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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 C3.1 compare challenges facing various equity-seeking groups (e.g., groups seeking gender equity, racial equity, poverty reduction, or rights for
people who are mentally ill or who have physical, intellectual, or sensory disabilities), and describe some of the policies, strategies, and
initiatives used by these groups to address their concerns.
 C3.2 describe the ways in which Aboriginal peoples in Canada and other indigenous groups around the world (e.g., the Innu or Labrador, the Lubicon
Cree of Alberta, Guyanese indigenous peoples, the Basque people of Spain and France) have used laws or international attention to try to effect
changes in domestic policy with respect to social justice issues.
 C3.3 compare the ways in which injustices against women (e.g., issues related to political leadership, violence against women, the feminization of
poverty, women’s health care) have been addressed in Canada to the ways they have been addressed in other countries, with reference both to
public policy and the strategies used by groups, particularly women’s groups, to effect change.

What is Social Justice?1

We believe that social justice is both a process
and a goal. The goal of social justice is full and
equal participation of all groups in a society that is
mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice
includes a vision of society in which the distribution
of resources is equitable, and all members are
physically and psychologically safe and secure. We
envision a society in which individuals are both
self-determining (able to develop their full
capacities) and interdependent (capable of
interacting democratically with others). Social justice involves social actors who have a sense of their own agency as
well as a sense of social responsibility toward and with others, their society, and the broader world in which we live.
These are conditions we wish not only for our own society but also for every society in our interdependent global
community.
Developing a social justice process in a society and world steeped in oppression is no simple feat. For this reason,
we need clear ways to define and analyze oppression so that we can understand how it operates at individual, cultural,
and institutional levels, historically and in the present. Although inevitably an oversimplification of a complex social
phenomenon, we believe that the conceptual frameworks presented here can help us make sense of and, hopefully, act
more effectively against oppressive circumstances as these arise in our teaching and activism.

Defining Features of Oppression

➢ Pervasive: We use the term oppression, rather than discrimination, bias, prejudice, or bigotry to
emphasize the pervasive nature of social inequality woven throughout social institutions as well as
embedded within individual consciousness. The term oppression encapsulates the fusion of institutional
and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and social prejudice in a complex web of
relationships and structures that shade most aspects of life in our society. Woven together through time
and reinforced in the present, these patterns provide an example of the pervasiveness of oppression.
➢ Restrictive: On the most general level, oppression denotes structural and material constraints that
significantly shape a person’s life chances and sense of possibility. Oppression restricts both self-
development and self-determination. It delimits who one can imagine becoming and the power to act in
support of one’s rights and aspirations. A girl-child in the United States in 2006, for example, especially
if she is poor or of color, is still unlikely to imagine herself as president, since, unlike many other
countries, they have yet to elect a woman to this high office. One-hundred forty years after the abolition
of slavery, African Americans as a group have still not achieved full equality and cannot even rely on
their government for basic human treatment and aid in a time of crisis, as in the recent scandalous
government desertion of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Despite rhetoric that anyone can get ahead if
they work hard enough, a father’s economic status continues to be the best predictor of the status of his
offspring, a situation that worsens as economic inequality grows and the possibilities for social mobility
steadily decline.
➢ Hierarchical: Oppression signifies a hierarchical relationship in which dominant or privileged groups
reap advantage, often in unconscious ways, from the disempowerment of targeted groups. Whites, for

1
Bell, Lee Anne. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge: New York, 2013.
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

example, gain privilege as a dominant group because they benefit from access to social power and
privilege, not equally available to people of colour. As a group, Whites earn more money and accumulate
more assets than other racial groups, hold the majority of positions of power and influence, and command
the controlling institutions in society. White-dominated institutions restrict the life expectancy, infant
mortality, income, housing, employment, and educational opportunities of people of color.
➢ Complex, Multiple, Cross-Cutting Relationships: Power and privilege are relative, however, because
individuals hold multiple complex and cross-cutting social group memberships that confer relative
privilege or disadvantage differently in different contexts. Identity is not simply additive but
multiplicative. An upper-class professional man who is African American, for example (still a very small
percentage of African Americans overall), may enjoy economic success and professional status conferred
through male, class, and perhaps dominant language and citizenship privilege as an English-speaking
native-born citizen, yet face limitations not endured by white, male and female, or foreign national
coworkers. Despite economic and professional status and success, he may be threatened by police, be
unable to hail a taxi, and endure hateful epithets as he walks down the street. The constellation of
identities that shape his consciousness and experience as an African American man, and his varying
access to privilege, may fluctuate depending on whether he is light or dark skinned, Ivy League-educated
or a high school dropout, incarcerated, unemployed, or a tourist in South Africa, Brazil, or Europe.
➢ Internalized: Oppression not only resides in external social institutions and norms but lodges in the
human psyche as well. Oppressive beliefs are internalized by victims as well as perpetrators. The idea that
poor people somehow deserve and are responsible for poverty, rather than the economic system that
structures and requires it, is learned by poor and affluent alike. Homophobia, the deep fear and hatred of
homosexuality, is internalized by both straight and gay people. Jews as well as Gentiles absorb anti-
Semitic stereotypes.

