The reading I chose is “Race, Class, and Gender” written by: Patricia Hill Collins. She begins with a short paragraph that helped me develop a new way of thinking and seeing things. She talks about how it is easy to see how women are oppressed that is, if you are a woman. It’s easy to see how blacks are oppressed, that is, once again if you are African American. However, no matter what category you fall into, its much harder for us to see how we could potentially be oppressing others. Collins argues that there needs to be a change, a change that alters our conception of race, class and gender. Something that is not based on the hierarchies of oppression.
Collins claims we need two things to get the “piece of oppressor which is planted deep within each of us”. She begins with referring to her first paragraph on how we need a new vision of what oppression is. What needs to be done is the removal of “I’m more oppressed than you” because it locks us into a dangerous area of competing for attention. Collins transitions to the body of her work on how we can transcend; the barriers created by our experience with race. So, how can we reconceptualize race, class, and gender as categories of analysis? We must move our discourse away rom additive analyses of oppression. This has two premises. First Collins talks about the fact that they depend on either/or their opposites, like black or white, mand or women. Secondly on how the premise of additive analyses of oppression is that these dichotomous differences must be ranked.
One side is typically labeled dominant and the other not. Like men are over women and whites rule blacks. Collins takes this and successfully leads this into how the assumption that oppression can be quantified. Collins talked about how she is frequently asked which has been the most oppressive to her, a status of being black, or the status of a women. What’s really happening is she is being split into smaller parts and to rank statuses of herself. Something interesting this comes up is the example of being and African American woman and how they are the most oppressed over everyone else. Reason being is majority of black women experience the negative effects of race, class, and gender oppression all at the same time. Thus, gaining some sort of grand oppression. Collins moves into new visions of what oppression is and how it is necessary to ask new questions like, “How are relationships of combination and subordination structured and maintained in the American political economy? “How do race, class and gender function as parallel and interlocking systems that shape this basic relationship of domination and subordination?” These are the questions that moose us away from futile struggles that rank oppressions and assume race, class and gender.
The Institution Dimension of Oppression – Hardin’s contention that gender oppression is structured along three main dimensions, those being institutional, the symbolic and the individual. This offers a model for a more comprehensive analysis with race, class and gender oppression. Next Collins moves into how race, gender and class interlock with each other. She uses slavery as an example. Slavery was suggested as a race, class and gender specific institution, a patriarchal institution. There is a very interesting chain of command on the plantation, the white master as the obvious patriarch, his wide to help and server him, and his faithful servants’ production that was tied to the requirements of the capitalist political economy. The foundation for the roles of the elite white women, poor black women, working class white men, and a series of other groups can be seen in relief in this American social institution.
The symbolic dimension of oppression – Collins talks about basic masculine and feminine stereotypes and how it’s the central process of societal-sanctioned ideologies used to justify relations of domination. Using this list, she reveals the interlocking nature of race, class and gender. I really like how she concludes things with “I am not suggesting that people are doomed to follow the paths laid out for them by race, class and gender as categories of analysis”
I’d like to begin with Collins conclusion. I believe most, actually, are doomed to follow the paths laid out for them by race, class, and gender. Beginning with race. In my History class with Doctor Douglas Harvey, (if I’m correct the other professor on your study abroad trip) we began the semester with a reading by W.E.B. Du Bois’. Du Bois’ talks about the dual Identity of being black and American. He coins the phrase double consciousness. This means you always looks at yourself through the eyes of others. Relating to this is “The Veil”, which is the lack of African American’s to see themselves outside of what white America Describes them as. Things like this are still around. In situations like this, and in the early 1900’s you weren’t aloud to chose if you followed the path of race, gender, or class. This path was something that you were taught like a one-way road. You were not allowed to think for yourself and you could only see yourself as other saw you, which based on my experience is still around to this day.
A great recent example of this would be the short film we watched in class about deviance with Victor Rios. The relationship between the police, teachers and authority to the students, kids, and anyone else was a lot like this. Everyone was a criminal, and as time went on people began to believe it themselves, unwillingly going down the path that they aren’t “doomed to take”. Another great example is our recent discussion in class about how African American parents must have a specific talk to their kids when they begin driving. The talk I’m 100% sure none of us white kids got. This talk being how to comply with police officers when driving/pulled over. Obviously, this is a reasonable talk, but it forces the child down the path laid out for him. How can we not say people aren’t doomed to go down a path of either race, gender, or class, when in some instances it literally has to do with their safety?
I believe a huge part of going down that said path has to do with stereotypes inflicted on you by your parents. It becomes difficult to develop a new way of thinking and seeing things. It is unfortunate how most of our paths come predetermined based on race, class, and gender. The second you even try to change your path in my generation it will be shut down if you publicly voice it. With the new music, the things that go on during school, it’s almost like its promoted to go the way your supposed to. It’s in our blood to separate, and it spreads like a disease.
I’ll never forget how the cafeteria looked every day, same people, same chairs, same time, and for the most part even same race. Something I never understood is how angry and upset people got when a “group” was breached. I guess something I could never wrap my head around was if you try to look past physical features or unchangeable features, you’re the odd one out. I think it gets to the point were in this time you can’t do anything right when it comes to it. A perfect example of this is the Fisher vs University of Texas. This was something discussed in one of my high school classes, where a student was denied entry to the University of Texas because she was white, yes white. The University of Texas had a eight percent in-state spot reserved for special circumstances, these included things like family background, socioeconomic status and you guessed it, race. The issue here that the student, Abigail Fisher was denied admission because she did not posses one of those things listed above. So now we have a student taking the University of Texas to court because she was white.
