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More handpicked essays just for you.
Theorizing intersectionality
Oppression and inequality
Gender and race discrimination
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The article “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppression” by Audre Lorde explains that fact that there are no factors or boundaries that stop oppression. Lorde mentions that she as people in order to tackle a problem we go by one issue first then the next. However, she explains that every issue is interconnected with each other for example, in her situation she is black and a lesbian but both come in to play in all the groups she pertains in. Therefore, in both the communities they see her as vice versa. Lorde tries to emphasize that neither of the aspects that make up her identity are less or more important but equally accepted. In conclusion, Lorde wants society to stop treating just one particular oppression as more important than another because that will not us to come together and fight oppression. Instead, we should treat all oppressions as one in order to achieve change. This article relates to the institutions, privilege, and the bootstrap myth that was talked about in Chapter 2. It relates to how society is …show more content…
institutionalized because like Lorde had mentioned that by weighing on oppression higher than the other it is keeping us separated just as the institutions are. Some people who were born with privilege do not see the advantages they have nor seek to comprehend the oppression that exist in society and how it affects us. Lorde persuades society to get together and see all oppressions as one in order to fight against it and I feel that those who are privileged should use their advantage to make others aware. The bootstrap myth is almost the same concept from institutions because it keeps us of different classes against one another. I personally can relate to the article “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppression,” by Audre Lorde because of my ethnicity and status as a minority.
I am a Mexican American in the eyes of the American society. As a child, I have always been aware that my treatment was particularly different than that of friends whom were black and white. Despite the fact that I was born in the United States and lived here all my life, it was always assumed up into Middle School that I only spoke Spanish. As a result of this, I would have to go to ESL a program that would help students learn English. I knew perfect English and wondered why is it necessary for me to feel different from that of my friends. Another factor that has made me feel oppressed like Lorde as a Mexican American is my skin color. However, now that I have read Lorde’s article I come to understand that neither aspect that makes who I am is less or more important and that I should accept it because that is who I
am.
I can personally resonate with Anzaldua is trying to convey to her audience. Although I identify as heterosexual Latino male Anzaldua sums it perfectly, in the following quote. "If you're a person of color, those expectations take on more pronounced nuances due to the traumas of racism and colonization"(65
In May 2014, Time.com published an article that would soon become the source of no small amount of social contention (1). In the article, “Dear Privileged-at-Princeton: You. Are. Privileged. And Meritocracy Is a Myth,” author Briana Payton lashes out at classmate Tal Fortgang for an article he wrote a month prior (1). Payton, a freshman studying sociology at Princeton University and the political antithesis of Fortgang, takes issue with her classmates’ definition of the word “privilege” (1). She argues that, because Fortgang is white, society inherently affords him “privilege” (Payton 1). Payton’s main flaw is her tone — her condescending, demeaning, and arrogant rhetoric distracts from her content and diminishes her credibility. Conversely,
The book deals with several sociological issues. It focuses on poverty, as well as s...
Audre Lorde wrote the famous poem, There Is No Hierarchy In Oppression, because she thought that attacks on lesbian woman and gay men were a black issue. She thought this because thousands of men and women were gay or lesbian. In her poem, she discusses the importance of recognition, acceptance, and celebration of these various subjectivities, both in terms of her own well-being, and in terms of social cohesion. In her poem, it says, “From my memberships in all these groups, I have learned that oppression and the intolerance of difference comes in all shapes, sex, colors, and personalities; and that among of those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchy of oppression.” She is saying that with her experiences, she discovered that anyone could discover oppression
Inequality, itself, may seem like an aspect that is surrounding the academic subject of history. An American economist, Paul Krugman, substantiates that inequality exists within our society through connections to several important historical movements. “One of the best arguments I’ve ever seen for the social costs came from a movement [...].” (Page 562) He implies how inferior inequality could be, and discusses why he along with a wide array of an American audience, may give some attention to its rising. Krugman makes “Confronting Inequality,” interesting, challenging, and enjoyable. This author approaches the audience by giving a powerful inception, and appealing to the senses of ethos and pathos.
Returning to his old high school after having had graduate ten years ago, Shamus Rahman Khan came in with one goal: to study the inequality of a school that claims to be more “diverse.” St. Paul’s School located in Concord, New Hampshire claims to have become more diverse over the years, accepting people of different racial backgrounds and social classes to their prestigious boarding school. However, as described in his book, Khan found that this claim made by the school is false. He also found out that the elite that used to attend his school is not the same as the elite attending it now. Nonetheless, it was the elite that were succeeding because they were the ones who could afford the school, had family linages that already attended the school, and mastered “ease” which made them privileged in society. Separating his book into five different chapters, each focusing on a different topic that helps support his claim, Khan describes this change in elite and the inequality that still accompanies St. Paul’s. In the introduction to Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, Khan states the three most important points he will refer to during the rest of the book: hierarchies are natural and can be used to one’s advantage, experiences matter more than inherited qualities, and the elite signal their status through ease and openness. These are discussed thoroughly in throughout Privilege.
