Neb. SARE Workshop on Privilege, Power, and Difference
Julia Klienschmit
The Nebraska SARE Program is sponsoring a workshop on privilege, power and difference as a part of its plan of work for 2013. The workshop will be held on Friday, April 19, 2013 from 9:30am – 3pm in Grand Island at the Hall County Extension office, and will be presented by Julia Kleinschmit, MSW Clinical Associate Professor, University of Iowa School of Social Work and the University of Iowa Division of Continuing Education. As part of the workshop, attendees will be required to read the book Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan Johnson prior to the workshop.
In this interactive workshop, organizers will build on the reading of Privilege, Power, and, Difference by Allan Johnson. Attendees will explore elements of white privilege, including white dominance, white identification, and white centeredness and how they play out in the communities and systems in which attendees work and operate.
Organizers will identify various consequences of privilege for those who have it, and those who don’t. This understanding and perspective will help attendees analyze and come up with some alternative ways to do business that could reduce the effects of privilege and make a more inclusive environment in which more people of color, women, and new members of our communities would feel welcome and be better able to participate.
To this end, attendees will also learn and practice some ways to talk about privilege, power, and difference originated by the National Coalition Building Institute. In the first, organizers will identify positive and negative messages. In this exercise, organizers will also dig into what the purpose of those messages might have been (especially building on Johnson, 2006 – see above). In the second, attendees will learn a way to have these difficult discussions with others around privilege and power, with the intention of shifting attitudes and keeping the conversation going.
The cost of the book, travel to the workshop, lunch and all workshop expenses will be covered by SARE for all ag educators from Nebraska that are interested in participating. Interested ag educators in Nebraska should contact Nebraska State SARE Coordinator, Gary Lesoing, by March 18, 2013.
Gary Lesoing
Nemaha County Extension Office
1824 North Street, Suite 102
Auburn, Nebraska 68305-2395
Phone: 402.274.4755
Email: glesoing2@unl.edu
Book Needed
(Johnson, A., 2006). Privilege, Power, and Difference (2nd Ed). Boston: McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-287489-1
Description: This brief book is a groundbreaking tool for students and non-students alike to examine systems of privilege and difference in our society. Written in an accessible, conversational style, it links theory with engaging examples in ways that enable readers to see the underlying nature and consequences of privilege and their connection to it. This extraordinarily successful book has been used across the country, both inside and outside the classroom, to shed light on issues of power and privilege.