The ‘isms” and “ism” Case Studies

From our perspective, no one form of oppression is the base for all others, yet all are connected within a system
that makes them possible. Eradicating oppression ultimately requires struggle against all its forms, and that coalitions
among diverse people offer the most promising strategies for challenging oppression systematically.

Racism
The social science literature on racism and insights about racism that
emerged from the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and early 1960s in
America profoundly shaped the way scholars and activists have come to
understand oppression and its other manifestations. Of the many valuable
legacies of the Civil Rights movement and the academic traditions focusing on
racism, two key themes must be highlighted:
i) The awareness that racism is a system of oppression that not
only stigmatizes and violates the targeted group, but also does
psychic and ethical violation to the dominator group as well. The
idea that oppression affects, albeit in different ways, both those
advantaged and those targeted by oppression has been useful to
many other groups as a way to make sense of their experiences
of oppression.
ii) Racism functions not only through overt, conscious prejudice
and discrimination but also through the unconscious attitudes and
behaviors of a society that presumes an unacknowledged but
pervasive white cultural norm. Racial images and ideas are
embedded in language and cultural practices promoted as neutral
and inclusive. However, the alleged neutrality of social patterns,
behaviors, and assumptions in fact define and reinforce a form of
cultural imperialism that supports white supremacy.

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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

Race is a sociopolitical, not a biological, construct, one that is created and reinforced by social and institutional
norms and practices, as well as individual attitudes and behaviors. Like other constructed social identities, race emerged in
North America historically to justify the dominance of peoples defined as “white” (colonists/settlers) over other peoples
defined as racially different or inferior, such as, first, Native Americans and enslaved Africans, and, later, South
Americans, Chinese, South Asians, and other marginalized racial groups. Motivated by economic interests and entrenched
though law and public policy, we see this process of racialization of subordinate groups as a process that has its roots in
historical legacies and is continually reinvented in response to current social, political, and economic circumstances to
perpetuate social advantages for peoples racialized as white. We call this process and the system it sustains white
supremacy.
Racism, then, is the set of institutional, cultural, and interpersonal patterns and practices that create advantages for
people legally defined and socially constructed as “white,” and the corollary disadvantages for people defined as
belonging to racial groups that were not considered Whites by the dominant power structure in North America. While the
construction of disadvantage and subordination of different communities of color has been enacted in historically specific
ways for differently racialized groups, attention must be given to the overarching patterns and practices that illustrate
racisms across groups as well as the distinctive ways that racism plays out for particular peoples of color at different
points in history. Thus, the frequently unstated assumption that race is a matter of black/white relationships obscures a far
more complex, historically rooted, racial system that impacts differently racialized peoples in historically and regionally
distinctive ways. A critical analysis of racism(s) should thus include how perceived racial phenotype, ethnicity, language,
immigration status, and culture impact a people’s experience of racism. Further, the analysis of racisms becomes
intersectional when we acknowledge that people from all racialized groups – whether advantaged or disadvantaged by
racism – are also differently gendered, classes, sexualized, and aged and that these intersections differentially shape their
experiences and the impact of racism on their life chances and opportunities.2

CARDING IN TORONTO BY TORONTO POLICE

WATCH: The Agenda with Steve Paikin: To Card or Not To Card:
https://goo.gl/tFH6ny

READ: CBC News: “Toronto Police Will Continue Carding, With Some
Changes to Policy”
https://goo.gl/JkLJvs

THOUGHTS? COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? SOLUTIONS?

Carding, which is officially known as the Community Contacts Policy, is an intelligence gathering policy of the
Toronto Police Service involving the stopping, questioning, and documenting of individuals when *no particular
offense is being investigated*.

