Do I ever feel I don’t belong or oppressed? Yes, sometime. First, I had felt not belonging because of my race. I am a Chinese, so to many people, I am considered “Asian or Asian American”. Before I started discussing anything, I must say I think just the label itself is oppressive to us because it hides the fact that there is at least seven different Asian American groups within this one population. We are all from different countries in Asia; we speak different languages and have different cultures. This label seems to deny the fact that we are different groups, and this is oppressive because people would just think we don’t have our own cultures, but just this one unifying “Asian culture” (To me, it is more like a stereotyping of Asians).
Some people might think that being called “Asian” is a privilege because the stereotyping being attached seems good or less harmful than stereotyping for other races. However, I strongly disagree because not every Asian is a geek or super good at math or science. One of my own encounter had me recognized that this “good” stereotyping of Asian can be very hurtful. I had a very bad chemistry professor in college; she was very confusing and not so good at explaining things. One time after class I asked her a chemistry question which involves some math knowledge. I listened to her very carefully, but she was being very confusing so I still didn’t quite get it when she finished explaining. She got mad at me for not getting it, and asked me: how can you not get it? Aren’t you Asians all good at math?” I felt very hurt by her comment. I felt this stereotyping is oppressive to those Asians who don’t want to grow up to be a scientist or engineer, because it made us feel like that if we are not scie...
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...many things for the females, such as driving her, paying for her, carrying things for her, and many others. I think this privilege of us females is somewhat an oppression of males today. The males pay rule probably originates from the historical condition that females can’t own properties, so the assumption was that males always have more money than females, thus he should pay for her. However, in today’s world, many females make a lot more money than the males, so this rule is already outdated. However, we can still see this norm being reinforced in our society, so I think this is an oppression of the males. I think this privilege is also a cause for one of my biases against the males who doesn’t drive females or pay for them. I used to think them as “not a gentlemen”, but now to think about it, I was just being biased because I have taken my privilege for granted.
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.
We cannot deny the fact that, as Americans, racial realism has always affected us and our way of thinking. In my personal experience, being an Asian, I have had
...silenced in this country, in order to have voice and be visible in society, one must strive to be a white American. They feel the need to embody and assimilate to whiteness because the white race has a voice and is seen, rather than silenced and unseen, in society. They are privileged with the freedom of not having to cope with the notion of being marked, silent, and unseen in society. This creates pressures for Asian Americans and immigrants to suppress their own cultural identities and assimilate to whiteness in an attempt to potentially be able to prosper and make a life for them in America. Asian Americans feel as though being who they truly are and express their unique cultural identities will alienate themselves even more than they already are.
In the opening chapter of their book, Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge examine the meaning of intersectionality as they apply it to three distinct examples: the FIFA World Cup, a World Congress of Sociology, and the Brazilian festival of Latinidades. Intersectionality, as defined by the authors, refers to “a way of understanding and analyzing the complexity in the world, in people, and in human experiences.” Intersectionality is often used as an analytic tool to better understand the social and political needs of those whose lives are influenced by multiple intersecting identities (i.e. Black feminism is used to call attention to the specific needs of Black women). The idea of structural power is another key component of intersectionality discussed by Hill Collins and Bilge in the chapter. They argue that power is organized in four distinct, interconnected domains (interpersonal, disciplinary, cultural, and structural), and “operates by disciplining people in ways that put people’s lives on paths that makes some options seems viable and others out of reach.” This idea is outlined in the World Cup example as the authors discuss the “pay to play” ideology in soccer that disadvantages those with lower socioeconomic status. At the conclusion of their chapter, Hill Collins and Bilge outline six core ideas that tend to come up when using intersectionality as an analytic
The identities have tended to be divided into some different categories, such as gender, race, and class, and these sources have been judged in the different ways. In other words, the different determinant factors of the individuality have been considered separately, and these components have been regarded as a unrelated simple category. Under these points of view, however, it is hard to recognize the problems of interrelated individual component of the identity. Thus, to solve the disregarding crossover point, the new theory of the “intersectionality” are essential. This essay explores the key definition of the “intersectionality” from the viewpoint of gender studies, and how the concept is connected with the social system and individual identity
If an Asian American is successful and smart, then it must be true about the whole Asian race. It creates false assumptions that every Asian is the same, which can discriminate and stereotype all Asian Americans who don’t belong in the category. This creates an unfair and unjust disadvantage and treatment towards Asian Americans who are targeted as one, in other words, it’s a problem that their needs and aids are ignored by society. According to the Pew Research Center data, recent trends show that Asian Americans are the “the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States” ("The Rise of.”), who overtook Hispanics in the 2010 Census.... ...
