Power & Privilege

As you engage in thinking about identity, it is helpful to think about how you (and those around you) navigate through the world.
Different social group categories, because of their access to power, have privilege based on unearned assets grant them because of their social identities (i.e. race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, etc.).
As a result of different aspects of your identity, you may experience advantage or disadvantage.
When discussing privilege many folks think they don't have it, because it is often invisible, or unnoticed.
The point of acknowledging privilege is not to generate guilt or shame. Rather, it is to create understanding and empathy and to motivate personal action for change when we see inequity.
Remember when you learned about equity? Diversity was about noticing difference, inclusion was about making everyone feel included, but equity was about giving everyone what they needed to access the same things.
When you are able to think about your own privilege, be it white privilege, male privilege, the privilege of being abled bodied, or heterosexual, or belonging to dominant religion, we hope you will use that realization to become a catalyst for creating the conditions for equity for everyone!

Connect through these resources!

There are many ways to get involved at GVSU in social justice education and action. Great places to learn more about how to connect include:

The LGBT Resource Center

The Office of Multicultural Affairs

The Center for Women and Gender Equity

Disability Support Resources

The Kaufman Interfaith Institute


Page last modified September 3, 2023
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