Throughout history, there have been many types of oppression. Oppression occurs when someone is viewed as a lesser human in a way that makes the suppressor feel superior (Oppression, slide 5 and 6). Always, the person who is doing the suppressing is viewed as the terrible human being. However, humans are equally guilty when they sit back and do not do anything. Doing nothing is a way of encouraging the oppression that is occurring. The only way to change the cycle of oppression is speaking up and out against what is wrong. Thus, binary ideology can only be challenged when the individual silence is broken; the effect will be the increased visibility of others.
According to Anzaldua, “ Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish”(Anzaldua 32). The Chicano Spanish versus Spanish conflict that occurs in Latino society is a prime example of people considering themselves to be right in a situation where there is not a right answer. The Latino’s who speak Spanish that they believe to be normal are disturbed by the Spanish language changing. They believe that their own views are being challenged, they believe that they are correct, and they believe that anyone who challenges their views is inferior. The people who view all other views are, in reality, just trying to make themselves look more powerful. Like in Tan’s essay, people demeaned others in order to promote their own views, therefore, gaining power over the others who they demeaned. According to Tan, “ She said they would not give her any more information(...) And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect english-- lo and behold-- we had assurances the CAT scan would be found”(Tan 2). The doctors treated Tan’s mother differently due to her use of what they considered “broken language”, leading to her being treated inadequately. People have an image of what they consider to be the right English, anyone who does not speak the right English is usually considered to be uneducated. In both Tan’s and Anzaldua’s essays, the lack of open-mindedness is one of the reasons that people want to become more powerful than others. People fail to realize that what they believe in is not always the right answer, like with stereotypes, the people are trying to gain power over others in order to make themselves seem more
Internalized racism has hit the individual level where half of all Hispanics consider themselves as white. One Mexican American asserted that he felt “shame and sexual inferiority…because of my dark complexion.” He also described himself with “disgust” loathing his appearance when he sees himself in the mirror. Stereotypes play a huge role in the Latino culture in the U.S where often the usual stereotype is that Latinos are job-stealers, uneducated, poor and illegal. “Envidia” or jealousy sabotages the Latino community because Latinos begin to question the qualifications of other successful Latinos. No one has the positive thought that Latinos can achieve and triumph in any field; they just can’t believe that. Latinos just stamp other Latinos with those stereotypes Americans say. Because of internalized racism, Latinos and Hispanics distance themselves from the Spanish language to support the English only movement. They are embarrassed of their inherited language and rather choose English to complete assimilation. “Almost 40% of Latino/a respondents prefer English as their dominant language…” (Padilla 20). Where I currently live, I always see on the day to day basis Hispanics and Latinos that immigrated to the United States from other countries sounding “white.” I speak to Hispanics; even Latinos in Spanish and they respond
The book Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson (2001) was the first that we were assigned, and the basis in which my ability to question what the author is saying, in relation to my own experiences. T...
The way I have come to understand what the Matrix of Privilege and Oppression means, is that everyone everywhere feels both privilege and oppression at the same time, and how much they feel of it depends on where they are on the scale of oppression and what position in society that they are in. This could mean that a Black man whom is judged by his skin color every day and it heavily oppressed in many ways, ends up getting into a college over a white man because of the school wanting to be a more diverse campus. The white man does not get judged by his skin color on a regular basis, but it did not work out well for him while applying to schools.
Oppression in America originally was just due to someone’s race or color but now it has
Oppression is this and so much more than what Ben Harper wrote in his song. Oppression is an unjust or cruel exercise or action of power. Everyone experiences oppression at least once in his or her lives. We have only recently begun to fight the effects of oppression, to gain freedom in our world. Oppression divides us to keep us from maintaining our freedom, what little of it we have. Oppression is completely based on hatred and preys on you when you sleep, or when you are at your lowest point. It kicks you when you are down, and pushes you further down the rabbit’s hole. It forces you to fight when you are the weakest and will take your very last breath. It takes one problem and snowballs until you can not take it anymore. We can learn to fight oppression, if we only make ourselves aware.
Although reasons for this privileging may vary widely, the oppression that characterizes contemporary societies is most forcefully reproduced when those victimized by violence and subjugated by oppression accept their social status as natural, necessary, or inevitable. Oppression has many faces so that focusing on one strand, such as gender oppression, at the expense of others, such as class or race, disregards the intersectionality of oppression that Patricia Hill Collins refers to as the matrix of domination. Each particular form of privilege is part of a much larger system of oppressive strands of domination. This is demonstrated in the first chapter of‘ A tale of two cities’ by Charles Dickens basically in France, the ruling class of aristocrats has oppressed the people for so long that many are starving. The peasants are treated cruelly by the corrupt ruling class, which lives in lavish opulence. In England, an aristocracy also rules, and the harsh punishments meted out are a measure of the government's oppression of its people. Both countries are reaping what they have sowed, as a band of revolutionaries in each country is resorting to violence to overthrow the ruling classes. In addition, social policies are implicated in the reproduction of systems of class, race, and gender oppression. Social policies may open access on the basis of some categories for example race and gender, but at the same time foreclose access to others on the basis of other attributes such as sexual orientation, perceived or actual disability,
As those interactions between different identities are being discriminated from other groups, and consider as a person without any equal rights or recognition. Being a Hispanic, low-class, or getting an education, it showed how we can change the society with our appearances, or allowing us to ignore the comments and fight against discrimination. By all means, people are more than a simple category or label, they are human beings that want to be recognized by others and see how stop racism, or any