TASK Read pages 266-268 in your textbook. Record the definitions of prejudice, racism and affirmative action. Then,
complete questions #1, 3, 5 and 6 on page 268.

2
Castañeda, Carmelita and Zúñiga, Ximena. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge: New York, 2013
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

Classism
Class is a relative social ranking based on income, wealth,
education, status, and power. Classism is the institutional, cultural,
and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign differential
value to people according to their socioeconomic class; and an
economic system that creates excessive inequality and causes basic
human needs to go unmet.
The New Left movements of the late 1960s and early
1970s espoused ideals of political democracy and personal liberty
and applied their political energy to make power socially
accountable. New Left critiques of power built on Marxist theory
to examine issues of domination and exploitation and to focus on the structural rather than individual factors that maintain
oppressive economic and social relations. They also exposed and critiqued normative assumptions that conflate
democracy with capitalism and its role in suppressing the exploration of alternative economic and social arrangements.
New Left analyses examine how power operates through normalizing relations of domination and systematizing idea and
practices that are then taken as given. These analyses remind us to continually ask the question “In whose interest do
prevailing systems operate?” The question of power and the interests it serves has been a useful analytic tool for
examining oppression in all of its multiple forms. Asking who benefits and who pays for prevailing practices helps to
expose the hierarchical relationships as well as the hidden advantages and penalties embedded in a purportedly fair and
neutral system.
There are many reasons why it has for so long been so difficult and uncomfortable to publicly acknowledge the
role of social economic class and classism in North America. One reason is our belief in meritocracy (that hard work and
talent will be rewarded). Another reason is the conflating the democratic political system (the premise of political
equality) with capitalist economic systems (premise of equality of economic opportunity). The democratic myth that every
child can grow up to be the leader of a country has been conflated with the capitalist myth that every child can become
rich through hard work and talent. Democracy has characterized most “Western” countries, although all have been limited
at their inception to the white, male, propertied, land-owning colonial elite. Democracy is a political system, characterized
by basic freedoms and a representative (not an egalitarian) system of governance. Struggle, sometimes violent, has
attended each new broadening of representative democracy – to include African Canadians, women, and Native
Canadians.
The indicators of class privilege often include wealth based on long-term investments rather than the uncertainties
of wages based on skill or labor (this includes the vagaries of high-paid sports or celebrity wages). But the privileges
based on class are not solely economic. They can include social and intellectual “capital” that may no longer be
accompanied by considerable wealth, as in the case of families who have lost their money over several generations but
may not have lost their social and intellectual connections and can thus claim ongoing social or intellectual capital.
The distinctive institutional, cultural, and individual practices and beliefs related to class privilege are important
to notice. By economic capital, we generally refer to wealth enhanced by income; the idea that a person has control over
their economic resources (cash, assets). Social capital refers to
social resources such as elite education, health care, political
connections, legal and financial advisors, and ‘concierge’
health services. Social capital also includes valuable personal
networks that ensure and enhance professional mobility,
corporate profits, and political advantage. Intellectual and
cultural capital refer to the knowledge, language, and self-
presentation needed to leverage major social institutions – such
as education, the law, the political system, the health care
system. Indicators of intellectual and cultural capital include
accent and speech that convey sophistication and education (as
distinct from regional or ethnic-based accent or speech), an
understated or expensive wardrobe, a “good” neighbourhood
address and tasteful home furnishings. 3

3
Adams, Maurianne. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. [Section 3] Routledge: New York, 2013
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

