Recognizing Privilege: Power to All People | Michael Yates | TEDxTexasStateUniversity
Summary
TLDRIn this powerful speech, the speaker challenges the preconceived notions of identity and power by sharing his own story of growing up as a black male in the inner city. He introduces the concept of 'culture of power' to redefine privilege and marginalization, using personal anecdotes and the transformative journey of his students. The speaker encourages embracing one's identity and leveraging it to bridge gaps between diverse groups, ultimately promoting unity and understanding.
Takeaways
- 🔍 The speaker challenges the preconceived negative narrative often associated with young black males from inner cities, emphasizing the importance of looking deeper into one's background and achievements.
- 🏆 Despite facing adversities, the speaker highlights the accomplishments of his family, such as his mother being a Teacher of the Year and his father attending college on a basketball scholarship, which contributed to his own educational success.
- 🎓 Education is portrayed as a powerful tool that can transcend socio-economic backgrounds, as evidenced by the speaker's journey from attending public schools to graduating from Texas State University and pursuing a master's degree.
- 💪 The concept of 'culture of power' is introduced, which refers to the set of values and beliefs that unfairly privilege certain groups, and the speaker uses this concept to empower his students and transform his classroom.
- 🤝 The speaker advocates for understanding and acknowledging one's own identities and privileges as a means to bridge gaps between different groups in society, promoting unity and inclusivity.
- 👦 The story of Chris, a student who aspired to go to jail, illustrates the transformative power of education and the 'culture of power' in changing self-perception and aspirations.
- 👧 The example of Sheridan, a white girl attending a Title One school, demonstrates how understanding and transforming one's relationship with privilege can lead to positive change and leadership among peers.
- 🎲 The analogy of an unknown card game is used to convey the experience of marginalization and the importance of understanding and sharing the 'rules of the game' to level the playing field.
- 🎒 Peggy McIntosh's 'invisible backpack' metaphor is employed to encourage individuals to identify and embrace the positive aspects of their identity as a source of power and self-affirmation.
- 🤝 The speaker calls for a collective effort to share the message of empowerment and understanding, likening it to being 'unplugged from the matrix' and spreading awareness to 'unplug' others.
- 🌐 The final takeaway emphasizes the potential for unity and overcoming gaps in society when individuals recognize and claim power over their identities, leading to a more empowered and understanding community.
Q & A
What is the main message the speaker is trying to convey about his personal background?
-The speaker is emphasizing that appearances can be deceiving and that one's background can hold more potential and privilege than what is initially apparent. Despite his challenging upbringing, he was afforded opportunities due to his mother's profession and education, and he himself became a successful, educated individual.
What is the concept of 'culture of power'?
-The 'culture of power' is a set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that unfairly privilege certain groups based on aspects of their identity. It was originally coined to inform instructional practice and help teachers better educate students of color, but the speaker adapts it to empower and transform his classroom and students.
How does the speaker define 'privilege' in the context of the speech?
-In the context of the speech, 'privilege' refers to the unearned advantages and benefits that certain individuals have in society due to their identity, such as race, socio-economic status, or education, which can influence their life outcomes.
What is the significance of the 'invisible backpack' analogy used by the speaker?
-The 'invisible backpack' is an analogy used to represent the positive aspects of one's identity that contribute to their sense of power and privilege. The speaker encourages individuals to fill this backpack with these attributes and carry it proudly as a symbol of their strengths.
What was Chris's initial dream and how did the speaker's teachings influence him?
-Chris initially dreamed of going to jail, but after the speaker introduced the concept of 'culture of power' to him, Chris's mindset changed. He eventually went to college and credited the 'culture of power' as the most important lesson he learned, which helped him see himself differently.
How does the speaker describe the process of closing gaps between diverse groups of people?
-The speaker describes closing gaps as a process of understanding and acknowledging power relationships, transforming one's relationship with privilege, and using that understanding to uplift others. This involves both those with privilege and those without it claiming power over their identities and working towards unity.
What role does the speaker believe education played in his life?
-The speaker believes that education played a crucial role in his life by providing him with opportunities that he might not have had otherwise. His mother's status as a teacher allowed him access to quality education, and he himself became a teacher to inspire and empower students.
What is the purpose of the card game analogy used by the speaker?
-The card game analogy is used to illustrate the experience of marginalization and the importance of understanding the unspoken and unwritten rules of societal games. It highlights the challenges faced by those who are not privy to these rules and the need for those with privilege to use it to help others.
