Intersectional Identities and Invisible Privilege in Canada

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Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this seminar session, students will be able to:

1. Understand their personal intersectional identity by completing Flower Power Identity activity

2. Identify which aspects of their identity are/are not privileged in Canadian society by completing the Flower Power activity

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As a result of these activities, it is aimed that students will apply the knowledge gained in lecture to the real world (Ambrose, 2010), and will construct meaning regarding their personal identity and associated privileged in Canada (Biggs, 1996).

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Key Terms and Ideas:

Intersectionality is a key term for the lesson (Crenshaw, 1989). Intersectionality implies that social identity categories such as sex, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, bodily/cognitive ability, etc. interact and lead to social inequality in unique ways. Certain aspects of identity are privileged differently and a unique mixture of social identities will lead to different relations with social structures and institutions.  

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Invisible privilege is another key idea of the lesson (McIntosh, 1989). When studying women’s studies, it is important to understand that institutions privilege certain aspects of identity over others. It is also important to learn how these privileges may relate to oppression of certain groups. Privileges can easily become invisible, or unconscious, to privileged groups.

However, reflecting on the privileges we have and don’t have leads to a better understanding of our role in reducing oppression of underprivileged groups.  

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Introduction:

To introduce the lesson, I will outline the two learning outcomes of the lesson. These learning outcomes will be that by the end of the lesson:

1. Students will be able to understand the invisible privilege categories in Canada, by completing the Flower Power Identity Activity

2. Understand own intersectional identity and how it relates to personal privilege in Canada, by completing the Flower Power Identity Activity

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For the bridge of the lesson, I will utilize the Mentimeter word cloud function. I will ask students to think of key words of their related lecture earlier that week that related to privilege. These key words can be definitions, examples, or categories of privilege. This will give students a chance to showcase what they learned about privilege in the lecture. It will also give them a chance to re-enter a learning state of mind, and be prepared to engage in thinking about privilege and intersectionality again.  

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Problem the Lecture will Focus on:

The main problem that the lecture will focus on is the issue of identifying our personal invisible privilege in Canadian society. We often lose sight of the ways we are privileged in comparison to other groups. Different intersectional identities are associated with unique power and privilege relations in relation to social structures in Canada (Crenshaw, 1989). Students will reflect on the identities that receive high privilege in Canada, and then will personally reflect on where their individual identities relate or don’t relate to these high privilege groups. From there, we will reflect on how we use this knowledge of ourselves to work towards a more equitable society.

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Possible Solutions:

A solution to becoming aware of invisible privilege is to firstly understand which groups are more likely to receive privilege in Canada (McIntosh, 1989). This occurs by applying the concept of intersectionality to the real world (i.e. Canadian society) (Ambrose, 2010). The next step is to understand your own intersectional identity. From there, we can understand which aspects of our identity receive privilege in society. In this way, students will construct meanings of how privilege relates to their own identity (Biggs, 1996). With this knowledge, students will be more aware of the personal privilege they have.

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Participatory Activity:

The participatory activity of the lesson will involve a few active learning activities. I will utilize the Flower Power Identity handout as a guide for the lesson (see link in Notes section). This Flower Power Identity handout includes an image of a blank flower with many petals. Each petal signifies a different social category (e.g. class, race, ethnic group, sexual orientation, body type, etc.). Each petal has an inner petal and outer petal. The outer petals are where students will indicate the most privileged group within each category within Canada. For example, when thinking about the category of sexual category, one may indicate that people who identify as heterosexual would be the most privileged in Canada. The inner petals are where students will indicate their personal group membership within each category. The lesson will be scheduled as follows:

1. Students will be given the handout. Powerpoint slides that detail the handout instructions will be presented. Students will be verbally asked to work in pairs or groups of two or three to complete the outer petals of the flower. To do this, they will discuss who they believe would receive the highest privilege in Canada, for each category (Approx. 3-4 minutes)

2. I will pull the class together to go over each category as a group. I will ask students to share who they believed would receive the most privilege in each category. We will discuss any variations in answers that arise (Approx. 5 minutes)

3. Students will individually complete the inner portion of the flower. They will note their personal identity group within each category of the flower (Approx. 3-4 minutes) 

4. Lastly, I will pull the class together again to discuss what this experience was like for students.  I will ask students to compare the inner and outer petals of the flower. Where personal and outer petals match, students may realize which aspects of their identity are privileged in Canada. Students will then be asked to share their realizations during this activity if they are comfortable (Approx. 7-9 minutes)

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Assessment:

For the post-assessment, I will distribute sticky notes for students to write their thoughts, comments, or questions about the lesson. Because this seminar is also late in the semester, I will be collecting student feedback on the seminar as a whole, via a small survey on paper. The survey will include their thoughts on the full seminar, how much they learned, one positive aspect of the seminar, and one change to the seminar they would have liked.

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Conclusion:

I will conclude the lesson with presenting a comic strip that illustrates the concept of intersectionality, by telling the story of a triangle with stripes, who does not fit into solely a “triangle” category or a “stripes” category.

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Other Notes:

The Flower Power Identity Activity was retrieved from: http://www.seedifferent.ca/en/Documents/Toolkit%202%20Exploring%20my%20Power%20and%20Privilege.pdf