Non-economic Aspects of Classism4

The harm from classism extends far beyond economic hardships. Popular culture and the media are full of classist
stereotypes. Working-class people are often portrayed as dumb buffoons, whereas poor people are depicted as criminals,
tragic victims, or heartwarming givers of wisdom. Wealthy people are rendered as shallow and vain, or as evil villains.
Portrayed as normal is an expensive upper-middle-class lifestyle that is in fact affordable to no more than 10% of North
American families. This combines with manipulative advertising to fuel consumerism, the overemphasis on buying more
and better things as a component of happiness, which in turn fuels excessive consumer debt.
Prejudice exists in our language, in words such as trailer trash, white trash, redneck, ghetto, low class, and classy.
The same prejudice is manifested in treatment of service workers, such as underpaying them, disregarding their humanity,
and creating unnecessary messes for them to clean up.
Many working-class lives, especially those of people in poverty, are full of stress. The shortage of options and
scarce resources take an emotional toll. Bad health outcomes, such as shorter life expectancy, higher infant mortality, and
more preventable diseases, are prevalent among working-class and poor people. These stem not only from inferior health
care, poor diet, and long hours and physical work that take a toll on workers’ bodies, but also from the stress of living in a
society that looks down on them. Disrespect is harmful.
Classism can be internalized, causing low expectations, discouragement, and self-doubt, in particular about one’s
intelligence. Internalized classism can also be manifested through disrespect toward other working-class people, in the
form of harsh judgments, betrayal, violence, and other crimes.
Middle-class people are harmed by isolation from working-class people, and by being taught they are superior to
them and ought to be in charge. They are harmed by misinformation about how society works (they are sometimes less
clued in to social and economic trends than working-class, poor, or rich people), and by conditioning that shapes their
behavior to a narrow “proper” range, preparing many for dull middle-management jobs.
Wealthy people find that others sometimes connect with them primarily in relation to their money and may have
trouble trusting others’ motivations. Some learn a sense of entitlement and arrogance that makes them unable to connect
across class differences. Some owning-class children, in particular those from multigenerational, super wealthy families
grow up in intense isolation uncommon in other families, such as being raised by nannies and seeing parents infrequently,
going to boarding school at a young age, or spending a lot of time alone in a different wing of a house than other family
members.

4
Leondar-Wright, Betsy and Yeskel, Felice. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge: New York, 2013
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

INEQUITIES IN WEALTH AND CLEAN WATER

WATCH: The Agenda with Steve Paikin: David Hulchanski & Toronto's
Three Cities
https://goo.gl/CzNXCU

The National: Water Advisories Chronic Reality in Many First

Nations Communities
https://goo.gl/jfQnAJ

Why Some First Nations Communities Still Don’t Have Clean Water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWLCYknpNc&ab_channel=GlobalNews

READ: U of T: The Three Cities Within Toronto; Income Polarization

Among Toronto’s Neighbourhoods”
https://goo.gl/wnNVzj

CBC News: Bad water: ‘Third World’ conditions on First Nations in

Canada
https://goo.gl/YXjw2V

THOUGHTS? COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? SOLUTIONS?

TASK Read in your textbook pages 171-176. Then, complete the following questions: #2, #6, #7 and #8 on page 176.
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

Sexism
Question: how do you manage to oppress over 50
percent of this society’s population and not have a revolution
on your hands? Answer: You make it seem “normal.” So
normal, in fact, that to question it would be akin to asking a
fish about water. 5 In addressing the issue of sexism, we must
take our place among thinkers, activists, theologians, and
extraordinary ordinary women and men who have, for
centuries, spoken and taken action against the debilitating
effects of gender-based inequality in public and private life.
What we now call the feminist movement and struggle to end
sexism has linkages to many events of the past…and gains
have been made. There are active, global efforts aimed at
providing girls and women safety and opportunity and engaging men as allies. Much work remains.
The tendency, however, to heighten the power of men as a group continues to evolve as a global phenomenon that
uses and abuses women, those deemed “woman-like,” and children under the rubric of “progress and democratic
development.” Furthermore, this informs all of our attitudes and behaviors toward our own gender and those of other
genders. Today we see the effects of this all around us, such as the increased incarceration of women (of color), the abuse
of women and child workers through global trade agreements that keep women and their families in poverty, the growth
of the sex slave trade of young girls, the dramatic spread of HIV/AIDS to women in developing countries…the backlash
against feminism and antisexist organizing, and the growth of conservatism.
The system that allows for the existence of this patriarchal tendency is usually described as sexism. We define
sexism as a system of advantages that serves to privilege men, subordinate women, denigrate women-identified values and
practices, enforce male dominance and control, and reinforce forms of masculinity that are dehumanizing and damaging
to men. Sexism functions through individual beliefs and practices, institutions, images, and ideas, and is enforced by
economic structures, violence, and homophobia.
Although sexism impacts all women and men, it does so differentially through access to financial resources with
white/European ancestry as a significant factor cushioning the impact. World Bank and United Nations data indicate that
70% of people living in extreme poverty worldwide are women, primarily in the continent of Africa, the Middle East,
Southeast Asia and South and Central America. The Internet, e-mail, cell phones and televisions news media gives us a
window on the world unprecedented in its ability to describe and explain all manner of gendered inequalities, ranging
from bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, rapes committed by United Nations peacekeepers, and violence against women
being linked with the spread of HIV/AIDS. The increasing global interconnectedness is both a cause for alarm and a call
to action. This proliferation of information catalogues abuses in every corner of the world, demanding that we see the
catastrophic costs of the subjugation of women for all of us.
Feminism, described as a movement to end sexism,
sexist exploitation, and oppression and the conceptual lens
with which we fight sexism, requires us to care about the
violence and abuse of power that oppress girls and women
and distort and damage men and boys in the most intimate
areas of their lives, in every corner of the world.
Men are both privileged and damaged by sexism. In
many cultures around the world, norms about leadership
and power position men to control resources and decision
making in relationships, the family, economics, and
politics, and position women to serve men physically,
emotionally and sexually.
Men are socialized to be ‘masculine’ in a way that
confuses self-esteem and intimacy with emotional
repression and domination. This socialization is
reinforced by the benefits of privilege and the threats of