How does the speaker suggest we should view negative identities?
-The speaker suggests that we should view negative identities in a different light, identifying them as aspects of our power. By reframing these identities and placing them in the 'invisible backpack,' we can claim power over all aspects of our identities, including those traditionally seen as negative.
What is the speaker's call to action at the end of the speech?
-The speaker's call to action is to share the message of the 'culture of power' widely, likening it to being unplugged from the matrix. He encourages the audience to spread this message to unplug more people and to close the gaps between diverse groups by understanding and acknowledging each other's identities and privileges.
Outlines
🔍 Redefining Identity and Power
The speaker begins by painting a potentially negative picture of himself based on stereotypes, but then challenges this view by sharing his educational and familial background, which includes being raised by a highly accomplished mother and having a father with a college education. He emphasizes the importance of looking beyond surface-level descriptions to understand the true potential and power that individuals possess. The speaker introduces the concept of the 'culture of power,' which refers to the set of values and beliefs that unfairly privilege certain groups. He aims to empower his audience to view their identities differently and to challenge societal marginalization.
📚 The Power of Education and Mindset
In this paragraph, the speaker recounts his experience with a student named Chris, who initially aspired to go to jail but was later inspired to attend college. The speaker uses this story to illustrate the transformative power of education and the importance of changing one's mindset. He discusses the concept of the 'culture of power' in different educational settings, emphasizing the need for understanding and acknowledging power dynamics to bring about unity. The speaker also highlights the role of privilege and how it can be used positively to uplift others, or how individuals can claim power over their own identities to overcome marginalization.
🎒 Claiming Power Through Identity
The speaker invites the audience to participate in a thought experiment, comparing the feeling of marginalization to not knowing the rules of a game. He then encourages both those with privilege and those who feel marginalized to claim power over their identities. Using Peggy McIntosh's 'invisible backpack' metaphor, he suggests filling this backpack with positive aspects of one's identity to carry as a symbol of power. The speaker concludes by likening the process to social media sharing, emphasizing the importance of spreading the message of empowerment and unity to bridge gaps between diverse groups.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Privilege
💡Marginalization
💡Power
💡Identity
💡Culture of Power
💡Education
💡Transformation
💡Invisible Backpack
💡Unity
💡Oprah Winfrey Show
💡Claiming Power
Highlights
The speaker challenges the initial negative portrayal of his life by the media, emphasizing the power of deeper understanding.
The speaker's mother being a multiple-time Teacher of the Year and her educational achievements provided him with access to quality education.
Despite his father's incarceration, his educational background and the speaker's own college attendance challenge stereotypes.
The speaker's personal achievements, including graduating from Texas State University and pursuing a master's degree, demonstrate overcoming adversity.
The introduction of the 'culture of power' concept, which addresses the unfair privileging of certain groups based on identity aspects.
The speaker's adaptation of the 'culture of power' to empower students and transform his classroom environment.
The story of Chris, a student whose mindset was transformed through the 'culture of power', ultimately achieving his dream of attending college.
The importance of understanding power dynamics in education and society to bridge gaps between diverse groups.
The speaker's experience teaching the 'culture of power' to different audiences, emphasizing adaptability in approach.
The concept of claiming power over one's own identities as a means to overcome marginalization.
The use of Peggy McIntosh's 'invisible backpack' analogy to help individuals recognize and claim their own power.
The speaker's call to action for participants to share the message of empowerment, likening it to unplugging from the matrix.
The idea that understanding one's privilege and using it to uplift others is a powerful tool for social change.
The story of Sheridan, a student who transformed her relationship with privilege and led the way in the classroom.
The experiment of the card game as a metaphor for experiencing marginalization and the importance of understanding unspoken rules.
The final message of empowerment, urging participants to see themselves and others with newfound power and unity.
