Identity: who am I, and who says so?
Identity is how we see ourselves and how others see us. It has many parts: gender, age, ethnicity, language, faith, ability, family income, where we live.
Many parts are socially constructed: society adds meanings and rules to them. For example, ideas about which jobs suit 'boys' or 'girls' are made by people and change over time and place.
These parts intersect (overlap) in one person. A girl with a disability from a poor family may face problems that none of those parts alone would explain. This is called intersectionality.
Society's labels can affect us in positive ways (pride, belonging, a supportive community) or negative ways (low expectations, exclusion, shame).
Stereotypes, bias, prejudice and discrimination
- Stereotype: a fixed, simple idea about a whole group ('old people can't use phones').
- Bias: a leaning for or against a group, often unconscious, like tinted glasses.
- Prejudice: a judgement or feeling formed before knowing the person.
- Discrimination: an action that treats people unfairly because of their group.
Everyone has some bias. The skill is to notice it, check facts, and judge each person by what they do.
Power, privilege and two kinds of discrimination
Power is the ability to make decisions and shape what happens. Privilege is an advantage you did not earn, often not noticed by the person who has it (for example, a right-handed person never thinks about left-handed scissors).
Power and privilege vary: a person may have privilege at school (speaks the main language) but not at work (is young and new). They operate in social, economic and political life: who gets heard, hired, housed or elected.
Individual vs systemic discrimination
- Individual: one person's unfair act, such as a landlord refusing a tenant for their religion.
- Systemic: rules, habits or designs that disadvantage a group even when no one intends harm, such as job tests only in one language, or buildings without ramps.
Effects: stress and low self-esteem for individuals; less education, income and health for whole groups; loss of talent for society. Long, unfair use of power over a group is called oppression.
Equity, equality and social justice
- Diversity: the many differences among people in a group.
- Equality: everyone gets the same thing.
- Equity: everyone gets what they need to reach the same goal.
- Inclusion: everyone can take part and feels they belong.
- Social justice: fixing the causes of unfairness so all people have fair rights and chances.
Examples of inequity, past and present
Across the world: denying women the vote; segregation laws; apartheid in South Africa; untouchability and caste discrimination in India (made illegal by the Constitution in 1950); Indigenous peoples in many countries (in Canada, Australia, the Americas) losing land and being sent to residential schools that tried to erase their languages. Today: pay gaps, unequal access to the internet, disability barriers, hate online.
Progress includes equal-rights laws, reserved seats or quotas, apologies and truth commissions, land agreements and accessibility laws. People hold different perspectives: for example, some see quotas as fair repair of past harm, others prefer support based only on income. Good citizens weigh evidence from many sides.
Social activism and our own action
Important movements: votes for women (early 1900s), the US civil rights movement (1950s–60s), the anti-apartheid struggle (until 1994), Dr B. R. Ambedkar's work for Dalit rights, disability rights and Indigenous rights movements (such as campaigns for clean water and land rights).
Forms of activism: peaceful marches, petitions, boycotts, strikes, court cases, art and music, social media campaigns, voting and running for office. Coalitions, where different groups join for one goal, make movements stronger.
Skills to respect diversity
- Listen to understand; ask, don't assume.
- Use inclusive language (names people choose for themselves).
- Be an ally: speak up or get help when someone is mocked.
- Support fair policies in school and work: anti-bullying rules, ramps and captions, flexible holidays, fair hiring.
Inquiry skills: studying equity fairly
- Explore: choose a topic and ask a clear question (e.g. 'Can every student reach every room in our school?').
- Investigate: collect facts from surveys, interviews, official data and people with lived experience.
- Process: check each source for bias, compare views, look for patterns.
- Communicate and reflect: share findings respectfully, suggest actions, and think about your own bias.
Try it
Walk around your school or building. Note every barrier for a wheelchair user, a new student who speaks another language and a student with poor eyesight. Suggest one fix for each. Then in the 3D, remove barriers and add allies until all six people are included.
Key formulas and definitions
- Identity: how we see ourselves and how others see us.
- Intersectionality: many parts of identity overlap and together shape a person's experience.
- Stereotype: a fixed, simple idea about a whole group.
- Prejudice: a judgement formed before knowing the person.
- Discrimination: unfair action because of a person's group.
- Systemic discrimination: rules or designs that disadvantage a group, even without intent.
- Privilege: an unearned advantage.
- Equity: giving each what they need to reach the same goal.
Worked examples
1. A company's job form must be filled online, in one language only. Is this individual or systemic discrimination?
Systemic. No single person is unfair, but the rule shuts out people without internet or who speak other languages.
2. All students get 1 hour for a test. A student with a hand injury writes slowly and gets 20 extra minutes. Equality or equity?
Equity. Help is fitted to need so the student can show the same knowledge.
3. Show intersectionality with an example.
An older woman from a minority language group looking for work may face age bias, gender bias and language barriers at the same time; together they make it harder than any one alone.
4. Why do coalitions help social movements?
More people and skills, wider support, more votes and voices, and the issue is seen as everyone's concern, not just one group's.
Common mistakes
- Thinking equality and equity mean the same. Equality = same for all; equity = fitted to need.
- Thinking discrimination needs a bad intention. Systemic discrimination can happen with no one meaning harm.
- Treating stereotype and discrimination as the same: a stereotype is an idea; discrimination is an act.
- Thinking privilege means a person never worked hard. It only means some barriers were not in their way.