postcolonial spaces. Through our conversation, we interrogate the White/Brown privileges of race, caste, class, and gender that remain erased in much postcolonial theorizing of culture and social change. Our autoethnographic dialogue, on one hand, interrupts the seduction of neoliberal tropes in communication for social change and, on the other hand, decolonizes autoethnography as a practice for (re)producing privileged identities within the imperial sites of primarily U.S.-based academic institutions. Through the interrogation of our own caste, class, and gender positions within postcolonial social change collaborations that erase spaces for subaltern articulation, we seek to decolonize the postcolonial privileges that are created, circulated, and promoted in the multicultural Anglo-Saxon/Asian university. Our conversations amid the impossibilities of co-creation in subaltern spaces suggest strategies of decolonizing the production of postcolonial knowledge, offering radical frames that fundamentally redefine the interpretations, practices, and politics of communication and social change in postcolonial contexts.

Navigating Identity and Privilege in Multifaith Engagement on a College Campus

To be successful global citizens, students need greater religious literacy and competency engaging diverse religions and worldviews. Effective multifaith work in higher education is a form of intercultural engagement: When done well, this work does not belong just to religious life professionals but involves a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach. This article explores how issues of privilege and intersectional identity impact multifaith work, drawing on specific case studies and on relevant scholarship in race and gender studies, intercultural studies, and social justice studies. Practical suggestions are offered for introducing identity and privilege to students in the context of multifaith engagement.

Collaborations and Renegotiations: Re-examining the ‘Sacred’ in the Film-Making of David Gulpilil and Rolf de Heer

This article discusses the term ‘sacred’ in relation to the work of nineteenth-century sociologist Émile Durkheim, for whom the word denoted the objects, practices and assumptions that sustained communal solidarity and fostered dynamic energies, whether or not they were conventionally described as ‘religious’. I then turn to the work of more recent scholars of ‘critical religion’ suggesting that the terms ‘religion’ and ‘the sacred’ derive from a predominantly western, patriarchal and colonial context, forming part of a complex network of interconnected categories that represent a distinctive and dominant discourse of power constructing a privileged identity through hostile Othering or exclusions. Arguably, in the Australian mainstream, a discourse of ‘religion’ imported largely by Christian settlers from the west over the last two hundred years has been employed to exclude Aboriginal ways of understanding the world, for example by promoting the category of ‘land’ as an exploitable, God-given human possession. Nevertheless, drawing on the work of Julia Kristeva, I understand that an encounter with the Other—whether the Aboriginal or the balanda—can be viewed differently: as a zone of properly disturbing but also creative possibility. It remains very important, however, to acknowledge the power imbalances that are still embedded within such encounters, and the consequent risks to indigenous Australians, of further dislocation and dispossession. This idea is explored through a consideration of the collaborative film-making of David Gulpilil and Rolf de Heer and, in particular, of two films: Ten Canoes (2006) and Charlie’s Country (2013).

Advancing Social Justice Work at the Intersections of Multiple Privileged Identities

The authors discuss how the concept of social location and tenets of intersectionality inform the understanding of power and privilege, our work with people with multiple privileged identities, and the preparation of social justice educators.

“Two Totally Different People”: Dissonance of Intersecting Identities in White College Women

This phenomenological study explored the intersecting privileged (racial) and oppressed (gender) identities of eight White college women. Through three interviews, this study aimed to understand how the participants experience socially conflicting identities. Findings indicated that the participants felt more connected to their gender than their race. In addition, participants experienced dissonance when considering how their gender and racial identities work to form a holistic self. Implications for student affairs research and practice are shared.

