2-4 Power

Power is an important topic to explore because it is present in all human interactions. Hierarchies exist across all groups and societies, and within these hierarchical structures, there are certain levels of privilege provided to certain members. Generally speaking, group members with the most power determine the behaviors and communication system that will be the norm for the rest of the group.

Whether unconscious or conscious, group members with the most power create and maintain systems that reflect, reinforce, enforce, and promote their own ways of thinking and communicating, and hinder others who do not have the same ways of behaving or communicating. Group-related power comes in two forms (this expands on 1-4 – The Multicultural Self):

• The first involves membership in involuntary groups based on age, gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, physical ability and is more permanent in nature.
• The second involves membership in more voluntary groups based on appearance, geographic location, education, work experience, religion, habits, family status, and income, and is more changeable.

Power not only comes from individuals and their identities, but also from institutions and the roles people play within them. If you are sitting in a classroom now, your instructor is in a position of power. The instructor creates / delivers the curriculum, sets objectives, assesses you, and provides standards on classroom behavior.

Power isn’t one-way though. As a student, you can choose to drop a class, or evaluate the instructor based on performance - you have some negotiating power. In addition, the classroom power relationship generally stays in the classroom. The person behind the instructor role will not carry the same amount of power in other settings – what if you ran into your instructor while having dinner at a nearby restaurant?

On a broader level, power can come from larger entities that reinforce and promote an image of what an individual, community, or society should be or be like. Notions of beauty, health, success, and happiness are communicated to us through the power of industries and the media (and most notably, social media). We are provided with standards so we can ‘learn’ how to feel and look better. We have the power to resist at varying levels, but the messages come to us at both conscious and unconscious levels, and as such become ingrained and ‘accepted’ by the group / society.

All power levels are developed and maintained by and for the dominant cultural groups and because of this, they can perpetuate their positions of privilege – favoring members of the dominant group, and downplaying issues within subordinate groups. This isn’t to say that these subordinate groups don’t have the power to counter the dominant groups. Depending on the context, they may be able to use political and legal means to challenge the dominant norms, protest, form unions, and make decisions on what to buy, what media to subscribe to, and what actions to take.

Power is complex, because it involves inequality at all levels, can be temporary or permanent, based on ascribed or achieved status, and carries through from the interpersonal to the institutional. Power is also inescapable because it takes place within all cultural interactions.