5
Hackman, Heather H. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. [Section 5] Routledge: New York, 2013
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isolation, marginalization, and violence for those who do not comply, and is made invisible by the dominant culture’s
assumptions about what is natural and normal. Men have much to gain from and much to contribute to the work of
undoing sexism.
To combat sexism, there are four primary assumptions:
➢ We must be conscious of the limitations of a binary
conceptual framework that fails to see beyond the
constructs of men and women and ignores the complexity
of a range of gender expressions and gender identities.
➢ Sexism is often experienced in the most intimate parts of
our lives. Restrictions ranging from open and safe self-
expression, physical safety, clothing preferences, control
over one’s own body, physical movement, relationship
choices, and sexuality are limitations imposed by cultural
standards and enforced in private spaces. The combination
of the privacy of enforcement and intimacy of socialization
are significant challenges in making this form of oppression
visible and in excavating its emotional landscape.
➢ Violence is a key thread that weaves through all
manifestations of sexism. We assume, in fact, that violence
is essential in maintaining male hegemony. Evidence of how violence is inextricably linked to sexism
includes escalating rates, globally and nationally, of domestic assault, rape, murder, sexual harassment,
date rape, emotional degradation, as well as the perpetuation of stereotypes of female capabilities that
limit aspirations and possibilities.
➢ Sexism, like other forms of oppression, relies on a form of power based in domination and control.
Because of both its intimate and violent nature, sexism reinforces our acceptance of this “power over,”
and the discounting and devaluing of other healthier forms of power available to us. Challenging sexism
requires all of us, women, men, and transgender people, to understand and practice forms of
empowerment within ourselves, our personal relationships, and our social engagements.6

6
Botkin, Steven., Joanes, JoAnne., and Kachwaha, Tanya. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge: New York, 2007
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

READ: Mary Ward Sisters: Termination of FGM
https://goo.gl/DgwNzQ

WATCH: The Virginity Fraud: TedTalk with Nina Dølvik Brochmann and
Ellen Støkken Dahl
https://goo.gl/NfjHMD

Female Genital Mutilation Still Happens in Singapore

https://youtu.be/aiYR1wTMaS4

All You Need to Know About FGM

https://youtu.be/HN1mulqwv5g

THOUGHTS? COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? SOLUTIONS?

Another case of why words matter: to describe the hymen as something

that can be “ripped through” maintains the idea of violence and power
over.

TASK 1) Read pages 113-116 and complete questions #1 and 2 on page 116.
2) Research the issue of human trafficking and the work that the Loreto Sisters are doing
(https://goo.gl/oVifFf) to combat the problem. Record a few notes. Are you surprised that this continues
to happen in the 21st century? How can we aid the Loreto Sisters in combatting this problem?
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