How and why does the Model Minority Myth continue to be believed and perpetuated in today’s American society? How do Asian Americans navigate living under the Myth and what are the consequences and effects of those navigations, especially regarding self-identity and mental health? How does the Myth affect the different ethnicities that are grouped under the umbrella term of “Asian”? The Myth was started in the late 1960’s with multiple newspaper articles published about the success of Asian Americans and how that success could be attributed to Asian cultural values. Due to this success, Asian Americans were generalized as a successful minority that did not face discrimination or racism since the Myth was characterized as positive and not hurtful. The Myth has continued to exist and be prevalent today, even with the scholarly understanding that it is indeed a myth. In my paper, I will claim that in order to navigate living under
The media purposely reports about the fact that “[m]ost Asian Americans (49 percent) have college degrees compared with all other U.S. adults (28 percent)” (Lee 376) as well as their ability to “[outscore]outscored other racial groups on the math portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) year after year” (Lee 376). These types of discussions causes people to believe that all Asian Americans succeed academically, which perpetuates the model minority stereotype. Considering the fact that other minoritized groups have negative stigmas, some may argue that Asian Americans should appreciate the positive label, “model minority.” Although a positive stereotype may seem beneficial, it can
In the end, it is up to Asian-Americans to discredit the positive and negative stereotypes. By assimilating with other race groups, Asian-Americans will gain more understanding from their non-Asian peers. In addition, when Asians are more forth-coming with their struggles, it will unmask the myth of perfection and allow others to see them as an individual.
male privilege” (605). The same problem that plagues white privilege, also affects male privilege. Men have certain advantages that put them over women.... ... middle of paper ...
Socio-cultural and socio-economic discriminations faced by North Americans affected by intersectionality and the psychological effects.
Frye describes how a male opening a door for a female is a form of oppression. When a male opens a door for a female, the door represents the idea of “helpfulness,” but it does not show that (Frye 12). Opening a door for a woman shows that woman does not know how to open the door. The males tend to show that they are able and willing to help a woman. However, this causes women to expect the “prince charming,” but men only “make a fuss about being helpful and providing small services when help and services are of little or no use” (Frye 13). The small gestures of help only prove to men that they can provide for women, but they are not helpful enough for women. Men want to show that they are nice, charming, and always there to help the women.
We’ve all heard it said that Asian Americans are good at math; anything involving science, technology, and medicine. They study all the time, work really hard, and live a version of the American dream many of us never thought to dream of. And of course, we know these stereotypes are dangerous and often untrue, but perhaps we still find ourselves buying into them. Ronald Takaki”, the ethnic studies expert, writes about the idea that Asian Americans are more successful than any other American minority group in his article “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority. Takaki refutes this idea by strategically, and somewhat effectively, using reason, statistics, and word choice to show that Asian Americans still face some of the same hardships and barriers
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.
The role women play in today’s society is a drastic change from the previous role. Women used to be confined to the superiority of the man. Physically, mentally, and emotionally abused, belittled, embarrassed, and silenced. These are just a few examples of the emotion from the isolated treatment of the past. A woman’s role in today’s society is more valued than ever before.