Ther matrix of domination: Using priviilege to uplift communities. | Dimpho Thepa | TEDxUCT

Summary

In this thought-provoking talk, the speaker explores the concept of privilege through personal anecdotes and the lens of intersectionality. They challenge the binary perception of privilege, emphasizing its multifaceted nature and the importance of recognizing and utilizing one's social capital responsibly. The speaker's journey from a rural upbringing to a university education highlights the fluidity of privilege and the potential for growth when it is acknowledged and leveraged effectively.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing and understanding privilege in the context of global social movements fighting for human dignity and integrity.
• 🤔 The concept of privilege is uncomfortable for many, but it's crucial to confront one's own privilege to foster empathy and social change.
• 🏡 The speaker's personal story illustrates the complexity of privilege, being raised by grandparents in a rural area without immediate access to education, yet benefiting from better educational opportunities later.
• 📚 Privilege is not an either/or situation; it exists on a spectrum and is influenced by various factors such as race, class, gender, and more.
• 👥 Intersectionality, a concept by Kimberlé Crenshaw, is highlighted as a framework for understanding the multifaceted nature of identity and experience.
• 🍊 An anecdote about selling oranges in the speaker's community underscores the importance of social capital and how privilege can vary across different contexts.
• 🏢 The speaker acknowledges their own privilege, such as attending better schools and having access to resources, which contributed to their current position.
• 🍰 The metaphor of a cake is used to explain intersectionality, where individual aspects of a person's identity combine to form a whole, much like the ingredients of a cake.
• 👥 The speaker discusses the idea of positionality, suggesting that privilege is about where one stands in relation to various social structures.
• 🤝 Recognizing privilege can lead to a sense of responsibility and action, as the speaker reflects on what they can do with their own privilege.
• 🌟 The speaker concludes by identifying themselves as privileged and encourages the audience to be aware of their own privileges and how they can use them positively.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the speaker's talk?

The main theme of the speaker's talk is the concept of privilege, its complexities, and how it operates in various aspects of life.

Why does the speaker mention various social movements like Black Lives Matter and Fees Must Fall?

The speaker mentions these movements to illustrate that people are fighting for their integrity and humanity, and to emphasize that what might seem unnecessary to some could be a matter of dignity for others.

What personal background does the speaker share to highlight their own experience with privilege?

The speaker shares that they were raised by grandparents in a rural area without schools, had to attend boarding schools, and experienced a sense of disequilibrium due to their rural background compared to their urban classmates.

How does the speaker describe the concept of privilege?

The speaker describes privilege not as an either/or situation but as something that exists in varying degrees, similar to height, where everyone has some level of privilege.

What is the connection between privilege and intersectionality as discussed by the speaker?

The speaker connects privilege and intersectionality by explaining that understanding a person's multiple experiences—such as race, class, gender, and more—helps in recognizing the complexity of privilege in their lives.

What is the significance of the speaker's story about selling oranges?

The story about selling oranges illustrates the concept of social capital and how the speaker's privilege in one area (attending better schools) did not translate to social capital in their home community for selling oranges.

Why is the speaker's grandfather's response important in the context of privilege?

The grandfather's response is important because it highlights the idea that privilege is context-specific and that the speaker lacked the social capital necessary to sell oranges in their community.

What are some examples of unrecognized privileges that the speaker lists?

Examples include being able to express romantic affection in public, accessing private healthcare, having public holidays for one's religion, coming from a background that encourages asking for help, and being addressed with the correct pronouns.

What are the three consequences the speaker mentions for not recognizing one's privilege?

The consequences are: 1) the potential to abuse privilege, 2) limiting one's potential by focusing on what one lacks instead of what one has, and 3) committing microaggressions due to a lack of awareness.

How does the speaker conclude their talk?

The speaker concludes by acknowledging their own privilege, introducing themselves as Dimple Randall Atiba, and thanking the audience for attending.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Understanding Privilege and Positionality

The speaker begins by discussing various social movements and the importance of fighting for one's integrity and humanity. They emphasize the difficulty in determining what is necessary in these movements, as it's not always about personal experience. The speaker then introduces the concept of privilege, explaining that it's not an either/or situation but rather a matter of positionality. They share their personal story of growing up without parents, raised by grandparents in a rural area, and attending boarding schools, which provided them with certain privileges. The speaker uses the term 'privilege' to illustrate that everyone has some form of privilege, and it's about understanding and acknowledging one's position in society.