Ableism7
Ableism, or disability oppression, is a
pervasive system of discrimination and exclusion of
people with disabilities. Like racism, sexism, and
other forms of oppression, ableism operates on
individual, institutional, and cultural levels to
privilege temporarily able-bodied people and
disadvantage people with disabilities. The systemic
nature of this form of oppression is evidenced by
patterns of treatment that discriminate against
people with disabilities in such institutions as health
care, education, housing, and employment. Ableism
is the oppression of people with disabilities and is a
social justice issue.
Like other social justice movements, the
disability rights movement has raised questions
about language and identity as people with
disabilities and their allies challenge terminology
and assert their own definitions and identity claims.
Terms once used to refer to people with disabilities
in the 19th and early 20th centuries such as defective,
deformed, deaf and dumb, insane and idiot have
been challenged as oppressive. More recent terms such as retarded, handicapped, and mentally ill, acceptable only a few
years ago, have been largely replaced by terms such as developmentally disabled, and emotionally disabled. More
recently, a “people first” movement has emerged that encourages the use of people with developmental disabilities or
people with psychological disabilities so as not to define people by a particular physical or mental condition.
Euphemistic terms, such as physically or mentally challenged and differently abled, despite their good intentions,
have also been challenged by disability rights advocates who believe that they perpetuate ableism by trivializing the
experiences of people with disabilities or minimizing the effects of disability oppression.
Many people with disabilities have redefined the term disabled, claiming it as a positive descriptor of a powerful
and proud group of people with strengths and abilities, but “disabled” by unnecessary social, economic, and
environmental barriers rather than by physical, psychological, or developmental conditions or impairments. Others reject
the term disabled as a negative label forced on them by professionals who do not understand their needs or differences. In
their view, they are not disabled but rather obstructed by negative interactions with controlling health and social service
systems. Some disability activists have reclaimed words that were demeaning in earlier times, such as cripple or gimp, as
a way to challenge attitudes and reassert their ownership of the right to name themselves. These differing uses of language
reflect the variety of perspectives held by people with disabilities and the language used to discuss disabilities.

Wide Range of Disabilities

People targeted by ableism include those with
developmental, medical, neurological, physical, and
psychological disabilities. The wide range of disabilities
makes ableism a complex issue to address. For example,
the experiences and needs of people with hearing or visual
disabilities differ from those with mobility impairments or
people with cancer, diabetes, or asthma. Some disabilities,
like a variety of mobility impairments, are visible. Others,
like learning disabilities or psychiatric disabilities, are not
visible. The common thread that unites the experiences of

7
Griffin, Pat., Peters, Madeline., and Smith, Robin. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge: New York, 2007
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

people with diverse disabilities is having

to contend with a culture that sees
disability through fear, pity, or shame
and teaches us to regard disability as a
tragedy.
Anyone can become disabled
through sickness, aging, accidents, or
acts of violence or war, or even due to
stresses from the increased pace of life.
Thus, disability touches every one of us
personally or through the lives of people
about whom we care. For this reason,
we refer to people who do not have
disabilities as temporarily able-bodied.
Temporary able-bodied people often
perceive people with disabilities to be
less than fully human, unfortunate, or objects of charity. They often channel feelings of sympathy and pity by giving to
charities rather than working to eliminate social and environmental barriers that limit access for people with disabilities.
Such paternalistic attitudes, beliefs, and actions toward people with disabilities tend to prevent systemic change.

WATCH Pro Infirmis <<Because, who is perfect?>>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8umFV69fNg&ab_channel=ProInfirmis

Social and Physical Environment as Disabling

Perspectives on disability are shaped by cultural beliefs about the value of human life, health, productivity,
independence, normality, and beauty. Such beliefs are reflected through institutional values and environments that are
often hostile to people whose abilities fall outside of what is culturally defined as normal.
When the physical environment is constructed so that only a narrow range of abilities are accommodated, it is
disabling for everyone whose abilities fall outside of this narrow range. For example, a wheelchair user is disabled by
buildings that require entrants to walk up stairs to enter or by bathrooms that are not designed to accommodate a
wheelchair. People with visual or hearing impairments are disabled by a lack of access to computers or other services
designed to accommodate their needs. People with asthma or environmental sensitivities are disabled by buildings that
lack adequate ventilation systems or have mold in carpets.
The social environment is disabling when people fail to consider the barriers that their attitudes or the physical
environment poses to people with disabilities and when they view accommodating a broader range of abilities as an
unreasonable financial burden or as extra work. Paradoxically, meeting the needs and wants of people who do not have
disabilities is rarely viewed as an accommodation. For example, most temporarily able-bodied people expect a wide-range
of choices in vehicles to purchase – large, small, and medium-sized cars or trucks with various options for colour and
accessories. Yet we have only recently begun to consider the
transportation needs of people with disabilities and to pass law
requiring public transportation to be accessible to a wider range
of abilities.

Universal Architectural Design

The social and physical environment can be changed to
enable people with disabilities to function successfully.
Universal design derives from architectural efforts to design
buildings so that anyone can use them. Universal design
features include ramps rather than steps for building entrances,
lever door handles, Braille signage, wider door entries and
hallways, raised electrical outlets, lower light switches, and
flashing lights to call attention to a ringing phone. These and

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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

other accessibility features typically add little or no cost if included in the design stage of building construction.

