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Oppression and discrimination
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Qualitative and quantitative research methods
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The sociological issue depicted in this video, Separate and Unequal, is the topic of the intersectionality. Intersectionality is defined as “…the idea that members of any given minority group are affected by the nature of their position in other arrangements of social inequality” (Ritzer 230). There are two types of intersectionality, the matrix of oppression and the matrix of power and advantage. In particular, this video depicts how individuals are affected by the matrix of oppression. One is oppressed when they are part of a minority group of a society. When one is a part of several different minority groups such as, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, social class, or religion, they are considered to be in a matrix of oppression. …show more content…
The disadvantages multiply when a person is associated with several minority groups. This video takes place in the town of Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson is primarily a black community that is overwhelmed by poverty. People in Jackson that are affected by racism and poverty are in the matrix of oppression. The social issue of the matrix of oppression is negatively affecting many people, especially the citizens of Jackson.
Due to poverty, the town struggles with illegal issues such as violence and drugs. Racism gives these citizens a lack of opportunity. Any successful families that live in Jackson move out to get away from the environment, which leaves a lack of role models for the impoverished black citizens. Many young African Americans at Lanier high school in Jackson struggle in school. The boys who struggle in school eventually end up in the streets. The mayor of Jackson believes the African American community is in trouble. A white teacher at Lanier says that the kids have a lack of respect for themselves, their peers, and their professors. This could be due to the culture these citizens are immersed in. For example, Manuel is a student at Lanier high school. His mother is a struggling drug addict. His grandmother also has problems staying afloat because her only income is from social security. Manuel was the tallest basketball player on the team at school. He had the potential to go very far with his basketball skills. However, he had troubles in school. Due to missing too many practices, he was cut off of the basketball team. His troubles worsened and he was constantly late for school. Manuel and his family are a prime example of how the matrix of oppression negatively affects minority …show more content…
groups. The best sociological theories that could be used to explain this issue would be the conflict theory or the critical theory.
The conflict theory focuses on the sources of conflict within a society. For instance, how poverty causes various problems for citizens in Jackson. There is not much that these impoverished citizens can do because they feel they are stuck in this position. The critical theory focuses on the negative effects of an aspect as well but it focuses on culture rather than economy. In particular, some people still argue that race still matters and negatively affect blacks and others. In this video, it shows that racism is still affecting blacks and black citizens find it hard to better their situation.
The best sociological method to use in studying something like this would be the quantitative research method. The quantitative research method is used for macro studies because it involves data on groups of people to observe social aspects. The conflict and critical theories focus on macro studies. In particular, it would be best to use descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics is numerical data that is often used to compare differences between groups. In this case, it would be beneficial to compare income differences between black and white groups to research the phenomenon of
racism. I have come to the conclusion that the issues in the matrix of oppression need to be fixed. People that belong to several minorities groups often feel like they cannot better themselves. They are a victim of the system. Specifically, in this video, victims of poverty and racism are oppressed. It is important that impoverished citizens feel the need to better themselves and increase their style of living. Not only would this help them, it would also help the nation’s economy. As for racism, it is important that everyone receives the same opportunities. If people feel less oppressed, they often feel more motivated to help themselves. A way society could fix this problem is with programs that help young black students stay on track in school and other areas. If these students do better in school, they could continue their education and eventually make more money for themselves later in life.
In many contemporary spaces, intersectionality is taught and consumed as a static concept of merely listing identities carried by one person simultaneously. It’s used more often as a checklist than a place of analysis or resistance. However, the use of intersectionality as just an apolitical tool, rather than a theory born from the knowledge of Black women experiencing a “triple jeopardy” of oppression and seeking liberation by deconstructing the institutions that bind them, is reductionist at best. In “Intersectionality is Not Neutral”May communicates that intersectionality pushes us to question and challenge the relatively mundane or acceptable norms in society that lend themselves to a continuous legacy of systemic inequality.
In the world of sociology and the studies of human interaction, the term intersectionality has been defined as, “the idea that various biological, social, and cultural categories – including gender, race, class, and ethnicity – interact and contribute towards systematic social inequality” (“Definition of Intersectionality – Sociology”). However, as Dr. White defined the term on the Spring 2014 Final Writing Assignment sheet, these categories that make up one’s identity can “intersect or interact in ways that can either advantage or disadvantage the person’s well-being and development” (White). In regards to the text, David M. Newman’s Identities & Inequalities: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality, Newman progressively explores the concept of intersectionality throughout the entirety of the text, but he does not ever actually define the term itself. Although an exact, clear-cut definition of the term “intersectionality” has not been officially established, the concept of the term is fairly simple to understand. Every person has different social identities that they carry to their name. Intersectionality is simply an analysis of how those different identities play off of each other and how they affect the person they are describing.
Conflict Theory is a theoretical orientation emphasizing the opposition among individuals, groups, or social structures. In the movie, the conflict theory was the black community verses the white community. For example, in the movie, Vernon Johns decided to enter a restaurant that was labeled whites only. As a black man by law he was not allowed to enter. At his own risk, he went inside anyways. As he entered, the white people inside suddenly stopped what they were doing. They all stared him down with an unwelcoming look. They shouted racial slurs at him as he sat down at the counter. There was a conflict between the two communities all because of the color of their skin
This essay will be unpacking and analysing the different elements that create my own intersectionality in my life. This essay will be discussing how class, gender/sex and race have influenced who I am and the experiences I have had throughout my life, and how various structures impact these experiences, with reference to the Crenshaw and Dill and Zambara articles, I will connect their thoughts and ideas to the intersectionality of my own life.
