ABSTRACT
The chapter describes how culture is a foundation for creating worldviews and meanings that shape hierarchical categories related to oppression and privilege. The chapter begins by offering basic definitions of culture and social construct. The chapter then explores how and why people may not be aware of the influences of the cultures in which they live and addresses how social categories of inequality are developed as part of cultural ideology. It emphasizes the process and function of making differences into distinctions that relate to privilege and oppression, and examines how children are socialized into these understandings using the example of race. The chapter differentiates social construct from personally experienced identity, while also considering their reciprocal influence. The chapter ends by describing ways that social categories related to oppression and privilege share common characteristics and introduces the idea of intersectionality. The chapter includes reflection exercises for readers to explore their cultural experiences, values, and norms and to consider how their cultures affect their ideas about differences and distinctions.
