Power and Privilege in a Multicultural Society

Catalog description

This course will examine how the intersection of power and privilege shapes race, gender and class relationships in the United States. Analyses will show how the legal, economic, political and social manifestations of power influence the assignments and distribution of privilege in the United States, both in historical and contemporary contexts. The impositions of power on identity in the social assignment of privilege will be an important component of the course. The two “big questions” to be examined in this course are: How do issues of race, ethnicity, class, age, religion, gender, and sexual orientation interact with privilege? How do the tensions between power, privilege, oppression and inequality lead to movements for social justice? Various interlocking systems of privileges—justice system, educational system, medical system, political system, economic system, etc.--will be examined, using the theoretical frameworks of inequality, oppression and dependency. Prominent public policies and social movements that have challenged the notions of power and privilege, both historically and contemporarily, will be examined: civil rights, women’s suffrage, affirmative action, Occupy Wall Street, LGBT rights, Metoo movement, Equal Rights Amendment, Title IX, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, etc.