05:01

🍊 The Role of Social Capital in Entrepreneurship

In this paragraph, the speaker recounts their childhood ambition to become an entrepreneur by selling oranges from their home. They describe their plan to approach their grandfather for support, only to be told that social capital is crucial for such endeavors. The grandfather explains that being part of the community and having a relationship with its members is essential for selling goods. The speaker reflects on the idea that social capital varies in different environments and that recognizing and leveraging one's social capital is key to success. They also provide a list of everyday privileges that are often taken for granted, such as public displays of affection, access to private healthcare, and the ability to ask for help when needed.

10:03

🏆 Embracing Privilege and Its Impact

The final paragraph focuses on the importance of recognizing and understanding one's privilege. The speaker, Dimple Randall Atiba, shares their journey of becoming aware of their privilege through university courses and personal growth. They highlight the three negative consequences of not acknowledging privilege: the potential for abuse of power, limiting one's potential by focusing on what one lacks, and committing microaggressions due to a lack of understanding. The speaker concludes by affirming their own privilege and encourages the audience to reflect on their own, emphasizing the need for a shift in perspective to better navigate and utilize the power that comes with privilege.

Keywords

💡Privilege

Privilege refers to the unearned advantages or rights that some individuals have over others based on factors such as race, gender, or social class. In the video, the speaker discusses the concept of privilege, emphasizing that it is not an 'either/or' situation but a spectrum that everyone possesses to varying degrees. The speaker's personal narrative illustrates how they have both experienced underprivileged circumstances and also held privilege, such as attending better schools and having access to opportunities that others in their community did not.

💡Social Capital

Social capital is the resources and benefits that individuals derive from their social networks and relationships. The speaker uses the example of attempting to sell oranges in their community to explain the concept of social capital. They were told by their grandfather that they lacked the necessary social connections and trust within the community to successfully sell their product, highlighting the importance of social capital in economic transactions.

💡Intersectionality

Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how various aspects of a person's identity, such as race, class, and gender, intersect and influence their experiences and opportunities. Kimberlé Crenshaw, the originator of the term, is mentioned in the video. The speaker uses intersectionality to explain that everyone has a unique combination of identities that shape their life experiences, and it is important to recognize and understand these complexities.

💡Underprivileged

Being underprivileged means lacking the same opportunities, resources, or advantages as others in society, often due to factors beyond one's control. The speaker describes their upbringing without parents and in a rural area without schools, which positioned them as underprivileged in certain respects. However, they also point out that being underprivileged does not negate the existence of any privileges one might hold.

💡Human Dignity

Human dignity refers to the inherent worth and respect that every person deserves, regardless of their social status or circumstances. The video script mentions movements fighting for their integrity and human dignity, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and upholding the dignity of all individuals, which is a central theme in discussions about privilege and social justice.

💡Positionality

Positionality is the concept that one's social position influences their experiences and perspectives. The speaker uses the term to discuss privilege, explaining that it is not a binary state but rather a matter of where one stands in relation to various social structures. This concept helps to understand the nuanced ways in which privilege operates in society.

💡Boarding School

A boarding school is an educational institution where students live on campus, often away from their families. The speaker mentions attending boarding school as a form of privilege, as it provided them with better educational opportunities than what was available in their rural community. This experience also highlights the disparities in access to resources between urban and rural areas.

💡Microaggressions

Microaggressions are subtle, often unintentional, discriminatory comments or actions that communicate hostile or negative messages to members of marginalized groups. The speaker warns that a lack of awareness of one's privilege can lead to committing microaggressions, such as misgendering someone, without understanding the impact of these actions.

💡Social Class

Social class refers to a system of ranked social positions within a society, often determined by factors such as wealth, occupation, and education. The video discusses the speaker's experiences with social class, noting the disparities in access to education and opportunities between urban and rural students, and how these differences contribute to one's social class position.

💡Pronouns

Pronouns are words used to refer to someone without using their name, and using the correct pronouns is a sign of respect for an individual's identity. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being aware of and using the correct pronouns for people, as a reflection of recognizing and respecting their identity and dignity.

💡Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching, and running a new business, which typically involves risk-taking and innovation. The speaker recounts their early aspirations to become an entrepreneur by selling oranges, illustrating how their understanding of social capital and privilege was shaped by their experiences and the advice of their grandfather.

