The purpose of this assignment is to allow student the opportunity to demonstrate and understanding of power, privilege, and structural inequality. Many societies are built on developing and maintaining unfair advantages for some members and creating barriers for others.

Power and privilege dominate in these marginalized societies where individuals experience dimensions of oppression that are critical for social work students to understand social injustice. In order to conceptualize oppression, it is important to analyze the impact of power and privilege, the social construction and intersectionality of race, gender, socioeconomic status, ability, age and sexual orientation (social identity groups).

This assignment requires students to focus on several social identity groups: identity groups that are dominant (privilege) in this society and those that are subordinate (oppressed or disadvantaged). Throughout this module particular ways in which intergroup relations (relations between different groups) was characterized by domination and subordination. In thinking about the various groups that we are or have identified ourselves as part of, we realize that we can be members of both dominant (privileged) and subordinate groups (oppressed or disadvantaged)