Lesbians and White Privilege

Andrea L. Dottolo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367695064
• eBook ISBN: 9781000372694
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Social Sciences

There are three overarching themes that connect the chapters: interdisciplinarity, intersectionality, and identity. This interdisciplinary compilation includes contributions from scholars in cultural studies, social work, English, psychology, anthropology, and education. Essays include empirical research, making use of both quantitative and qualitative methods as well as personal reflections and interpretation. Each chapter makes central the critical significance of intersectionality, locating privilege and oppression within larger social systems and institutional structures, as an 'interlocking matrix of relationships.'

These chapters challenge, recognize, and question whiteness, with the intention that they encourage us to do the same, in our own lives, practices, behaviors, and disciplines. By taking whiteness seriously, we might begin to move toward explicit antiracist efforts, dismantling those structures and hierarchies that enable only some to speak as 'just humans.'

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

White and Lesbian: Intersections of Privilege and Oppression

Catherine Crisp

This article defines and explores concepts of privilege, oppression, and intersectionality as they relate to the author’s experience of being a white lesbian female. The Awareness/Acceptance/Action Model, used frequently in 12-step programs, is presented as a means by which to take initial steps to become aware of privilege and address oppression. Examples of the intersections between different forms of privilege and oppression are presented. Although the article is applicable to many different forms of privilege and oppression, the primary focus is on white privilege and lesbian oppression.

Introduction

As a white, middle-class, christian, nondisabled, North American, lesbian female, I experience both privilege and oppression. I experience privilege as a function of my race, socioeconomic class, christian identity, nationality, absence of disabilities, and presentation as the gender with which I identify. However, I also experience oppression as a female and lesbian. My privilege and oppression intersect with each other and influence each other. The purpose of this article is to discuss privilege, oppression, and intersectionality; present a model for becoming aware of and addressing privilege and oppression; and present examples of how privilege and oppression intersect in my life. Although I will discuss a variety of forms of privilege and oppression, the primary focus of this article will be on the intersections of the privilege I experience as a white person and the oppression I experience as a lesbian and female. This article thus makes a unique contribution by presenting examples of how different forms of privilege are affected by experiences of oppression.

Privilege, Oppression, and Intersectionality

Privilege

In her well-known essay, McIntosh (1989) defines white privilege as “an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious” (p. 10). McIntosh describes two types of privilege. Unearned entitlements are those that none of us should have to earn (McIntosh, 1989) and that include things such as feeling safe in public and working where we choose (Johnson, 2006). However, when these entitlements are limited to certain groups (such as white people), it becomes a form of privilege that McIntosh defines as unearned advantages. The second type of privilege McIntosh describes is “conferred dominance”; it gives one group the power to control others because of their race or sex.

As McIntosh (1989) notes in her definition, a key aspect of white privilege is its invisibility and the ability of white people to be oblivious to it. Consequently, it is not something I, as a white woman, see as having been bestowed upon me but is simply part of my landscape, part of the fabric of my life (Wildman, 1996). Until recently, being white was not something I was actively aware of because it did not appear to affect me negatively. Although I thought I understood racism, race was something that others had and not something that seemed to directly affect my life. As Potapchuk (2005) notes, I was blind to how the “white race card” was played every day in ways that benefited me and consequently I experienced what Johnson (2006) describes as the “luxury of obliviousness” (p. 22).

Obliviousness about white privilege has several consequences, including not having to think about being white (Johnson, 2006), not having to think about race and the impact of race on one’s own life (Johnson, 2006), a lack of empathy for others’ experiences (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2009), and the perception that our lives are morally neutral and normative (Goodman, 2011; McIntosh, 1988) and are the standard by which others lives should be judged (Wildman, 1996). Although trained as a social worker and committed to addressing issues of inequality and oppression as a social worker and educator, I have struggled with many of these. Until recently, I have not understood how my white identity shapes my life and I occasionally still struggle with understanding this. I have struggled to be empathic at times and, despite understanding much more about systemic privilege and oppression, I still want to believe the myth that we live in a meritocracy, a myth McIntosh (1989) says I must give up in order to embrace my white privilege. I naively want to believe in a democratic society where everyone has a voice, where both white people and people of color contribute to defining norms. I want to reject Goodman’s (2011) claim that I and others with privilege “determine what is acceptable and unacceptable, what is valued and ignored” (p. 16). The challenge for me and other white people is thus to give up our luxury of obliviousness, become aware of our white privilege, and identify ways in which white privilege affects both our lives and the lives of people of color. We must use the privilege we have to determine what is valued by acknowledging our privilege and using it to address the oppression and racism that permeate this society. I slowly began this challenge in the 1990s after reading McIntosh’s (1989) article on white privilege. Twenty years later, the challenge still remains because as McIntosh (1989) notes, the pressure to avoid awareness of my white privilege is great and requires that I give up myths I have lived with my entire life.

