Naming the Elephant in the Room: Intersections of Identity and Positionality in the Work Place
By: Brian Arao
This past summer student life professionals at the University of San Francisco invited seasoned facilitators to lead a student leadership retreat focused on issues of diversity and social justice. When asked to outline the goals of the retreat, our staff responded that we wanted our student leaders to have opportunities for deep and authentic dialogue about how identity, power, privilege, and oppression manifest in their lives, with the belief that such awareness is the foundation for inclusive and equitable leadership practice. While our facilitators agreed with this philosophy, they challenged us to consider that students may need to first learn skills to engage in conversations about social identity without harming themselves or others. As one facilitator observed, many remarkable student leaders can “tear each other apart” in such conversations. While the dialogue may have been authentic, it detracted from, rather than contributed to, the expressed goal of fostering an inclusive campus community.
Several months later, I had a series of individual conversations with colleagues about how we experience, interpret, and respond to work-related interactions through the lenses of our many social identities. These conversations illuminated ways in which various systems of oppression, compounded by the dynamics of positionality within our organizational structure, are apparent in our interactions as staff as well as in our work with students. These experiences were often sources of abiding pain and frustration, which impact not only our ability to be effective in our work, but to be in it at all. Indeed, they are amongst the reasons why pillars of our profession like Dr. Jamie Washington stress the importance of “clearing our instruments” through personal work, not simply to be better teachers, but to sustain ourselves and one another in the protracted and at times exhausting work of social justice. Without skills for naming negative impact and exploring strategies and opportunities for creating a more inclusive environment, we, like some of our best student leaders, may tear ourselves and others apart. We do so by destroying our confidence through endless second-guessing of our persistent emotional reactions; swallowing our anger and disappointment with the belief that our concerns cannot be voiced without inviting further repercussions; and lashing out directly and indirectly at those who have hurt us. These outcomes enervate critical relationships, damage morale, and may even lead to burnout and leaving the field entirely.
How, then, can we facilitate meaningful and authentic conversations with one another, across not only social identity groups but also positional lines of authority? As the readers of this newsletter are no doubt keenly aware, entering into any dialogue about oppression involves risk for any participant. Though the nature of these risks varies greatly by agent and target group membership, they all ultimately require participants to face such conversations with bravery. Creating conditions that nurture bravery is a difficult task in and of itself (and hopefully the subject of a future article). Considering reporting lines alongside identity dynamics adds further complexity and raises the already substantial stakes.
For example, I understand (though not nearly as viscerally as I might if I were not a cisgender man in possession of the power and privilege that accompany this identity) that for a woman in student affairs to even think about naming an experience of sexism at her institution – especially within her division or department – is an exceptionally difficult consideration. How much more fraught is this consideration when the perpetrator holds a position of greater authority in the organization? In addition to potentially eliciting negative responses ranging from indifference to denial to hostility, as naming oppression often does, this student affairs professional may experience fears regarding the impact on her professional reputation and career prospects. What can I do to address these reasonable concerns and do my part to create space in which there is room for these stories? And how can I do this while also making and asking for room for other stories of marginalization, including my own, without downplaying the power conferred to me by my agent group identities and position in the hierarchy?
I do not have a tested, sure-fire solution to these thorny questions. I suspect that addressing them in a meaningful way will require the leadership of our various institutions, divisions, and departments – who hold much of the power and have the least to lose – to invest significant effort in opening the dialogue. Having done so, we must also demonstrate receptiveness to what is voiced by our colleagues, especially when it reveals difficult truths.
In my role I believe it is my responsibility to broach this subject with those I supervise by first explicitly acknowledging that both identity and positional dynamics are at play in our relationships. Further, I must state my belief that we all have roles to play in capitalizing on the strengths the dynamics of difference can contribute to our work, as well as confronting and navigating the pitfalls that might otherwise curtail us. I must also participate in the process of building the mutual trust needed for each member of my team to believe that there will be room for their vitally important voice and story.
We are engaged together in student development work and share responsibility for assuring this work is done in a socially just manner that affirms and honors the dignity and humanity of all persons – including one another. I look forward to learning more from you and others about how we can better promote this kind of honest exchange between colleagues at the CSJE-sponsored Dial-a-Dialogue, to be held from 12:00-1:00 pm EST on Wed., April 14, 2010.
Brian Arao is a staff member at the University of San Francisco and serves as the Vice Chair for Programming in CSJE.
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Message from the Chair
The Millenial Pitfall
"What's Race Got to Do with It?"
Education, Citizenship & Social Justice
Naming the Elephant in the Room: Intersections of Identity and Positionality in the Work Place
Dial-a-Dialogue
2010 Convention
Call for Manuscripts
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The Newsletter: Winter 2010
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