Complex Identities and
Compassion in Equity
Training
Mónica J. Sánchez-Flores
Thompson Rivers University
Sociology and Anthropology Department

Equity Training
Teaching about awareness of:
 The different sources of privilege and
disadvantage that mainstream culture
perpetuates
 People’s own complex social locations
 How to engage in a constant self-reflective
effort to work towards equity in our
everyday interactions amid diversity
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Sociological Perspective

Public issues vs. personal troubles

Social structure vs. Individual agency

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Complex Identities
Various dimensions:
 Objective & Subjective
 Privilege & Disadvantage
 Intersectionality: Experience of various
dimensions of disadvantage add up
 Also, individuals may experience privilege
and disadvantage at the same time
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Equality vs. Equity

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Equality vs. Equity

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“Uneven playing field”
The literature confirms that equity
work must recognize that the field is
not even:
Realizing that we can be part of the
system that creates suffering.
Reflecting on our own privilege in an
unequitable world is essential.

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Guilt
Awareness of privilege brings up
feelings of guilt.
For example: Hernández-Wolffe &
McDowell found that family therapists
who worked with people in marginalized
positions had to deal with feelings of
guilt:

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“Increased awareness [of their privilege]
involved personal struggles with guilt”
(2012, p. 175).

Awareness of Privilege
 Requires challenging our own prejudice
 Constantly confirmed by the dominant culture.
 Wide-spread belief in individuality and
meritocracy.

 Guilt may be a signal that may trigger
awareness of privilege.
 But it is not sufficient on its own to elicit
commitment to equity.
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Guilt vs. Compassion
Principled morality
•What is morally
right or wrong?
•Judgemental

Privilege

• Guilt due to
undeserved
privilege

Compassionate morality
•Based on the ideal of
SELF
P

Universal love
•Compassion both for
oppressed and oppressor
• Especially for the
oppressor within oneself

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Disadvantage

Compassion
 Controversial when theorizing about morality
 Central focus of many spiritual traditions

 Central moral philosophers have treated it
critically; e.g. Kant: “this good natured passion
is nevertheless weak and always blind” (cit. by
Goetz et al., 2010)

 Has been described as a “moral barometer”:
closely tracks suffering, responsibility,
vulnerability harm-related concerns; an
intuition that guides us in seeking to remedy
undeserved suffering
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Compassion
 Has been associated to: sympathy, pity,
empathy, kindness, tenderness, warmth,
caring.
 In psychology, it has been generally seen
as a feeling directed to others (see Goetz
et al., 2010).
 I have found it is useful to also pose it as
a feeling directed to one-self in this
context.
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Compassion
 Based on the ideal of universal love.
 A “hermeneutics of the heart,” an understanding of our
shared humanity:
 Modern individual self is posed as rational, powerful, free.

 Actual human beings are vulnerable, fragile, moody and
needy—especially as infants (feminist literature).

 Empowering as a source of courage:
“…managing internalized voices of prejudice that are constantly

reinforced in society… committing to this process takes both
courage and compassion” (Hernandez-Wolfe & McDowell, 2012,
p. 175)

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Compassion for one-self involves:
 Being kind and understanding to oneself:
 To our own suffering or perceived inadequacy.

 A sense of common humanity:
 Suffering, failure and inadequacy as part of the
human condition.

 A balanced awareness of one’s emotions:

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 The ability to “face (rather than avoid) painful
thoughts and feelings, but without exaggeration,
drama or self-pity” (Neff, Rude, & Kirkpatrick, 2007,
908-909).

And all the little monsters said in a chorus:
You must kiss us.
What! You who are evil,
Ugly and uncivil.
You who are cruel,
Afraid and needy,
Uncouth and seedy.
Yes, moody and greedy.
Yes, you must bless us.
But the evil you do,
The endless ado.
Why bless you?
You are composed of such shameful stuff.
Because, said the monsters beginning to laugh,
Because, they said cheering up.
You might as well. You are part of us.
Suniti Namjoshi
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(cited by Warner, 1994, xvii)

Why Self-Compassion in Equity
Work?
 Perceived inadequacy in having internalized:
 Prejudices in the dominant culture and assumptions that
we deserve our privilege.

 Common humanity:
 Equality in common human condition, forgiveness and less
judgmental attitude towards one-self (Neff, 2003).

 Objective approach to our own emotions (mindfulness):
 Without this approach there is a non-acceptance of our
negative emotions (to ourselves, but also to others).

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Also Compassion Directed at Others
 Judgment allows hierarchies and orders of
desert.
 Compassion overcomes our meritocratic
impulses.
 An expansive individual self.
 Compassion for the oppressor.
 Freedom from hate and fear.
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Equity Training—The Project
 An equity workshop designed under the principle of
compassionate morality and complex identities (20
workshop participants and 20 non-workshop
participants)
 This project will follow a qualitative research
methodology (open-ended questionnaire responses and
semi-structured interviews
 Analysis of research data will include a mixture of apriori
categories and grounded theory methods
 Can the principle of compassionate morality in an
intersectional framework in equity training make
participants more responsive to the ideas of equity and
fairness than a guilt-based judgemental orientation?
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REFERENCE LIST:
Goetz, J.L., Keltner, D., Simon-Thomas, E. (2010). Compassion: An
evolutionary analysis and empirical review. Psychological
Bulletin, 136(3), 351-374.
Hernandez-Wolfe, P. and McDowell, T. (2012). Speaking of privilege:
Family therapy educators’ journeys toward awareness and
compassionate action. Family Process, 51, 163-178.
Neff, K. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of
a healthy attitude toward oneself. Psychology Press, 2, 85-101.
Neff, K. D., Rude, S. S., Kirkpatrick, K. L. (2007). An examination of
self-compassion in relation to positive psychological functioning
and personality traits. Journal of Research in Personality, 41,
908-916.
Sánchez-Flores, M. J. (2010). Cosmopolitan liberalism: Expanding
the boundaries of the individual. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Warner, M. (1994). Managing monsters; six myths of our time.
London: Vintage.
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