Highlights

The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing and understanding privilege in various social movements.

Privilege is not an either/or situation but a spectrum of positionality, as explained by Patricia Hill Collins.

The speaker shares personal experiences of growing up underprivileged yet recognizing their own forms of privilege.

Privilege can manifest in various forms, such as access to better education and opportunities.

The concept of intersectionality is introduced to understand the complexity of human experiences.

The speaker's entrepreneurial journey is hindered by a lack of social capital in their community.

Privilege can be overlooked due to its ubiquity in one's life, such as speaking English or being able-bodied.

The speaker discusses the potential consequences of not recognizing one's privilege, such as abusing it or limiting one's potential.

Microaggressions can occur when individuals are not aware of their privilege and the impact of their actions.

The importance of using correct pronouns and respecting others' identities is highlighted.

The speaker's transformation from a village girl to a UCT student illustrates the fluidity of privilege.

The speaker calls for an awareness of privilege to prevent its misuse and to leverage it for positive change.

Privilege is discussed in the context of social capital and how it varies in different environments.

The speaker concludes by acknowledging their own privilege and encouraging others to do the same.

The applause signifies the end of the talk and the audience's appreciation for the speaker's insights.

Transcripts

[Music]

good afternoon everybody

black lives matter fees must fall Murray

Ghana

LGBTQI plus all these movements around

the world are movements where people are

fighting for their integrity and their

humanity and sometimes it is easy for us

as we look at the organizing work that

these movements do across the world and

think I'm they doing just a little bit

too much other nude protests really

necessary but it's very difficult for us

to decide what is necessary and what is

not when it is not our integrity and

human dignity that is on the line and

today I'm going to be talking about

privilege not a lot of people like

talking about privilege it's

uncomfortable while correction we like

talking about other people's privilege

for example one of my personal favorite

is white privilege because I'm not white

you know it doesn't really concern me so

I like talking about it and

[Music]

