Making A Difference In Societal Norms

In Tatum’s article, dominant and subordinate identities are identified as the group holding power over everything and everybody in society. “Whether it is reflected in determining who gets the best jobs, whose history will be taught in school, or whose relationships will be validated by society, the dominant group has the greatest influence in determining the structure of the society” …(Tatum, 12) The relationship between dominant and subordinates comes to be that dominants control the subordinates making the dominants the most powerful. “The dominant group assigns roles to the subordinate that reflect the latter’s devalued status, reserving the most highly valued roles in the society for themselves. Subordinates are usually said to be innately incapable of performing the preferred roles” …(Tatum, 12) The dominants being the powerful get to decide where the subordinates are placed in society because subordinates are not capable of doing the preferred roles therefore, the dominants get the preferred roles. In society, this is viewed as a norm by the dominants to be followed. The implications of the power relationship between the dominant and subordinate group as described by Tatum and Powell is that, “Privilege is a system by which groups of people actively acquire or passively attach to reward without earning it, simply by membership in privileged groups” … (Powell, 76) In other words, subordinates need to know how to survive if dominants decide all of a sudden that they want them out from the role they are in. As further reinforced in the Tatum article, “In a situation of unequal power, a subordinate group has to focus on survival” …(Tatum, 12) Many people will use their ethnic background for their own benefit on people who aren’t of the same background and will have power over them making subordinates weak but being prepared for anything.

Powell defines “whiteness” by stating, “As described by Armstrong, “white privilege involves advantages and options that are available merely because one is white. A white person need not be a bigot to benefit from racial privilege; simply having white skin means having access to neighborhoods and jobs that are closed to people of color”” …( Powell, 78) Being able to be privileged as described by Powell is having “white skin” meaning you will not be denied from anything unless you are a person of color. This applies to the community partner site I am at, Canal Alliance, because the community who builds it are subordinate. They do the jobs that the dominants, as described by Tantum, aren’t the preferred roles and even then, they are all united and have a similar goal in common which is to educate each other and support their children in aiming higher towards a college degree. I think unequal relationships are being addressed in my community partner and they are starting to be heard. Canal Alliances’ mission statement states “Canal Alliance helps low-income, Spanish-speaking immigrants acquire the tools they need to thrive”. This is very obvious after attending my first time as a service learning student. While I entered, they were having a college presentation in which they learned all about the universities that are near the bay area. Even though the kids are only in middle school, the kids are beginning to get the word ‘college’ shown to them which is a big thing when it comes to asking them why they want to go to college. Believe it or not, they will speak about being shown about college or understand that that is their end goal that they should aim to reach for at a young age which will help give them time to be wise about their decisions in school.

According to Tatum and Powell, the unequal relationship between the dominant and subordinate groups can be changed for the better being beneficial for both sides. As stated by Powell, “In transforming whiteness and privilege, whites would get the chance to be humane beings” …(Powell, 101) Not only would it benefit both sides but it would also let dominants experience what humanity is according to him. Going back to last weeks’ reading of Verghese, the connection there was between the doctor and the patient he was treating is the connection Tatum and Powell are referring to. The separate relationship between the dominant and subordinates needs to come together like that doctor(dominant) did for the patient in listening for what he had to say and be emotionally supportive for the patient(subordinate).