POWER Source

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009  "Sibley Sunrise"

"Power":
or when is it errr, "KaPOW"?

There's a positive side, and a negative view of "Power" and how leaders use its many elements. 

Thinking about diversity, racism, white privilege, discrimination (which will be discussed at our November CLD)
... a number of terms come to mind. 

These are all associated in some way with "power", or the lack of power...

In her thesis, "Making Meaning of Whiteness: Explorations by White Community College Faculty, Frances Trowsse offers these definitions for our understanding of "the basics":

Stereotype:  "A false or generalized conception of a group of people that results in an unconscious or conscious categorization of each member of that group, without regard for individual differences." (Henry 7&Tator, 2006)

Oppression:  "The domination of certain individuals or groups by others through the use of physical, psychological, social, cultural, or economic force." (sic)

Marginal:  "The status of groups who do not have full and equal access to the social, economic, cultural or political institutions of society." (sic)

Racism:  ""Everyday racism involves the many and sometimes small ways in which racism is experienced by people of colour in their interactions with the dominant White group.  It expresses itself in glances, gestures, forms of speech, and physical movements.  Sometimes it is not even consciously experienced by its perpetrators, but it is immediately and painfully felt by its victims."  (sic)

Systemic Racism:  "Racism that consists of policies and practices, entrenched in established institutions, that result in exclusion or advancement of specific groups of people." (sic)

So what about "Power" itself?

Gloria Steinam says:  "A river of Truth ends at a dam of bias - Truth floods and moves on."

Stacy Schiff writes:  "Is it possible for a woman to weild power without reference to her gender?  Can she prove herself competent, effective, articulate without being dismissed as either a bimbo or a bitch? 

Power has for so long been a male construct that it distorted the shape of the first women who tried it on, only to find themselves in a sort of straight-jacket.  Powerful women were caricatures of their male counterparts.  No wonder early feminists hoped the concept of power would vanish entirely when women ran the world."

"Money has no power of its own.  You alone are the power source." says Suze Orman.

"Real power," states Martha Beck, "is usually unspectacular, a simple setting aside of fear that allows the free flow of love.  But it changes everything."

What do YOU think?  What's your definition and how does "power" show its face in your work and life?  Send a comment: click on the link at http://www.xowhat.blogspot.com/

PS:  Remember to reflect on the power of nature's sunrises, sunsets and seasons...

- Maggie