Diversity Toolkit: A Guide to Discussing Identity, Power and Privilege

Introduction

This toolkit is meant for anyone who feels there is a lack of productive discourse around issues of diversity and the role of identity in social relationships, both on a micro (individual) and macro (communal) level. Perhaps you are a teacher, youth group facilitator, student affairs personnel or manage a team that works with an underserved population. Training of this kind can serve as the first of several workshops to provide historical context around the politics of identity and the dynamics of power and privilege, or to help build greater self-awareness.

The following activities are intended for groups as small as 10 to groups as big as 60. For groups any larger than 60, it is recommended to break out into multiple sessions with additional facilitators to ensure the conversations and activities remain focused. The Diversity Toolkit outlined here may be used as a guideline and can be modified to better fit your group’s unique needs.

A note on facilitators: Facilitators should be well versed in the topics and themes we will be discussing, but they do not need to be experts. 

Facilitator Sensitivity

Facilitators will be experiencing and addressing the feelings that come with confronting participants’ notions of identity, privilege, race and sexuality. 

Privacy

Facilitators should emphasize that what is shared during the workshop is private and confidential. Participants can talk about how the workshop affected them personally and what they learned generally, but they should respect the privacy of the personal information of the other participants.

Agent: Members of dominant social groups privileged by birth or acquisition who knowingly or unknowingly exploit and reap unfair advantage over members of the target groups. 

Target: Members of social identity groups who are discriminated against, marginalized, disenfranchised, oppressed, exploited by an oppressor and oppressor’s system of institutions without identity apart from the target group, and compartmentalized in defined roles.

After participants understand the difference between agent and target groups, the facilitator can begin a discussion on oppression. The key features of oppression are:

• An agent group has the power to define and name reality, and determine what is normal, real and correct.
• Differential and unequal treatment is institutionalized and systematic.
• Psychological colonization of the target group occurs through socializing the oppressed to internalize their oppressed condition.
• The target group’s culture, language and history is misrepresented, discounted or eradicated, and the dominant group culture is imposed.

Closing

• Completing this training is not the end, but merely the beginning. Hopefully, this toolkit has helped to create new understanding among your participants. Individuals should have learned about their own identity and of those around them, as well as the implications of socially constructed labels and stereotypes of an individual’s experience. Those interested in this type of work may be interested in a career in social work, facilitation, advocacy or sociology. At the end of the training, facilitators should be prepared to provide additional resources for participants who want to learn more about issues of identity, power and privilege. Below we cite several resources to help you get started.

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