and I mentioned the movements above

because I wanted to tell you that just

because something is not a problem to

you personally does not mean it's not a

problem so today I'm gonna tell you

first about how supposedly

underprivileged I am first of all I

don't have parents and I was raised by

my grandparents and I was raised in a

place called Mahoney we're quite in

village and this particular place I was

raised in there are no schools we got

our first primary school when I was in

high school so I had to go to boarding

schools and because I went to boarding

schools in the city and because I come

from a very rural community and people

who go to school in the city live in the

city there was a disequilibrium of

access because I come from a rural area

and they live in the city so in general

it is very valid for me to have assumed

that you know like these people that I

go to school with are generally more

privileged than I am and the problem is

that we think of privilege as an

either/or situation we think because

somebody else has more of it it doesn't

mean you don't have any of it but this

is not how privilege works now I'm gonna

tell you another story about how

privileged I am I had people who looked

after me there are many people who don't

have parents and they have nobody to

look after them at the end of the day

and I was able to go to schools much

better schools than the ones in my

community schools that made me that gave

me better access to opportunities and

had it not been for those better schools

I probably wouldn't be standing before

you today and even in that because I

went to boarding school there are some

perks to go into boarding school by the

way first of all you have three jobs to

eat sleep and go to school and because

of that very reason I only learned to

cook this year because people have been

cooking for me all my life so I was very

privileged

and this other way of looking at

privilege is not an either-or situation

it's about positionality you know and by

talking about privilege in this manner

was taken from millions by Patricia Hill

Collins when Patricia discusses the

metrics of domination this way of

looking at privilege is looking at

privilege like height I don't know a

height less person there are short

people they're total people and they're

medium-sized people but there is no

person way they can say zero centimeter

height and it's easy for us to think of

ourselves as underprivileged because

confronting ones privilege is difficult

I mean these conversations about

privilege were only ignited in me by a

tutor I had called I and Amitabha and

because of my journey at university not

only being an academic one but a

personal one through courses that I took

such as sociology I was able to battle

with my privilege confront my privilege

accept my privilege and ask myself what

am I going to do with my privilege and

as a way of understanding why I say

every single body has privileged I'm

gonna talk about intersectionality from

the lens of kimberlé crenshaw what is

intersectionality intersectionality is a

way of understanding and analyzing the

complexity in the world in people and in

human experiences this means that when

we look at a person we look at them as

if they are made of multiple experiences

it means that we don't just see a person

we see their race their class their

gender their ethnicity their age their

sexuality and their religious group all

of those people combined together like a

cake and that's what we mean by

intersectionality because when you eat

red velvet you don't taste the

ingredients you taste the cake

growing up I was highly influenced by

entrepreneurs they came to my school and

they gave amazing speeches and the world

rich and I wanted to be like those

people so I told myself I'm gonna start

my journey of being an entrepreneur by

selling oranges well in my home we have

tons of orange trees literally everybody

who visits me gets a sack of oranges one

for you one for you one for the whole

auditorium and so I came up with a smart

plan about how I'm gonna start selling

my oranges of the market and I

approached my grandfather to explain

exactly what was going to happen for me

to start my journey to being an

entrepreneur and after I told my

grandfather this brilliant well

thought-out plan my grandfather said it

won't work I was very confused I'm like

I'm smart understand that what do you

mean I can't manage to sell it sex of

oranges and although my grandfather

didn't use the word social capital my

grandfather told me that that is not how

the people of that community buy

commodities they need to know you you

need to live in their community to sell

to them and what he was basically

telling me is that you do not have the

social capital to sell these oranges and

if we can look at that because I had the

social privilege to coexist in other

spaces at my school but I couldn't have

the social capital to go and sell

oranges that tells us that each and

every single one have social capital

it's just that there are some areas

where our social capital is more

prevalent than other areas and there are

certain things that you know we become

so used to them that even we don't

recognize that those things are

privileges and I'm gonna go through a

short list of some of those things and

one of them is being able to express

romantic affection to your partner in

public being able to see a private

doctor or mental health practitioner

when you are ill belong to a religious

group where you get to have public

holidays to observe religious holidays

coming from a background that teaches

you to ask for help when you can no

longer cope so that when they actually

tell you that they given you tutors and

lectures that you can have

- you can actually be able to go there

and ask for help from these people were

meant to help you and being addressed

and the correct pronouns speaking

English is a privilege and not having to

worry about whether you're going to be

able to get to class or not because the

lift isn't working because you're

able-bodied if the lift isn't working

you're just able to walk up the stairs

and some of these things you some of you

probably possess and you've never

realized their privileges because you're

so used to them that you did not see

them as a privilege remember I told you

how I absolutely love and shakyas right

so how many of you have been to

entrepreneurial talks or motivational

speeches you see quite a number of you

and you're gonna think I'm psychic after

that I'm gonna tell you a story that

they've all told you when they start

presenting metals hi my name is haben

i'm just a boy from a small village in

Limpopo and our daughter bang is saying

that in order to try and display some

kind of context to where he comes from

so that everybody can understand that

they eventually can get there - but a

van is no longer just a small boy from a

village in limbo for tagging is a

millionaire of a JSC listed company but

you see if we're able to constantly be

cognizant of our privilege and how it

changes from one place to the other in

life were not able to understand and to

know our power and something happens

when were not able to recognize our

privilege and how it can instantly

change in a minute like how we change

the minute you got accepted to be a

usage his student although I might have

been a village girl at a place with a

very difficult address I am now a UCT

student and these are the three things

that happen when we don't ruin we aren't

cognizant of our privilege number one we

can abuse this privilege for an example

if I'm involved in a dispute with a maid

and she probably doesn't speak good

English and I was in the wrong and that

dispute has taken to a disciplinary

hearing and I have the better English to

explain what

in that dispute she is likely to lose

all those she's wrong just because I

speak English and if you're not

cognizant of this privilege you're able

to be you're very unaware of how you

navigate in these spaces number two your

limit we limit our potential because we

always see ourselves from a point of

being underprivileged so we're and we're

so busy focused on the things we don't

have that were unable to see the things

that we do have and were unable to tap

into our social capitals and the power

that we hold number three we commit

microaggressions and we don't understand

why it is important to learn to refer to

people in the right pronouns because

we're probably says heterosexual people

so we all have privilege because

privilege is not an either/or situation

no no no no it's about the environment

you know and it's about in which

environment you possess social capital

in and different people have different

social capitals and some social capital

is effective everywhere there is an

environment where your social capital is

more effective than the other and just

because it's not your problem does not

mean that is a problem so today I'm here

to say that my name is dimple Randall

atiba I have privilege and thank you for

coming tonight a talk

[Applause]