The Intersection of Race, Sexual Orientation, Socioeconomic Status, Trans Identity, and Mental Health Outcomes

The present study examined patterns in trans individuals’ multiple identities and mental health outcomes. Cluster 1 (socioeconomic and racial privilege; n = 239) was characterized by individuals who identified as trans women or cross-dressers, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning; had associates degrees; reported household incomes of $60,000 or more a year; and were non-Latino White. Cluster 2 (educational privilege; n = 191) was characterized by individuals who identified as trans men or genderqueer, gay, or queer; had a bachelor’s degree; reported household incomes of $10,000 or less a year; and were people of color. There was a pattern of individuals in Cluster 1 who identified with two privileged identities (identifying as White and having higher household incomes), whereas individuals in Cluster 2 identified only formal education as a privilege. Individuals in Cluster 2 reported statistically significant levels of anxiety. Implications of these results for future research and clinical practice are examined.

Fannish masculinities in transition in anime music video fandom

Politically engaged scholarship often interrogates the experiences of groups without privilege. But in order for social change to happen, privileged identities must also be reworked. An analysis of anime fandom in the early 2000s shows that fan works, such as fan video and cosplay performances, concretize masculinities that are both transgressive and desperately seeking normative confirmation. By means of queer and masculinity theory, I argue that fandom is a uniquely generative space for reworking masculinity. This will only remain true, however, if it can hold onto its subversive practices in a time of increasing mainstream attention.

In This Issue

In This Issue

The Invisibility of Whiteness in Clinical Practice: Case Commentary on “Becoming Visible: The Case of Colette”

My critical analysis of “Becoming Visible: The Case of Colette” is informed by Lee and Bhuyan’s (Soc Serv Rev 87:98–130, 2013) approach to analyze cross-cultural clinical practice. It examines “invisible” discursive moments that functionally reproduce sociocultural power dynamics of discrimination and oppression within the clinical encounter. I explored several threads of the therapy narrative to make visible privileged identities and ideologies, such as the normative performance of whiteness. In addition, my commentary demonstrates alternative narratives that resituate clinical practice to a more antidiscriminatory, antioppressive space through “de-centering” and making visible the discourse of whiteness (Lee and Bhuyan in Soc Serv Rev 87(1):98–130, 2013).

“Men Wanted”

This article builds heterosexuality into the concept of aesthetic labor to better understand corporate efforts to construct gendered brands and consumer identities. By theorizing heterosexual aesthetic labor, I show how two men’s salons, Adonis and The Executive, hire for, develop, and mobilize the sexual identities and gender habitus of straight and conventionally feminine women to masculinize the hair salon. Drawing from ethnographic observations of and interviews with employees and clients at these men’s salons, I move the discussion of aesthetic labor beyond recruitment to show how service workers become interactional resources for customers’ projections of privileged identities. Emphasizing workers’ agency, I show how the women deploy professionalizing rhetoric and protocols and essentializing frameworks to manage the dilemmas of heterosexual aesthetic labor. These management strategies allow women a sense of legitimacy and at the same time keep gender and sexual hierarchies intact and naturalize men’s entitlement to women’s bodies.

When Adam met Sally: The Transformative Potential of Sympathy

This paper adopts the view promoted by early modern philosopher Adam Smith that exercises of the sympathetic imagination play an important role in supporting human sociability and ethical behaviour. It argues that such exercises have potential to significantly change the way in which privileged racial identities relate to marginalised and devalued racial identities. First, the paper draws on Sally Haslanger’s reflections upon her lived experience of transracial parenting to illustrate how sympathetic identification with the experiences of a differently racialized individual can transform the way in which we relate to entire racial groups. Haslanger’s account demonstrates the potential for exercises of the sympathetic imagination to disrupt the way in which we experience our own embodiment, and to generate a form of knowledge that implicates our sense of self and will to act. Second, the paper discusses some limitations of appealing to sympathy as a social resource in less intimate contexts. This discussion throws light on the importance of exercising a critically reflective mode of sympathy to overcome racial bias, in addition to the importance of institutional design and grassroots initiatives in facilitating sympathetic identification across racial lines.