Transcripts
so if I were arrested here's what they
might say about me on the news 26 year
old black male 5 foot 11 dashingly
handsome raised in the inner city by a
single mother father's been in prison
since 1992 on a number of charges not
much hope for this dude he did it that
description doesn't look too promising
as a matter of fact I couldn't use it to
claim great power or privilege in
American society unless we look deeper
you see what you might not know from
those few words is that my mother is a
multiple time Teacher of the Year in
Houston Independent School District her
status as a teacher alone afforded me
the ability to go to any public school I
wanted in the city so naturally I
achieved the best education in the city
of Houston furthermore my mother is a
college graduate and has her master's
degree in curriculum instruction and my
father while he has been incarcerated
for the majority of my life attended
college at the University of Wisconsin
on a full basketball scholarship my
parents status as college attendees
alone means that I am far more likely to
have gone to college and it just so
happens that I did I graduated from this
fine institution of higher learning
Texas State University which is the best
university in the world yeah we can clap
for that
I'm also finishing my masters in
curriculum and instruction right now I
have a beautiful amazing hot wife and I
have three beautiful amazing children
I'm a teacher myself I get the chance to
inspire and empower students every
single day I am black and I love that
and last I am dashingly handsome
I mean how you think I got this gig you
know you see what you just heard was not
a presentation of new information it was
the other side of the rap sheet
it was the same information just viewed
under a different lens you see through
this different lens I've been able to
claim power for myself by viewing my own
identities in a completely different way
it's no secret that in the United States
of America that people of color are
consistently marginalized it's safe to
say that economically socially
culturally and in terms of education we
do not hold power or privilege in this
country but in the words of my man my
best friend Barack Obama yes we can I
want to introduce you to a concept
called the culture of power the culture
of power represents the set of values
beliefs and ways of acting that unfairly
and unevenly privilege certain groups of
people based on aspects with their
identity the term culture of power was
coined in 1988 by the current executive
director for education and innovation at
Florida International University Lisa
Delfin dumped its original intention
with the culture of power was to inform
instructional practice to show teachers
how to teach students of color so I
adapted her message for my own purposes
so that I could empower and transform my
classroom while at the same time
bringing them together with other
students so I hope today to empower you
and help you transform your identity and
in the process bring this entire room
together guys we're gonna kind of
operate today like The Oprah Winfrey
Show everybody today is going home with
something and you don't have to check
under your seats to get it either let me
tell you about Chris Chris is a cool kid
with cool hair and cool clothes and he's
got every pair of Jordan sneakers known
to man I swear he jokes that Michael
Jordan one day is gonna invite him to
his house as a guest of honor cuz he's
bought so many Jordan sneakers and the
crazy thing is he's probably right he's
got a lot of Jay's I met Chris as he
slowly strolled into my summer school
government classroom one year he sits
down and
tells me that his greatest dream in life
is to go to jail all summer I pushed
hard with Chris trying to transform his
mindset about himself to tell him that
no you are not just a poor Mexican kid
from Fort Worth you can change the world
and so that summer I rolled out my
culture of power of presentation and
experiment on this classroom hoping that
it would change Chris's life and it did
about halfway through the summer I was
met at my summer school classroom by
Chris and his mom and she had that real
concerned mom look on her face know when
you failed the test you would home you
know when tell your mom but you did
anyway
or when you came home too late from
being out with your friends that
concerned mom look so I knew it wasn't
good before I could even open the door
to the classroom she started talking
wasting no time in no words she told me
that I was wasting my time trying to
convince her son that he could go to
college and he would not go to college
that he was going to play his part and
that did not involve going to college
but I still pushed I was convinced that
Chris would prove his mother wrong and
then he would change to plan it a year
ago I got a phone call from Chris and he
made that phone call from the middle of
the Bryan Brown University campus yo he
made it
and he told me that the culture of power
was the single most important thing that
he had ever learned about in school
because he finally knew how to see
himself differently and he made me
promise on that phone that no matter
what group of students or people I stood
in front of I would share this message
with them and so you guys are not my
students but I'm gonna keep that promise
to Chris today I'm gonna teach you how
to see yourself differently say I've had
the fortune of teaching this lesson in
front of two very different audiences
the first was mostly students of color
from Italian public school and the title
one designation if you don't know means
that many of them are low-income then I
adapted this to a mostly white private
school in the heart of Austin Texas
where students paid twenty thousand
dollars a year for tuition you see the
only difference in teaching the culture
of power to these two different groups
of people is the angle of the approach
you see each approach helps one audience
see its opposite and understand them
better a great and respected teacher of
mine once told me that once we stop
pretending to be colorblind and we start
really trying to understand one another
we can finally be the human race thus
understanding equals unity and unity is
about closing the gaps between diverse
