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Systemic Privilege and Systemic Oppression
Module 3: Ways to Teach Systemic Oppression and Privilege*
From Ways to Incorporate DEI into Your Courses By David Luke, Chief Diversity Officer, University of Michigan, Flint
Systemic Privilege and Systemic Oppression
White students at HWCUs attain higher retention and graduation rates compared to students of color. Data from public institutions of higher education in the U.S. make that clear. Because systemic racism influences housing, wealth, K–12 education, and any number of other factors prior to one’s entrance into college, colleges themselves often perpetuate systemic oppression. Elite institutions favor wealthy students, and intentionally or not, have created a whole host of challenges that students with lower socioeconomic status have a difficult (if not impossible) time overcoming. Students at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor even collectively created a resource guide for “not rich” students to address how to navigate the institution and its surrounding community.
Along the same lines, people who are not experiencing systemic oppression experience relative systemic privilege. These are two sides of the same coin.
Oftentimes, conversations around privilege fall flat or become unproductive because the word “privilege” is interpreted as a stigmatized label that signifies something immoral or wrong about the person. It’s more productive to view privilege as someone benefitting from an unjust system; it is not necessarily a system you created, but it is a system that you can work to dismantle so that others experience it the same way you do. When I think of privilege, I think of Peggy McIntosh’s famous list of examples of white privilege, derived from correlating her experiences with male privilege to race; the problem is not that white people have these experiences, it’s that others do not. Everybody should, for example, be able to secure housing in an area they can afford and want to live, and be confident that their neighbors won’t discriminate against them. That’s not the case for everybody, though, and that’s the problem.
*Published 07/22. © 2022 Sage Publishing. All rights reserved. All other brand and product names are the property of their respective owners.