Society is based on two groups the people the haves and the have-nots. In the movie Glory Road, the Caucasians are the haves and the African-Americans are the have-nots. The beliefs of a conflict theorist are that there is competition for scarce resources, some form of inequality to maintain, and social change comes about because of the conflicts (Brinkerhoff 10-11).
...and ethnic minorities must assimilate into that society (Andersen and Taylor, 2013). Symbolic interactionism looks at two issues in relation to race and ethnicity. They first look at the role of social interaction and how it reduces racial and ethnic hostility. Second, they look at how race and ethnicity are socially constructed. Finally, conflict theorists present the argument that class-based conflict is an inherent and fundamental part of society (Giddens, 1996). So, the argument would be that racial and ethnic conflict is tied to class conflict and that in order to reduce racial and ethnic conflict, class conflict must first be reduced. For the sake of this study and argument, I will continue with a focus on the conflict and functionalist theorists perspectives because I feel they provide the most modern insightful outlooks into this present form of inequality.
In relation to the Critical Race Theory, the idea of the “gap between law, politics, economics, and sociological reality of racialized lives” (Critical Race Theory slides). The critical race theory gives us a guide to analyze privileges and hardships that comes across different races and gender. For example, analyzing how and why a “black” or “indigenous” woman may experience more hardships versus not only a “white” man, but a “white”
Intersectionality is a term used to describe a situation whereby an individual has multiple identities and as result, the person feels that he or she doesn’t belong to one community or another. Because of the many conflicts in an individual’s identities, he or she could be a victim of multiple threats of discrimination (Williams, 2017). The discrimination could be a result of race, gender, age, health and ethnicity among others. To give an example, a black transgender woman could be discriminated in the workplace because of being black and also because she is transgender. From an intersectionality perspective, the woman faces multiple threats of discrimination because of the overlapping identities of gender and race and therefore the transwoman faces a bigger struggle (Barber, 2017). Transwomen of color will most likely encounter prejudices in the form of homophobia, racism or sexism in many dimensions of their life. The perspective of intersectionality is not only applicable to women but it can also be applied to males. For example, a gay Latino man could be discriminated based on race because he is an immigrant into
In the story, A Social Worker’s Reflection on Power, Privilege, and Oppression, Michael S. Spencer touches on some very important details when it comes to oppression, power, and privilege of different groups. The impacted groups can include those made up of people who are racially diverse, those who are a different gender or those who are part of the LGBT community. (Spencer) Each of these groups can experience oppression in different ways. When it comes to people with a different color
Crenshaw explains the concept of intersectionality as a description of the way different types of oppression can be experienced by one person all at once. She uses the analogy of traffic at an intersection to explain intersectionality. Consider a situation where there is traffic in a four-way intersection where the traffic is coming from all four directions. Discrimination is each flow of traffic. If an accident happens in that intersection, it could be caused by cars traveling from any one of those directions or from all directions. Crenshaw’s central argument is that Black women in particular are discriminated against in ways that often do not fit neatly within the legal categories they are often put in and because of this legal and institutionalized framework, Black women are often rendered legally “invisible”. Crenshaw describes several discrimination-based lawsuits to illustrate how Black women’s complaints often fall between the cracks precisely because they are discriminated against both as women and as black persons. The ruling in one such case, DeGraffenreid v. General Motors, filed by five Black women in 1976, demonstrates this point
Intersectionality was one of the greatest concepts this course shed light on, intersectionality is can be broadly defined as the coming together of various social groups to work together to fight against forms of oppression. In the conceptual frameworks portion of the book Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, they talk about the importance of privileged identities and disadvantaged identities coming together to work towards solving a particular issue. While before taking this course I was somewhat aware of the various forms of oppression, I never gave much thought to how I could help combat forms of oppression that I did not necessarily experience with my own identity.
In Kimberle Crenshaw's definition of intersectionality there are three different aspects that make up the term, separated as followed: Structural, Political, and Representational. In this essay, I will first explain Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality. I will then explain how intersectionality contributes to Critical Race Theory in furthering the critical understanding of law, mainly by using her examples of violence against women of color. I will also provide my own examples of intersectionality, which is the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster as it supports Crenshaw's understanding and the notion of identity politics she addressed.
We live in a world full of many societal issues. The aspects that determine whether one will have a successful or unsuccessful life is due to their characteristics such as race, gender, and social status. In the book Is Everyone Really Equal, Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo’s exigence is to express the following issues and to encourage the reader to work upon changing the world through social injustice, oppression, power, and community.
This builds upon the previous pieces by McIntosh and DiAngelo because these papers mostly rely on race as the primary category and Hills-Collins highlights that gender and class area also salient categories when describing systems of oppression. Dichotomous thinking in relies on categories and schemas and reduces the complexity of the systems of oppression and people’s true experiences. Therefore, Hills-Collins recommends considering how our race, class, and gender are interlocking to contribute to our positions as oppressors and the oppressed, to build coalitions around common causes, and to build empathy for both our oppressors and those we