A REFLECTION FROM WITHIN (15% of Final Grade) Class 4
Students will work independently to complete “A Reflection from Within” to critically engage with the course
readings from Week 2 that explore privilege and web of oppression.
Students will engage in reflexive practice and complete the following expectation:
a) Wholeheartedly and thoroughly identify privileges and/or web of oppressions experienced in one’s
personal life-space. Students are free to choose any constructs most relevant to them, however a total of
3 must be explored (min. of 750 words)
b) An exploration into how these privileges and/or web of oppressions will shape their professional life space as a CYC Practitioner working with young people and their families (min. 600 words)
Headings should be utilized to organize the paper integrating APA referencing guidelines. Specific
references from a minimum of 3 additional external academic sources (not grey literature) must be
appropriately integrated to augment understanding of the constructs. This submission must be uploaded as a
PDF document.
“A Reflection from Within” Rubric – Total of 30 Marks
Poor Needs
Improvement
Satisfactory Good Excellent
Introduction
(2.5)
No description of
what will be
conducted in the
introduction
Limited
description of the
introduction about
what will be done
Mullaly, Robert P.. (2010). Chapter 10: Unpacking Our Knapsack of Invisible . In (Eds.), Challenging oppression and
confronting privilege : a critical social work approach (pp. 287-320). Oxford University Press.
This work is protected by copyright and the making of this copy by Toronto Metropolitan University was authorized
by Oxford University Press.
This copy may be used solely by students registered in CYC406 011 – Therapeutic Life-Space – F2022 at Toronto
Metropolitan University, and may not be distributed to any person outside the aforementioned class, whether by
copying or by transmission, and whether electronically or in paper form.
C h apter 10
Unpacking Our Knapsacks of
Invisible Privilege
Privilege ;s lIot somethillg 1 take awl which r therefore havt the op/ro’l of ‘lOt tllkillg.
It is something tllll! society gives me, mzd ullleH I dumgr the institutiollS which giw it
10 me, they will con/llliu to gh’e it, mid, will (OlltiIll4( to haw it, howtl’e r lIobie (lid
egalit(ln’an my i ‘lfe,llio7lS.
– Harry Brod, A1f11 ~ Uves
Introduction
The flip side of the coin of oppression is privilege. However, compared to oppression
in general and anti-oppressive SOci,l] work in particular, not much has been written
on prhilege in the social work literature. This is most unfortunate, bec.l.l1se the main
reason we have oppression is because we have privilege. It is similar to the relationship
between pOH’rty and w(“,lth wc haw poverty bee,’lI:;c w(‘ have wealth. If we want
to truly understand poverty, we must understand wealth. If we want to do something
serious about poverty, we must do something serious about we.llth. And if “,-e want to
truly understand oppression, we mu.t underst,md priv leg~’. Oppr(‘”ssion and privilege
go hand in hand. Just as prhikg(‘” opens doors of opportunity, oppression slams them
shut (Johnson 2006). Just as poverty wi!! always be with us until we do something
about wealth, we will always have oppression until we do something ahout privilege.
As articuiat(‘”d by Harry Brod in the quote above, privilege is not something we take;
it is given to us by society if we possess the characteristics that society values, such as
b(‘”ing male, white, heterosexual, afilL!ent, and non-disabled .
Ferber (2003) offers two major reasons why we have t(‘”nded to ignore the issue of
prh-ilege. First, it implicates those with power, and second, it is far (‘”asi(‘”r to explor(‘” the
problems faced by oppressed groups than it is to explore our own roles in p(‘”rpetuating
in(‘”quality. This is unfortunate, because we are all implicated in syst(,”llls of oppression.
‘Although as individu.lls we may not believe that we are oppressive people, we still
particip,llC in relations of oppression and gain various privileges from that relationship’
(Ferber 2003, 320). No matt(‘”r how much I write or how many classes I Ie’ach about
inequality, oppression, racism, .lnd sexism, I continue to reap the privikge’s of being
288 (IIALLE.”JG1XG OpPllEssJO …..
a whitt.’ malc. And although I do not feel ashamed of or guilty about my racc or my
gender (after all, I have no control over them), I struggle with the knowledge that I am
given certain privileges by society becausc I was born with particular characteristics
that society valucs. I do not have privilege because of who I am as a person or because
of what I haw done. Rather, I have privilege because of the social categories th;;!t, for
the most part, I was born into. As stated by Alison Bailey (2004, 307), ‘privilege is
granted and birth is the easiest way of being granted privilege.’
If we focus only on oppression, thc structured invisibility of privilege is reinforced.
I agree with Alison B,tiley (2004, 302) when she says that ‘any undcrstanding of
oppression is incomplete without recognition of the role privilege plays in maintaining
systems of domination: This chapter will explore the concept and thc structural nature
of privilege, some of its major characteristics (including its invisibility to privilegcd
persons), the dynamics of privilege or how systems of prh’ilege work, reasons why
privileged persons become dcfensivc and uncomfortable in talking about it, and why
dominant groups do not see privilege as a problem. We …. ill also discuss the myth of
meritocracy, and some of the specihc pnvilcges that are attached to various poSitions
of domination will be outlincd. Finall)’, wc will explore what all this has to do with
us as individuals and as social workers, along with what we can do about prhilege to
make a difference.
The Nature of Privilege
In Chapter 2, it “”‘as mentioned that all of us suffer from some kind of frustration, hurt,
and restriction at some point in our lives, but this docs not mean that we are oppressed.
What determines oppression is when a person is blocked [rom opportunities to self·
development or is excluded from full participation in society or is assigned :l second·
class citizenship not because of a lack of individual talent or merit but because of
his or her membership in a particular group or category of peoplc. Similarly, what
determines privilege is not any particular advantagcs a person might han’ but whNher
these a1.ivantages were e.uned or conferred system,ltically by society on the basis of
his or her membership in a particular soci,ll group (Hcldke and O’Connor 2004;
Mcintosh 2003). Just as ,Ill oppression counts as harm but not all harms count as
oppression, all privilege is advantageous, but not all advantages count as privilege
(e.g., having a driver’s licence, holding politic,11 office, becoming a !l.ltur,wzed citizen,
which are all filmed advantJges). What determines oppr~’ss on and privilege is the
s}”stematically confe rred naturc of harms in tIll’ fomler and (unfarlled) advantagcs
in the latter (Ibiley 2004). In her classic article on oppression, Marilyn Frye (1983)
argues that if we want to delcrmine whether ,I p,lrticuJar harm or restriction qualifies
as oppreSSion, we have to look at that harm in context to see whether or not it plays a
role in maint,lining a structure that is oppressive. Similarly, Bailey (2004) argues that if
we want to decrtl1l!1t! whether or not a particular advant,lge qualifies as a privilege, we
need to look ,It the advantage in context to see whether or not it plays a role in keeping
complex systems of privilege in place. Sisneros el al. (2008) point out that pri’ileged
U” ‘PA.CJ(ING OUR /G’IA.PSA.C;J(~ Of’ ISnSlllLE PRn’1U:G£ 289
people may experience hardship but unless these hardships are grounded in structural
barriers that affect people in vital and limiting ways, they cannot be considered as
forms of oppression.
Thus, there are 1″0 kinds of advantages- earned and une.uned- and those that
are unearned are considered to be privileges. The corollary is that advantages that are
earned (e.g., a quality educatioll, skills, a good reputation) are not considered privileges
(although one could argue that some ad

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