Oppression

Oppression directly stems from privilege and is “a system that maintains advantage and disadvantage based on social group memberships and operates, intentionally and unintentionally, on individual, institutional, and cultural levels” (Hardiman, Jackson, & Griffin, 2007, p. 58). Several key aspects of this definition are noteworthy. First, oppression exists because others obtain some advantage from it, advantages that McIntosh (1989) refers to as unearned advantages. Consequently, oppression of some does not occur without others’ experience of privilege. Simply put, people of color are oppressed because whites like me obtain advantages from it. Second, like privilege, oppression results from placement in socially constructed groups (Johnson, 2006) and cannot exist without these groups and placement in them. Third, oppression does not require intent by the oppressor and the absence of intent to oppress does not lessen its impact. Whether or not I and others intend to oppress, the consequences of oppression are still the same, the oppression has still occurred, and the pain and harm of the oppression are still present. Finally, oppression can occur at the individual level and is not limited to the institutional and cultural levels. Individuals, groups, institutions, and cultures can all be oppressive; consequently, people with privilege must take responsibility for our role in contributing to oppression at each of these levels.

Like privilege, oppression affects both privileged and subordinate groups (Sisneros, Stakeman, Joyner, & Schmitz, 2008). Consequences for members of privileged groups include but are not restricted to limited self knowledge, distorted views of self, denial of emotions, isolation from people who are different, ignorance of one’s own culture and history, guilt and shame, stress, and spiritual emptiness (Goodman, 2011). Consequences for members of oppressed groups are often more destructive as oppression silences marginalized people and denies them the opportunity to fully participate in society (Sisneros et al., 2008). It also “systematically reduces, molds, and immobilizes” members of oppressed groups (Sisneros et al., 2008, pp. 7–8) and thus may keep them from taking steps to address the oppression they experience. Whereas privilege opens doors for people, oppression “slams them shut” (Johnson, 2006, p. 38). Oppression dehumanizes and devalues individuals and, when internalized (subconsciously accepted by members of oppressed groups), it may lead members of oppressed groups to experience decreases in self-esteem, their sense of empowerment, their connections to others in their reference group, and to engage in dysfunctional and unhealthy behaviors (Goodman, 2011). At its worst, oppression leads to violence toward and death of members of oppressed groups when members of oppressed groups are targeted for crimes on the basis of their placement in these groups.

Intersectionality

Most of us experience privilege based on our membership in some categories of our lives and oppression based on our membership in others (Sisneros et al., 2008). Although Collins (2000) defines intersectionality as “particular forms of intersecting oppressions” (p. 18), a broader definition includes intersections of both privilege and oppression and refers “to the multidimensionality and complexity of the human experience and describes the place where multiple identities come together or intersect” (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2009, p. 42).

A basic premise of intersectionality is that “people live multiple, layered identities derived from social relations, history, and the operations of structures of power. People are members of more than one community at the same time, and can simultaneously experience oppression and privilege” (Association for Women’s Rights in Development [AWID], 2004, p. 2). Furthermore, this combination of identities should not be viewed as additive but rather as creating experiences that are unique to each individual (AWID, 2004; Murphy, Hunt, Zajicek, Norris, & Hamilton, 2009). When viewed in this context, this perspective is consistent with Pharr’s (1988) claims that there is no hierarchy of oppression, none is better or worse than the others. Furthermore, our experiences of privilege and oppression vary based on other forms of oppression and privilege we experience. Our privilege may be mitigated or reduced by an oppressed identity and conversely, our oppression may be mitigated or reduced by our privilege. Despite the potential impact of our privilege on the oppression we experience, privilege in one area of our lives does not prevent oppression in another area and vice versa (Goodman, 2011).