Us and Them

How will Hispanic population growth affect black-white relations in the United States? Research on intergroup relations operates within a two-group paradigm, furnishing few insights into multi-group contexts. This study is based on an original experiment that combines behavioral game and survey methods to evaluate the impact of perceived Hispanic growth on attitudes and behavior. Results reveal opposite reactions among blacks and whites. Whites in the baseline condition contribute comparable amounts to black and white recipients in a dictator game, whereas whites who first read about Hispanic growth contribute more to white recipients than to black ones. By contrast, blacks in the baseline condition contribute more to black recipients than to white ones, whereas blacks who first read about Hispanic growth contribute comparable amounts to black and white recipients. Patterns of identification mirror patterns of contributions: whites exposed to Hispanic growth identify relatively more strongly with their racial group than with their national group, whereas blacks exposed to Hispanic growth identify relatively more strongly with their national group than with their racial group. Together, these results suggest that people respond to the growth of a third group by prioritizing the most privileged identity to which they can plausibly lay claim and which also excludes the growing group.

Complexity Overlooked: Enhancing Cultural Competency in the White Lesbian Counseling Trainee Through Education and Supervision

Self-awareness is often associated with enhanced multicultural competency. Training programs must work to facilitate self-awareness in counseling trainees who hold both privileged and oppressed identities. In this article, I highlight a gap in the literature regarding how best to supervise white lesbian counseling trainees. Facilitating self-awareness through supervision will be explored as a tool for enhancing multicultural competency in the white lesbian counseling trainee. An exploration of understanding white privilege as well as the impact of oppression on lesbian counseling trainees, will be used to draw conclusions regarding effective supervision for this population. Additionally, suggestions for future research will be proposed.

The veil of professionalism: An autoethnographic critique of white positional identities in the figured worlds of white research performance

Two white researchers critique the professional veil of silence they created as they reflected on a qualitative study they performed 12 years earlier. Autoethnography and performance ethnography are utilized to examine the ways in which whiteness can remain unexamined throughout the research process due to the construction of white positional identities within the figured world of research. White privilege and white talk, specifically white silence and hyperpoliteness as they relate to white researchers conducting research, are used critique the research purpose and process. The researchers conclude that white researchers should attend to questions of privilege and white racial identity as they plan, conduct, and disseminate their research.

Horses Chomping at the Global Bit: Ideology, Systemic Injustice, and Resistance in Zora Neale Hurston’s Tell My Horse

