Date of Completion
Spring 5-24-2018
Document Type
Open Access Capstone
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Peter J. Taylor
Abstract
While many white individuals in America are antiracist in their attitudes, many are not. This makes conversations with whites around race a delicate space: addressing an imbalance of privilege with those who benefit from it. Additionally, to not alienate whites from antiracist causes by associating them with a historical identity seeped in racism calls for its own nuance. The project described in this thesis looks to address these concerns by providing whites with a roadmap for personal growth consisting of various identities for addressing bias, discrimination, and oppression in honest and proactive ways. The delivery of these identities could be done directly, but, for reasons stated, it instead utilizes the neutral context of “general bias and discrimination” in a mass-briefing medium. Other mediums for delivering the roadmap that allow for an explicit education on white racism in the U.S. are discussed. To facilitate engagement, the pedagogies here prioritize nonjudgment and exploration in presenting the personal-development roadmap and supporting pedagogy. The roadmap visuals and terms employ a style immensely popular in videogames, hopefully stimulating learners’ interest in the material. There are two primary objectives of this project. The first is motivating whites to learn more about racism in historic, contemporary, and personal terms on their own so they can become active allies to marginalized groups battling oppression. The second objective is for nonwhite individuals, but operates in the same way, prompting them to become allies to those who experience any intersectionality of oppression greater than their own. This thesis labels such intentions “alliance activism,” distinguished by directing activists to look “down” along a spectrum of privilege instead of “up,” and to reflect upon their own experience in order to address their own biases. The overall objective of alliance activism is to strengthen alliances between activist groups.
Recommended Citation
Anker, Erik, "Alliance Activism: Feminist and videogame learning principles in building an identity-based, personal-development roadmap addressing subjective bias and discrimination, delivered in a mass-briefing format using videogame terminology" (2018). Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection. 363.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cct_capstone/363