Dr. Sara DiazWGST 202: Gender, Difference, and PowerGonzaga University

Privilege

Dorothy Allison

• How do we see internalized oppression reflected in Dorothy Allison’s story?

• In what ways do we see the intersection of oppressions in her story?

Dorothy Allison

•What aspects of Allison’s story illustrate the maintenance of systems of oppression that Kirk & Okazawa-Rey discuss in the intro to Chapter 3?

•What levels of analysis (micro, meso, macro) are present in her story? What is happening at each of these levels in her story?

Mary C. Waters

•Why does Mary C. Waters call some white people’s claim to ethnic identity a “symbolic identity”? • How is this a source of tension and

misunderstanding between people of European descent and people of color in the United States?

Mary C. Waters

• Why does Mary Waters say that symbolic or optional ethnicities have a cost for society? What are those costs?

• What might those who have the option to choose a symbolic ethnicity for themselves do to understand the broad range of ethnic/racial experiences in the United States?

Mary Waters

•What is the relationship of liberal individualism and pluralism to the phenomenon of symbolic ethnicity?

• How do you see liberal individualism working in Dorothy Allison’s story?