Visibilize-ing Care_ Know Your Stuff_ Community Care and Addressing Microaggressions March 5, 2026 P
Welcome!
Please: Find a seat, Make a nametag, Help yourself to snacks, Get present.
Know Your Stuff: Community Care and Addressing Microaggressions
March 5, 2026
Anthony Wilder, Elizabeth Moyeno, Kelcia Younis & Tamara Oyola-Santiago
● Introduction
Agenda - Part 1
● Why anti-oppression work is critical
● The Words We Use ● What Now? ● Closing
Agreements
● One mic
● Move up, Move up & Honor silence
● Practice active listening
● Limit cell phones/texting to breaks
● Cultivate a brave space
● Suspend status
● No one knows everything, everyone knows something, together we know a lot
● We can’t be articulate all the time
● “I” statements
● Don’t assume identity
● Ask questions
● Recognize intent, address impact
● Confidentiality
● Take care of yourself and each other
Who’s here?
Name Program / Department
One thing about me that you can’t tell just from looking at me is__________.
This is important because_________.
Why
are we here?
Context
The New School is an institution that (intentionally or not) replicates the power dynamics and injustice that we see in greater society.
Goal
Learn about power, privilege, and oppression.
● Focus on microaggression as a manifestation of oppression we strive to recognize, address and eradicate.
Why is this goal important?
Why is it important to learn about power, privilege, and oppression?
- To you/your role - To our institution and community
The Words We Use
Power
The capacity to exercise control over others and influence their behavior, to control material and intellectual resources, and to control the course of events.
Privilege
UNEARNED ADVANTAGE/ACCESS
Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels and gives advantages, favors, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups.
Oppression
= DISCRIMINATION + POWER
The combination of discrimination and power creates a system that discriminates against some groups (often called “target groups”) and benefits other groups (often called “dominant groups”).
Systematic subjugation of a group of people by another group with access to social power and simultaneously benefits one group over the other.
Oppression manifests on different levels (interpersonal, institutional, cultural) and across multiple, interlocking systems.
Community Care
A shared, collective action that binds individual well-being to the a group. It is rooted in traditions of care within BIPOC and QTBIPOC communities, emphasizing interdependence rather than individual resilience.
It entails leveraging personal privilege to create systems of mutual aid, addressing intergenerational trauma, and fostering safety, moving beyond individualism to collective, sustainable action.
Community care focuses on the connections, intentional actions, and efforts to mobilize individuals to support one another.
Social Identity Pie
***Do this activity in the context of The New School
Reflection Questions
● What did the activity feel like for you?
● What are some questions or concerns that were raised as you completed your pie?
● Thinking forward: how does this activity and awareness connect to community of care through an anti-oppression lens?
Intersectionality
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
Inequities are never the result of single, distinct factors. Rather, they are the outcome of intersections of different social locations, power relations, and experiences (positional).
As a number of non-dominant identities co-exist, a compounding effect of oppression occurs that further hinders the social mobility of the individual.
● What do identity and intersectionality have to do with community care?
● What does an ideal community of care look like for you in your personal and professional lives (informed by how your intersectional identities influence how you show up in these spaces)?
Join us! Part 2
Thursday,April 9 4:00 -5:30PM
66 West 12th Street, Room 404
Topics:
● Iceberg of oppression
● What are microaggressions?
● How we address them?
● How do we create a university community of empowered bystanders?
