OPTIONAL THEME:
KNOWLEDGE AND POLITICS
EPISTEMIC JUSTICE
Does it matter that your personal circumstances influence how seriously your knowledge is taken?
A demonstrator protesting against the death of Alton Sterling, who was shot by police, is detained by law enforcement in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US. 9 July 2016. This image of Iesha L Evans’ grace under pressure became an iconic symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Photo source: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters
PRELUDE:
THINKING ABOUT IDENTITY AND EQUITY
Equality and Equity
Image source: NASTAD (National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors)
In the democracy and informed citizenship unit we asked “how can an environment be created in which everyone feels a sense of belonging to the country of which they are a citizen, with a stake in it and a responsibility towards it?” Equity, inclusion, and social justice are important factors. Equity is not just equality. We can say that equity is what one needs, when it is needed, in the just the right quantity needed, for as long as it is needed.
IDENTITY AND INTERSECTIONALITY
We are blended, rich and textural…
None of us are one thing only. Who we are the unique intersectionality of multiple aspects. We all have our own, unique story. We are complicated. As the poet Walt Whitman said… “we contain multitudes.” We are blended, rich, distinct and textural and this is a beautiful thing.
Invite students to reflect for a moment on what their own intersectionality paragraph would look like. The Amartya Sen quote and Kimberlé Crenshaw video below will stimulate thinking.
“The same person can be, without any contradiction, an American citizen, of Caribbean origin, with African ancestry, a Christian, a liberal, a woman, a vegetarian, a long-distance runner, a historian, a schoolteacher, a novelist, a feminist, a heterosexual, a believer in gay and lesbian rights, a theater lover, an environmental activist, a tennis fan, a jazz musician.
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RAWLS RULES:
VEIL OF IGNORANCE CLASS ACTIVITY
Before starting the activity discombobulate your students by showing this short video about Ayn Rand’s Objectivism. The unbridled selfishness that she advocates is in jarring contrast to the previous perspectives on equity and identity.
Continue the activity by asking students to respond to these generative questions in groups of three:
To what extent do you agree with Ayn Rand?
To what extent your own vision for a just society depend your own self interest and circumstances?
Photo source: The Spectator, Australia
NOT KNOWING THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR BIRTH AND HOW YOUR LIFE WILL UNFOLD
Prepare in advance individual sets of small paper rectangles each with one of the following identity profiles printed on one side.
Feel free to add variants of your own that might resonate more fully with your students. Depending on your location in the world; categories like caste, indigenous language use, and indentured servitude are just three extreme examples that come immediately to mind.
Single man with early onset senile dementia
Unmedicated mentally ill homeless woman
Middle-aged single man without a college degree working in a painting crew
Successful Ivy League graduate thriving on Wall Street
Islamic teenager who always wears a hijab in public
Tech entrepreneur who just sold her second start-up
Fundamentalist christian diner waitress
Undocumented highly skilled construction worker
Minority young transgender person
Blogger and podcaster who has anarchist beliefs
Amazon delivery person with type 1 diabetes
Middle-aged dentist who has received a terminal cancer diagnosis
CEO of a respected insurance company in a large city
Newly pregnant unemployed teenager who already has twins
Successful female corporate lawyer who was just made partner in her company
Drug squad police detective in a major city
Raw recruit in the US marines
Woman born with severe physical disabilities who spent her entire life cared for in an institution
Young male schoolteacher who has white suprematist leanings
Married woman with a large trust fund income
Recently unemployed homeowner in severe debt and facing foreclosure
Twice divorced banking executive paying high taxes and alimony
Gay teenager ostracized by his conservative small town family
Single minority mom with 3 children and two jobs
Disabled veteran haunted by PTSD
First generation legal immigrant who is an Uber driver
Low status minority drug dealer who is part of a large street gang
Teenage girl who has the driving ambition to participate in the NASA space program
Minority woman serving long prison sentence for murdering her abusive husband
Severely dyslexic, shy teenager
Baby diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor
With gravitas and ceremony provide each student with set of cards. Tell them that the cards will eventually reveal secret identities, and they must not peep in advance of doing the activity! Require them to shuffle their cards thoroughly; emphasizing the element of randomness that drives the activity.
Next ask students to revisit the online Political Typology Quiz at the Pew Research Center, previously encountered in the Politics divides unit. Tell students to get ready to answer to the 17 questions. Just before responding to each question they must turn over their top card to reveal a new identity profile. Tell students they should respond in role play mode—with each turn of the card they must do their utmost to serve the best interests of their temporary randomly assigned identity.
Emphasize that the final results generated by the Pew Research Center will be meaningless. Experiencing the unsettling process is what counts.
Ask students to signal when they are finished. Faster workers can be invited reflect on the activity in silence. When they are all finished: move directly to the short Veil of Ignorance video for the final reveal.
Unleash some lively class discussion. You may or may not need the following guiding questions:
What just happened?
How useful in the real world is Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance thought experiment?
Does it make any sense to ask about redesigning society from scratch? Can doing so be outright dangerous?
What might Ayn Rand say about how meritocracy and incentives play into the Veil of Ignorance?
What might Kimberlé Crenshaw have to say about affirmative action and redressing historical injustices in the Veil of Ignorance context?
To what extent does the Veil of Ignorance imply greater emphasis on equality rather than equity?
Who are they?