Social Identity and Power

What?In reading bell hooks speak about the politics of domination and the struggle against the colonizing mindset, I understand and interpret those two things as a connected pair. Bell hooks described the politics of domination as “the impact of racism, sexism, class exploitation, and the kind of domestic colonization that takes place in the United States.” (Teaching to Transgress, 46) I understand the politics of domination as one person or group trying to dominate or be the dominant person or group over another person or group. This person or group could be trying to dominate on the grounds of race, sex, class, sexual orientation, age, or any of the many other defining traits people are unable to change. Because people can’t control these defining traits, the dominator is able to discriminate the dominated as long as they have the power (whether political or not) to do so.

In speaking of the struggle against the colonizing mindset, bell hooks described the colonizing forces of America as “so powerful in this white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” making it so that black Americans “are always having to renew a commitment to a decolonizing political process that should be fundamental to our lives and is not.” (Teaching to Transgress, 47) Therefore, in speaking of the struggle against the colonizing mindset, I understand it to be a powerful force that affects, yet again, a dominated and marginalized minority group, which is in this case black Americans.

The relationship between social identity and power is seen clearly in bell hooks saying “the emphasis on education as necessary for liberation that black people made in slavery and then on into reconstruction informed our lives. And so Freire’s emphasis on education as the practice of freedom made such immediate sense to me.” (Teaching to Transgress, 51) This shows that power depends on one’s social identity. For much of America’s history, most (obviously not all) white Americans have tried to be the dominant race over black Americans, and that’s a fact. The example in this reading is how white Americans tended to hold education over the heads of black Americans when they were viewed not as people, but three-fifths of a person, up until current times. Bell hooks speaks about their life and the lives of the people around them when black people often weren’t educated enough to read or write as a normalcy. Because they weren’t able to get the same education as most white people, black people had to depend on white people who may or may not have been racist, may or may not have been wanting to actually help, and may or may not have been giving them bad information. Because of their identity, black people lacked the same amount of power as their white counterparts, making America into the unfair, unjust country we have proven to be with Donald Trump as our president.

Tatum’s “Complexity of Identity” helps me understand and interpret these concepts and hooks points because it goes through and defines what exactly an identity is. You can’t define the relationship between social identity and power when you don’t know what exactly identity is. In the reading, identity is described as forming by “employing a process of simultaneous reflection and observation, a process taking place on all levels of mental functioning, by which the individual judges himself in the light of what he perceives to be the way in which others judge him in comparison to themselves and to a typology significant to them.” (Complexity of Identity, 10) I understand this to mean that identity isn’t just one thing. Identity is a multidimensional part of our being, shaped by many different things and being many different things. Freire’s work was so crucial to this struggle (especially his valuing of practice) because without practice, the changes we want to make in the world (whether it be with social identity, power, or really any change we want to make) would never happen.

So What? Calderon, Tatum, and hooks’ writing help me understand the significance of liberatory education or education for freedom because they show how education, something often taken for granted, is used as a tool of freedom and liberation for others. For many Americans, education and going to college is automatic, it’s expected. For many of my friends going up, they knew they would be able to go to college. As a first-generation college student, I wasn’t as lucky to think of college as a possibility until my junior year of college. Bell hooks talks about how because of their identity as a black American, education was something held over their head: “I was among a generation learning those new skills, with an accessibility to education that was still new.” (Teaching to Transgress, 49) Tatum writes of how our identity (in this case an educational identity) can be defined as different things all at the same time — exceptional or “other” — as she was distinguished from her peers as a child because of her “gifted” reading abilities that began at age three, but was also distinguished “by being the only Black student in the class.” (Complexity of Identity, 11) Lastly, Calderon writes of social identity and power, a topic brought up earlier in his own personal experiences. According to his experience, “the ability to communicate one’s perspective affects one’s ability to participate in society, and with it, one’s access to power. Certain individuals or groups have the power to define dominant culture, and therefore the power to oppress or liberate others.” (Perspective-Taking as a Tool for Building Democratic Societies) I understand this as meaning the significance of education for freedom is within communication. Because the power to oppress or liberate others comes from one’s access to power, which comes from one’s ability to participate in society, which comes from the ability to communicate, education for freedom comes from communication, tying it back to the idea that the changes we want to make in the world come from the practice and communication of these changes.

Now What? In going through some of the readings from this week, some of the main ideas being talked about reminded me of my work with my community partner. Last week was my first time going, and it was an experience to say the least. I chose Canal Alliance because I loved the message they were giving: they wanted to provide a better future for underprivileged kids. Upon arriving, I could already see how crazy it was. I was told I would be helping middle schoolers with homework and organization but I honestly felt more as if I was babysitting some crazy kids. It seemed as if there wasn’t enough “adults” or people in charge there to keep all the kids under control, which made it kind of hard for the service learners who were just coming into this and didn’t really know what to do. I’m going back today with an open mind because I do truly want to help these kids transform education into the practice of freedom. I can practice perspective-taking in my community experience by being as helpful as I can be. I noticed there wasn’t a lot of food for all of the kids there, and it made me realize just how much we take for granted the food we get at Calurega here at Dominican. Yes, we do pay for it, but so much of the food goes to waste and no one really seems to care, when we could be giving the leftover food to the homeless or anyone just less fortunate and needing of food. It reminded me of the quote from one of the readings: “when you are privileged, living in one of the richest countries in the world, you can waste resources. And you can justify your disposal of something that you consider impure.” (Teaching to Transgress, 50) One thing I did notice and love about Canal Alliance is that there were people there of all races and ethnicities, and no one was treated differently for it. Because people were so accepting of people’s social identity (at least what was shown of it in the first time of us all being there) everyone was able to thrive and get along with each other.