Introduction

This primer introduces readers to core concepts and frameworks related to understanding diversity and social justice, with a relative focus on race and racism. Our overall aims in writing this book are to:

Provide an introductory understanding of power, privilege, and oppression as foundations of social systems of inequity.

Provide basic definitions and introductory discussion of several major social systems of inequity: race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, and social class.

Encourage readers to make connections among individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels of inequality and consider their personal experiences within these systems of inequity.

Throughout the text, we integrate social science (e.g., psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethnic studies) understandings and research on these concepts, with a focus on relational and psychological meanings, responses, and implications for lived experience—including the reader’s lived experience. Following an introductory chapter, the book consists of three sections:

Section One: Foundations: Social Construction, Culture, Power, Oppression, and Privilege. In this section, we provide an introductory understanding of power, privilege, and oppression as foundations of social systems of inequity.

Section Two: Understanding Hierarchies of Oppression and Privilege: Race, Ethnicity, Sex and Gender, Sexuality, Disability, and Social Class. In the chapters in this section, we provide basic definitions of each of these major social systems of inequity; describe erroneous assumptions; explore complexities of each category as social construct and identity; and examine associated dynamics of oppression.

Section Three: Resisting Oppression. In the final chapter of the book, we focus on understanding and enacting resistance to oppression, considering how people can act in ways that reflect values of equity and justice.

Throughout the book, we consider how readers (particularly readers who are new to this material) might respond, especially given the socialization available 2in the United States. This approach begins in Chapter 1: “Preparing for Learning,” which explicitly invites readers to consider how and why they might respond to this content and offers some basic strategies to encourage an openness to engagement. Chapters throughout the rest of the text include reflection exercises that explicitly invite readers to apply the concepts to their own experiences, perspectives, and interactions. We also include “pull-outs” that focus on issues of language (“How Do I Say?”) and expanding complexities of some basic concepts (“It’s Complicated”). Each chapter concludes with “Resources for Learning More,” a list of resources for further engagement.