groups of people which means that
understanding is a tool that we can use
to close the gaps between groups of
people so here's how that works for the
title one student of color from a public
school closing the gaps looks like
telling them yes power relationships
exist in school and what you guys call
the real world
and know those power relationships often
do not advantage people of color but
that doesn't mean that you're doomed it
doesn't mean that you're down and out
you can claim power for yourself over
your own identities which ultimately
teaches you what it's like to live with
privilege in America humanizing those
who do live with privilege or white
privilege as we can call it which in the
end brings us together because now we
understand what it's like to be the same
for the white affluent private school
kid closing the gaps for them
looks like transforming their
relationship with their own privilege
research pointed out power relationships
in the workplace and in education to
tell
that those with privilege are the least
likely in the least willing to admit
that they even have it step 1
admit that you have privilege once that
happens you can start the process of
closing the gap between them and their
neighbor by understanding what it's like
to live without privilege once you do
this you'll start to achieve what we
call unity a perfect example of this is
a student I teach this year named
Sheridan
Sheridan is a white girl and she goes to
a title one public school of that title
in public school she goes through rich
private school where she pays twenty
thousand dollars a year for tuition but
she stands out in this crowd
pretty starkly you see Sheridan was born
in the Virgin Islands and she moved to
North Carolina and then to Florida and
now to Austin Texas because she grew up
in diverse communities and had her
relationship with her privilege
transformed on a daily she leads the way
in my classroom as I help my students
transform their relationship with their
privilege just watching one student who
gets it it's a great example of how we
can start to close gaps between you and
the person you're sitting next to so
let's do this thing let's do this
experiment right now everyone imagine
that you're playing a card game and you
don't know the rules to this card game
at the table where you're sitting
nobody's speaking but everybody knows
the game they're putting down cards
they're scoring points and every time
you try to ask for the rules you're
scolded and then there's some annoying
dude at the end of the table who writes
something that you can't read it on a
sticky note frustrated you make it
through the game and you get to the end
of the round and you lose chances are if
you played that game a thousand times
you would lose every single time you
didn't know the rules it would be easier
if somebody just told you what the
unspoken and unwritten rules of the game
were you may have just experienced your
first or your 100th time feeling what
marginalization feels like if this is
your
time with marginalization it's safe to
say that you live a privileged life and
that's not a bad thing I'm not going to
attack you
privilege is powerful when you use it to
uplift those around you if you are all
too familiar with what it's like to feel
marginalized then you don't have
privilege but you're not helpless either
we can teach you to claim power for
yourself and over your identities so
let's do that now I like to use in my
classroom and we're going to use today
Peggy McIntosh's invisible backpack
imagine that you're holding a backpack
and I want you to actually hold the
backpack remember I told you you're
going home with something today right
now the backpack is empty but we're
about to fill it out inside of this
invisible backpack you were going to
fill it with all of the positive aspects
of your identity if you can walk you
have power put that in your backpack if
you speak English in the United States
of America you have power put that in
your backpack
if you speak multiple languages you have
power put that in your backpack if you
have access to education you have power
put that in your backpack if you have
somebody at home who cares about you you
have power put that in your backpack
find all of the positive identities
about yourself even identify the ones
that you think are negative view them in
a different way put them in that
backpack you carry that backpack around
with you proudly everywhere you go
because that's not just who you are it's
the best of who you are you see once we
transform our mindsets about who we are
we can start accurately thinking about
our neighbor for who they are the last
step in this process is kind of like
Facebook and I realize my students tell
me that I'm getting old because I don't
use snapchat and Instagram but this
one's like Facebook so if you don't use
Facebook get one on Facebook you like
things you comment and you share them
that's what we've got to do with this
message the more people we reach with
this message the better a student of
mine liken this to being unplugged from
the matrix now we have to unplug some
more people
sitter this in this room right now there
are so many gaps and in those gaps
misunderstandings and preconceived
notions wait to separate us from one
another but they don't have to now
there's obviously a gap amongst the
privileged and the underprivileged
in terms of access there's a gap between
how those two groups relate to one
another there's a gap even within our
individual selves concerning the power
that we think we have and the power that
we actually have it's the understanding
that by claiming aspects of our identity
as powerful we can close those gaps
which means that when we face
underprivileged situations they're not
actually underprivileged because we are
powerful and powerful people overcome
now is the time that this room becomes
like the Oprah Winfrey Show see cuz you
got some power in the front and you got
some power in that striped shirt and in
the middle you got some power and in the
back you get some power and look under
your seats you got some power and all
the way in the hallway you got some
power everybody's going home with the
bow
put it in your backpack thank you
[Applause]
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