Historical Treatment of People with Disabilities

Throughout history, people with disabilities have faced serious and persistent forms of discrimination,
segregation, exclusion, and sometimes, genocide. They have been viewed variously as menaces to society needing
control, as children to be pitied and cared for, and as object of charity.
In western societies before the 18th century, disability was considered an unchangeable condition that resulted
from sin. People with disabilities were left to beg in the streets or were locked away. Beginning in the 18th century, people
with disabilities were viewed as objects of curiosity or deranged monsters who were frequently displayed to the “normal”
public in carnival “freak” shows or hidden in asylums where they were subjected to inhumane treatment. With the rise of
science, medical doctors began to identify and classify the genetic deficiencies linked with disability. For example, in the
1880s and 1890s, “medical imbecility” was attributed to people with mental retardation, as well as to paupers, prostitutes,
immigrants, and others struggling to assimilate into western society. Close links with the eugenics movement spurred
policies to segregate and sterilize people considered to be hopelessly unredeemable due to their disabilities. Eugenics at its
most extreme became the “scientific” rationale for Germany’s extermination policies during World War II in which
thousands of people with disabilities were gassed or starved to death.
Disabled veterans returning from World War II spurred doctors to focus on rehabilitation and the development of
devices to help them return to work and live productive lives. This focus on rehabilitation marked a shift in the approach
to working with people with disabilities. However, many continued to be segregated in special schools, sheltered
workplaces, and medical institutions where they were treated as ‘patients’ who needed supervision and care by others
‘who knew best.’

Contemporary Manifestations of Ableism

Ableism, like all other forms of social injustice, operates on multiple
levels. Cultural beliefs about concepts such as beauty, normality, and independence
affect social attitudes about disability and, consequently, how people with
disabilities are treated in society. Institutional policies, beliefs, norms, and practices
perpetuate ableism. For example, institutionalized religious beliefs that disability is
punishment for sin or that disability can be “healed” through faith affect how some
religious people respond to disability.
Individual attitudes and actions are also an important part of how ableism
is perpetuated. Individual paternalistic perspectives of sympathy or pity toward
people with disabilities are part of the matrix of obstacles that help to create and
aggravate barriers they face. Similarly, feelings of fatalism, fear, or dread about the
possibility of becoming disabled influence many individuals to respond to disability issues and to people with disabilities
in ways that are disempowering to them.

Ableism and Other Social Issues

Ableism has implications for other social issues such as assisted suicide and abortion. For example, arguments in
favor of assisted suicide are complicated by attitudes about the value or viability of living with a disability. The belief that
living with a disability is worse than dying consigns healthy people with disabilities to the same status as those who are
terminally ill or living with chronic pain. Severely disabled people may be pressured to sign “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR)
orders even when in the hospital for minor procedures. The Human Genome Project – a project to map human genes – and
the debate over euthanasia and end-of-life issues evoke heated debate over who decides the worth of an individual life.
Opponents of legally assisted suicide argue that “legalized medical killing is about a deadly double standard for people
with severe disabilities, including both conditions that are labeled terminal and those that are not.”
Likewise, many disability rights advocates oppose abortion because of their objection to aborting fetuses with
disabilities. They argue that pro-choice advocates have not considered the implications of their support for abortion for
people with disabilities.

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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

LACK OF ACCESSIBILITY IN TORONTO

WATCH: CityNews Toronto: Toronto’s Lack of Accessibility in Toronto a
Growing Concern
https://goo.gl/K1hjLV

Accessibility Problems at Ryerson University

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqUZ6gK9N9k

Because who is perfect?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8umFV69fNg&feature=emb_logo&ab_cha
nnel=ProInfirmis

READ: The Toronto Star: “Ontario Needs to Boost Accessibility Efforts”

https://goo.gl/kgGhbs

THOUGHTS? COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? SOLUTIONS?

TASK Read “The Personalistic Norm” from pages 70-72. Record the definition of personalistic norm as found
on page 70 both in the 1st paragraph and in the box on the bottom). Then, complete questions #2-6 on
page 72.

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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

Ageism/Adultism8
Robert Bulter, former director of the National Institute on
Aging, is credited with being the first to use the term ageism.
Writing in 1975, Butler argued “Ageism can be seen as a process
of systemic stereotyping and discrimination against people
because they are old…. Old people are categorized as senile, rigid
in thought and manner, old fashioned in morality and skills.”
Adultism, a more recent term, refers to “behaviours and attitudes
based on the assumption that adults are better than young people,
and entitled to act upon young people without their agreement.
This mistreatment is reinforced by social institutions, laws,
customs, and attitudes.