Zora Neale Hurstons Tell My Horse (1938), ethnographic portrayal of Jamaica and Haiti, emphasizes the ideological constraints of identity and the material consequences that such constraints produce. Through such consequences, Hurston depicts the relationships between the United States South and the Caribbean, focusing on the plantation economies of those regions; however, when she reveals the differences between them, she expresses ambivalence about the United States's privilege and power, endorsing its imperialism with nationalist rhetoric. Demonstrating her privileged identity as American, Hurston employs nationalist ideology to construct the United States as democratic, progressive, and innocent, and she accomplishes this construction with her portrayals of the Caribbean as uncivilized, regressive Other. Such constructions reify national boundaries and lend support to the U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915 to 1934). However, Hurston's text also de-naturalizes racial identity and emphasizes diasporic connections among Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean, particularly those connections that demonstrate cultural resistance. Thus, Hurston ultimately portrays Haiti as resilient and resistant to exploitative ideology by focusing a large portion of Tell My Horse on the African-derived practice of voodoo, emphasizing how its adherents subvert social hierarchies with their performances of ritualized spirit possession. Several scholars point out the contradiction of Hurston endorsing United States imperialism while celebrating resistance to it, but they fail to draw any conclusions about that contradiction. John Rowe recognizes that Tell My Horse offers sentiments opposed to those of Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) and that Hurston's endorsement of imperialism contradicts her advocacy of resistance through voodoo; however, he fails to reconcile or explain any of these contradictions (127,137-138). Similarly, Annette Trefzer highlights Hurstons conflicting impulses to support the U.S. occupation of Haiti and to celebrate Haitian resistance to exploitation, but she merely concludes that the conflict between racial and national identifications remains essentially unresolved in Hurston's work (308). Hurston's contradictory assertions, however, suggest that national identities can supersede other identity categories as influences upon individual behavior and belief. The disparity between her stances on U.S. imperialism in Tell My Horse and her other texts indicates that her marginalization as African woman allows her to view the U.S. critically from within, while her privileged position as American constrains her ability to maintain a critical perspective when she is outside of the country. Ultimately, Hurston's text both de-naturalizes identity categories and demonstrates the insidiousness of them. Interestingly, Hurston's perspective anticipated current examinations of the South's global relationships. Reading Hurston in a post-Hurricane Katrina context, Keith Cartwright sees Hurston's examinations of circum-Caribbean migrations and Afro-Atlantic agency as pioneering and (762); and Hurston's vision is prophetic not only in terms of real world events like Katrina but also in relationship to present-day scholarship. As James Peacock asserts, the United States South, if the exception within the country, is actually the norm for the rest of the world, particularly when the plantation is viewed as paradigmatic (269; see also Smith and Cohn 15). Examining plantation histories, Matthew Guterl describes the Gulf South as the northern rim of Mediterranean that includes the Caribbean, and he asserts that many of the negative stereotypes about the U.S. South capitalize upon the region's association with the Caribbean (98, 103). Robert Hall also describes the Deep South as part of an interconnected cirum-Caribbean creole culture, as many of the African survivals, transported during the slave trade, can be found in Caribbean locales such as Haiti and Jamaica as well as in the United States (106). …

Toward a Critical Race Psychology

AbstractCritical Race Theory (CRT) emerged as an identity‐conscious intervention within critical legal studies and has subsequently developed an interdisciplinary presence. We draw upon CRT perspectives to articulate five core ideas for a Critical Race Psychology (CRP). CRT perspectives (1) approach racism as a systemic force embedded in everyday society (rather than a problem of individual bias); (2) illuminate how ideologies of neoliberal individualism (e.g., merit, choice) often reflect and reproduce racial domination; (3) identify interest convergence as the typical source of broad‐based support for reparative action; (4) emphasize possessive investment in privileged identities and identity‐infused realities that reproduce racial domination; and (5) propose practices of counter‐storytelling to reveal and contest identity‐infused bases of everyday society. In summary, we propose a CRP that consider race not as one domain (among many) for psychological investigation but instead as a conceptual lens through which to analyze all of psychological science.

From differentiated use to differentiating practices: negotiating legitimate participation and the production of privileged identities

Prevailing approaches for studying relations between digital media and social inequalities focus on ‘differentiated uses’ of digital media. Since differences in access do not fully account for differences in use, many scholars have proposed that differences in digital skills, or related concepts such as literacies, help explain the discrepancies. By implication, interventions aimed at equalizing digital access and skills should help ameliorate gaps in use and hence lessen social inequalities. The contention of this article is that these well-intentioned efforts oversimplify and distort relations between digital media and social inequalities. My argument is based on an in-depth ethnographic study of the launch of a well-resourced public middle school in New York City that attempted to reform public schooling in inclusive ways in light of the rise of digital media. I argue that while the intervention helped mitigate differences in access and skills, it did not ameliorate differences in purportedly beneficial uses. Moreover, and paradoxically, the intervention helped remake some of the very social divisions that concern digital inequality scholars. To overcome this seeming paradox, I propose an alternative approach for studying relations between digital media and social inequalities, one focused on ‘differentiating practices’. Such an approach directs attention toward the role of digital media in negotiations over legitimate participation in the social practices that make and mark social difference in situ. Doing so offers scholars a way to situate their accounts of differentiated use while gaining clarity about when and how digital media contributes to the production of privilege.