Before I get farther into my social justice action project, I wanted to continue to reflect on my identity and privileges. As a cis, white queer able-bodied woman who was born in America and speaks English fluently, I have encountered a lot of struggles, oppression and microagressions but I have also received a lot of privilege and benefits because of my salient identities. These privileges and disadvantages have also impacted the types of social justice issues that I pay attention too.
Something that stood out to me from this course's readings in Social justice: Theories, issues and movements by authors Capehart & Milovanovic was the way Nancy Fraser’s (2003) views on redistribution and recognition within a distributive justice model. From her perspective, she wants to “focus on the distribution of resources as well as claims to recognition, especially those oriented around race, sex, ethnicity, and gender differences” which I believe is critical in order to create an equitable society. Within the context of social justice, this stood out to me because I care about making sure everyone is treated fairly and is able to pursue the same opportunities with the same possibility of succeeding. Taking it a step further, I want to ensure that everyone feels safe being who they are.
As a queer woman, I had often feared for my safety in public. I am a target for physical and sexual violence simply based on my identity, and while I know I can hide this identity at times, I cannot escape the way society views me and how some people want to hurt me because they disagree with my identity. I want to make sure that all people can be safe, and free to be themselves. I also know what’s it’s like to be paid less than my coworkers who are similarly qualified as me just because of my gender. These experiences have also helped me reflect on the fact that my white identity still helps me get opportunities and be able to succeed more than other queen woman of color. Being a person of color adds a whole other layer of marginalization, so I want to fight to acknowledge this oppression and seek justice for those who have been wronged and/or hurt, including myself. While I worry that I can’t fully understand the experience of women of color, or anyone else with different identities than mine, I can see the similar struggle that they experience and find ways to fight for all of us who deserve equitable distributive justice.
Within the field of higher education, as a student affairs professional, I want to continue to address the same inequalities but on a smaller scale of a college institution because I believe it’s important to create safe spaces for students to build their identity and confidence to be able to go out into the world and be their own social change agents. Even though women are surpassing men in college graduation rates, men are still statistically to speak up more in class, are comparatively paid more, and are more likely to hold higher paying leadership-type CEO jobs. Then, when you add in other layers of identity involving race, sexuality, ethnicity and gender, it makes it even harder for people with these multiple identities to succeed and graduate from college. So while everyone has access to college, access does not equal opportunity or guarantee success.
So as a social justice educator, I want to engage in a distributive justice model similar to David Miller’s perspective in which we recognize how tensions and conflicts exist when people find themselves in more than one mode of human relationship, and focus on our solidarity and collective conscience because of our shared culture in order to ensure that each person enjoys the same liberties, rights, safety, and opportunities. I also align with Jesuit’s view on higher education in that I feel like I am responsible in creating cultured, educated individuals with the wisdom and judgement necessary for them to provide leadership to the larger society. I want to help students discover their leadership abilities and learn to view their identity as a strength, and see that they have multiple forms of Tara Yosso’s definition of cultural capital that they can leverage to succeed in college as well as once they graduate to then help larger-society become more accepting, equitable, and socially just.
I care about these issues of larger-society and within higher education institutions because of my experiences as a cis queer white woman. I have experienced inequalities within school and the work force, and even so I know it would be a lot harder for me if I were of a different race or ethnicity. While I am often ignored in the classroom or unconsciously assumed not to be a leader by a staff or faculty member because of my gender, I am also able to pursue my master’s degree and have been successful at finding work in my field. But I know things aren’t perfect, so I want to leverage my privileges along with the parts of my identity that are marginalized in order to bring justice to the field of higher education and ultimately the community I live in and hopefully larger-society.
References:
Capehart, L., & Milovanovic, D. (2007). Social justice: Theories, issues and movements. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
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