Session 4:
Privilege and Protocols
PREP
PRIVILEGE and PROTOCOLS
How has colonization impacted how we understand the world
and how we engage within it?
We’re offering resources as prompts to help you explore your personal, cultural, and institutional privilege and protocols.
GROUP EXERCISE
What is privilege?
RESOURCE: The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture
ASK: What beliefs do I notice underlying these comments?
ASK: What are the fragility responses?
ASK: What questions could we be asking in terms of how this could be handled in a way that would promote stronger relationships and trust between ourselves and Indigenous peoples?
WRITE: Write your discoveries and curiosities in a shared document.
GO DEEPER
Exploring My Beliefs
Examine the beliefs that the group has identified and listed in the document above.
Choose a belief that resonates with you and that you want to explore more deeply.
Use Byron Katie’s 5 step Process to deep dive into this belief.
1. Is it true? (Yes or no? If no, move to 3.)
2. Can I absolutely know that it’s true? (Yes or no.)
3. How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
4. Who or what would you be without the thought?
5. Turn the thought around.
GO DEEPER
Unpacking My Invisible Backpack of Privilege
Please start by reading this article by Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack. Once finished we invite you to take a look inside your own backpack of privilege to see what you find there.
Journal: How does a social system that was set up to favour white males favor me? How does it not favor me? In what ways do I feel I am privileged within the system? In what ways do I feel I am not?
AND DEEPER STILL!
My Fragility Response(s)
We invite you to listen while Robin DiAngelo explains the term, White Fragility, to a group of Unitarians. Here are some general responses people tend to exhibit when they feel triggered in this way:
argue
leave
get emotional
deflect, and
assert individuality are some of the most common.
Journal: What are my fragility triggers? How do I respond when triggered? Be as specific as possible.
Example - “I can listen to someone talking about their experiences of racism as an Indigenous person without getting defensive- up until the point when they start saying “all white people do this, and all white people think that”. When that happens I notice that I start to think thoughts like, “I’m not like that though!” or” We’re not all the same, you know!”. If it’s a face-to-face conversation I don’t necessarily say anything but my chest starts to feel tighter and I notice that I’m not focussing as much on what they are saying because I’m trying to manage the thoughts in my own head. Recently, I was watching a documentary where I felt that the Indigenous speakers were making a lot of generalizations about white people and I decided to turn it off to take a break because it was getting to be a bit much. I went back to finish it later after I grounded myself a bit. It’s hard to hear the message behind things when I feel like I need to dodge all the anger, hurt, accusations, and generalizations.”
What does uncolonizing my privilege and protcols look like to me in my life?