Societal/Cultural and Institutional Manifestations of

Ageism and Adultism as Oppression
Although the mistreatment of elders has been recognized
by some experts as oppression, the normalization of the
subordination of young people is so extensive that very little of the
research examining the experiences of young people characterizes
that mistreatment as oppression. Seldom does the research
examining child victimization, child neglect, child abuse, the mistreatment of young people in schools, abuses in the child
welfare system, or infanticide describe that mistreatment as oppression.
Oppression in ageism/adultism shares four distinct criteria:
(a) There is an “insistence on a difference, real or imaginary” – this is revealed in the way that both elders and
young people are set apart as different from the rest of the population. The work of developmental theorists describes this
understanding of difference as well as the laws designed to protect young people, mandatory retirement laws, and
restrictions placed on opportunities for young people and elders to participate in the ongoing life of the community.
(b) a “negative valuation” is imposed upon members of the group judged to be different – this is revealed in the
research showing widespread negative attitudes and values about elders and young people. Many people hold negative
assumptions and valuations about the physical and mental capacities of young people and elders, assumptions about their
diminished intelligence, and assumptions about their capacity to make decisions regarding their own lives, about their
capacity to participate effectively in the workforce, about their capacity to engage in acceptable social and romantic
relationships.
(c) these negatively valued differences are
generalized to the entire group – These generalized
negative valuations are then used to legitimize hostility and
mistreatment toward the group as a whole. The rapid
proliferation of “Must be 18” policies at shopping malls
across the United States is one example. These policies
restrict the entry and unsupervised participation of young
people as a group because, according to the mall manager
at Ingleside Mall in Holyoke, Massachusetts, “Just the fact
that they’re [young people] there is perceived by some
people [adults]…as intimidating. It might cause you
[adults] to leave, or not shop in stores you [adults] want to
shop in.” In this real-life scenario, these institutions use the
negative attitudes held by some adults toward young people
to legitimize practices of exclusion based on age-group membership. Increases in age discrimination lawsuits provide
evidence of widespread practices excluding workplace participation of elders based on negative assumptions about their
mental capacities.

8
Love, Barbara and Phillips, Kathleen. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge: New York, 2007
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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

(d) these generalized, negative valuations are then used to justify

and legitimize hostility and aggression against that group – the policies and
practices of institution such as the health care system, educational system,
legal and welfare systems, and workplace provide examples of the
exploitation, powerlessness and marginalization of young people and
elders, as well as age-based cultural imperialism and violence. Child labour
and financial abuse of elders through misappropriation of their assets are
examples of exploitation. Youth and elders experience almost total
powerlessness in most institutions set up to “care” for them. The state
exercises absolute control over youth in its educational, child welfare, and
juvenile justice systems. Nursing homes and schools can sometimes
resemble jails in their institutional structures. Cultural imperialism is
manifested in the devaluing of the young and the old in North America,
particularly in the United States. They are seen as less capable or less
productive. Midlife adulthood is the standard against which young people
and elders are measured and found wanting. Young people and elders are
often marginalized and denied useful participation in economic or social
life. Elders, for example, experience persistent discrimination in the
workplace, and youth are allowed little meaningful involvement in decision
making in almost all aspects of their lives. Violence in the form of physical
abuse, although not socially approved, is still tolerated. Elders consistently
experience inferior health care, often with life-threatening consequences.

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Unit 1: Foundations Lesson #3: Challenges, Strategies, and Initiatives

HARMFUL AGEISM; SENIORS & BABIES

WATCH: Canada’s PSA Against Elder Abuse
https://goo.gl/ZXkjqK

The National: Abuse: One of Canada's Many Senior Care Problems

https://goo.gl/4rFTtD

CBC Marketplace: Unlicensed daycare: Hidden camera

investigation
https://goo.gl/F4hF5P

READ: CTV News: ‘Ageism’ widespread in Canada, survey finds

https://goo.gl/PGoJBK

The Chronicle Herald; Halifax: “Young Canadian volunteers work

to overcome age discrimination”
https://goo.gl/X9Wr12

THOUGHTS? COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? SOLUTIONS?

TASK Read pages 89-92. Record the definition of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Then, complete
questions #4 and 6 on page 94.

16