One way to think about intersections of privilege and oppression is through the lens of a matrix of domination (Collins, 2000) and/or privilege (Disch, 2002) that can be used to examine how intersections are organized. Among the benefits of viewing privilege and oppression through this lens is that we can stop trying to identify which oppression is the worst (Johnson, 2006). As Pharr (1988) proclaims, they are all “terrible and destructive” (p. 53). We also can move from our dichotomous thinking that one is either privileged or oppressed; the reality is that most of us are both (Johnson, 2006). In addition, Johnson (2006) suggests that the matrix can help us see that:

1. One form of privilege or oppression can reinforce another.
2. Access to some forms of privilege can affect access to other forms of privilege.
3. Access to some forms of privilege can serve as compensation for not having access to other forms of privilege.
4. Oppressed groups may be pitted against each other to draw attention away from systems that reinforce privilege that harms them.

There are many benefits of an intersectional analysis. Intersectionality helps us understand the complexity of the human experience, precludes broad stroke generalizations, and encourages us to avoid seeing people on the basis of single socially constructed categories. It moves us away from an either/or mentality. An intersectional analysis encourages us to examine areas where we have privilege and areas where we are oppressed. This approach can help us move away from competing oppressions (e.g., being white and lesbian is worse than being black and heterosexual) because it acknowledges the interplay of the oppression and privilege and the complexity of the identities that we hold. Moreover, it can be a useful tool for examining privilege (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2009) when we are asked to examine the multiple forms of privilege and their interplay, and how privilege may be mitigated by oppression. It can also be used to identify common ground among members of diverse groups (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2009). For example, among women who are challenged by poverty, it can be used to identify the economic challenges they experience as common ground while also acknowledging the differences they experience as a function of other characteristics such as race and sexual orientation. Despite these strengths, one of the greatest challenges in using this approach is that members of privileged groups may shift their focus from their privileged identities to their oppressed identities as a means of denying their privilege (Goodman, 2011; Johnson, 2006).

Model to Address Privilege and Oppression

For several years, I have attempted to address the many forms of privilege I experience, particularly my white privilege, while maintaining my awareness of areas in which I am oppressed. In the course of this journey, I have found it helpful to apply the Awareness/Acceptance/Action Model (AAAM) (Rutledge & Abell, 2005), a model used in many 12-step recovery programs to address addiction. Although addiction and privilege have little in common, addressing both issues involves accepting something we may want to deny. Consequently, the model is applicable to increasing awareness about a variety of issues and has also been applied to other issues besides addiction. Addressing privilege and oppression is a complex and life long journey that involves challenging structural forces that perpetuate systems of oppression. The model presented here, while seemingly simplistic, is intended to help people identify initial steps they can take to increase awareness of their privilege and address oppression.

Awareness

Awareness, the first step in the model and the most difficult for me, consists of overcoming the denial that is endemic to privilege holders and becoming aware of the privilege we hold. Goodman (2011) discusses several reasons that we are challenged to see the privilege we hold. First, most of us want to view ourselves as nice people who treat others fairly. As McIntosh (1989) states, most of us were taught to see racism as “individual acts of meanness” (p. 10). I thought that I treated others fairly and certainly did not see myself as mean or racist, perceptions that limited my ability to accept my white privilege. Second, because privilege is a function ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 White and Lesbian: Intersections of Privilege and Oppression
• 2 Sustaining White Homonormativity: The Kids Are All Right as Public Pedagogy
• 3 Boston in the 1970s: Is There a Lesbian Community? And if There is, Who is in it?
• 4 The Costume of Shangri-La: Thoughts on White Privilege, Cultural Appropriation, and Anti-Asian Racism
• 5 Being White Helps: Intersections of Self-Concealment, Stigmatization, Identity Formation, and Psychological Distress in Racial and Sexual Minority Women
• 6 “The Normative Idea of Queer is a White Person”: Understanding Perceptions of White Privilege Among Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Women of Color in Toronto, Canada
• 7 Complexity Overlooked: Enhancing Cultural Competency in the White Lesbian Counseling Trainee Through Education and Supervision
• Index