Posted on Dec 1, 2014
Maj Assistant Director Of Operations, Integration
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"The concept of intersectionality recognizes that people can be privileged in some ways and definitely not privileged in others. There are many different types of privilege, not just skin-color privilege, that impact the way people can move through the world or are discriminated against. These are all things you are born into, not things you earned, that afford you opportunities that others may not have."

How does the concept of intersectionality affect you? Sexual discrimination, white privilege, male privilege?

Can we use and teach intersectionality in our units to help people analyze disfunction?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-crosleycorcoran/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-white-person_b_5269255.html
Posted in these groups: Images 1 Sexual HarassmentChecklist icon 2 Standards
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MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca
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Edited 10 y ago
Privilege is nothing more than a perception by someone who feels they have it worse than the next guy. We all feel it in one way or another. Some take it harder than others and act on it in an attempt to level the playing field. Others take it for what its worth and are thankful for what they have.
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Maj Assistant Director Of Operations, Integration
Maj (Join to see)
10 y
MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca, I think it is more than a perception...perhaps cultural perception manifested? I really liked this example:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/nathanwpyle/this-teacher-taught-his-class-a-powerful-lesson-about-privil
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MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca
MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca
10 y
Excellent example I like that. The only thing I think is unrealistic is having to stay in your seat. To me its like saying, you have to accept your place in life and give it your pest shot as opposed to jockeying for a better position first, then taking your shot. Like the analogy though.
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Maj Assistant Director Of Operations, Integration
Maj (Join to see)
10 y
Touché!
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SGT Team Leader
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I grew up in trailer parks in rural Alabama. I remember lying in my bed, in my tiny, stifling room, and seeing the light of the moon in the cracks under my window sill. I had rats that lived in the closet, and would come out at night and scratchscratchscratch under my bed. My mother had boyfriends who would come in and out of our lives. The first time I visited a crack-house and smoked crack-cocaine...I was 14.
I was "beat" into a gang at 15, and ran away from home at 16. By 17, I had been pregnant three times.
By 25, most childhood friends had already died of overdoses, or car-wrecks, or AIDS.
When I stepped into my relative's homes, under hostile eyes, where was "white privilege?" When I walked into a store, with my pregnant belly, in GoodWill clothes and twenty-year old car...where was "white privilege"? Where was "white privilege" when my family was being scrutinized, in case we "trailer park trash" were robbing the "moneyed folks" blind?
I'd like to know. Maybe the keepers of such a fortune were asleep on the job.
This hostility, this innate distrust in society, may not necessarily be due to racism, by itself. Classicism is a critical, judgmental bitch. We have a long way to go, folks.
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SGT Team Leader
SGT (Join to see)
10 y
SPC(P) Jay Heenan, so do my kids, I hope.
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Maj Assistant Director Of Operations, Integration
Maj (Join to see)
10 y
SGT (Join to see), thank you for sharing. Do you see similar issues in our military, between units or ranks? What I'm trying to ask is: do we as a military have a long way to go or society in general. What can we do better?
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SGT Team Leader
SGT (Join to see)
10 y
Society, I believe, would be the more appropriate answer, Sir. Actually, the military,as a whole, represents the best in us, I think...which is why we continue to serve. This is especially true when we open our ears and listen. "Society" has less of an impact on soldiers' lives than do our fellow service-members. Perhaps because we have such commonality, that frankly, we don't necessarily share with the general public. Thank you for asking, Sir.
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CMSgt James Nolan
CMSgt James Nolan
10 y
SGT (Join to see) You are starting to move up into leadership positions-not to say that you are not leading now, but you are going to be designated out as a leader. As such, your background/life experience is going to give you a perspective different from many. You will have much life experience to draw from when making decisions that influence outcomes on troop behavior. Don't forget your experience, use it. When troopie X comes in whining about they can't........you get to have a sit down that is based in reality, not theory. BIG difference.

Best of luck
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Maj Assistant Director Of Operations, Integration
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Some background from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality):
"This feminist sociological theory was first named by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, though the concept can be traced back to the 19th century. The theory suggests that—and seeks to examine how—various biological, social and cultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, caste, and other axes of identity interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels, contributing to systematic injustice and social inequality. Intersectionality holds that the classical conceptualizations of oppression within society, such as racism, sexism, biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, and belief-based bigotry, do not act independently of one another. Instead, these forms of oppression interrelate, creating a system of oppression that reflects the "intersection" of multiple forms of discrimination."
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