In her noteworthy article “Mapping the Margins”, Kimberlé Crenshaw, the woman who coined the term “intersectionality”, discussed how she did so in order to address the various ways in which race and gender interact in order to shape the multiple dimensions of Black women's experiences with employment. While this text is very well-known within scholarly spaces, many scholars still misconstrue the meaning of this term. Regarding “Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance”, Cheryl Clarke shows that she understands that black men are capable of oppressing black women. She states that “now, as ex-slaves, black men have more latitude to oppress black women, because the brothers no longer have to compete directly with the white man for control of black women’s …show more content…
Clarke is not only saying that black men face intersectional disadvantages underneath class and racism; she is also saying that black men’s advantages are solely contingent upon his power over black women. This means that black men’s disadvantages are also contingent upon his power over black women since, according to Clarke, black women have the agency to “leave” them and remove that power. Clarke is indirectly stating that black women, who face the brunt of intersectional oppression, have the power to place black men on an equal plane of intersectional oppression, which Floyd-Alexander would firmly disagree with. To converge the experiences of both black men and women as being equally intersectional, or even having the ability to be equally intersectional, erases the struggles that are specific to black womanhood. It erases the amount of sexism black women face, especially misogynoir, which is a form of sexism that is specific to black women. It also exponentially and ignorantly simplifies the oppression black women face, by framing it as something that they have the power to make non-specific to them. If black women had the power to make their oppression non-specific to them, they would also have the power to solely dismantle their oppression. To assume that black women have any control over the oppression they face is to refuse to acknowledge the systemic and institutionalized structures that keep black women in their oppressed status. Converging the experiences of black men and women also greatly overestimates black women’s agency regarding black men, since the U.S context in which they are treated still favors and enforces patriarchal values. Black women do not have access to certain bouts of privilege due to their womanhood, as this is
In Mignon Moore’s piece, the familial expectations of an understudied group of people is measured—that of African American lesbians. Prior to this research, most studies tested the ideas of middle-upper class white lesbians who found relationships with feminism in mind. What differs with this article is that it focuses
As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s
In her novel called “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center” one of the many areas bell hooks speaks of is the perpetual racial confinement of oppressed black women. The term double-bind comes to mind when she says “being oppressed means the absence of choices” (hooks 5). The double-bind is “circumstances in which choices are condensed to a few and every choice leads to segregation, fault or denial” Therefore, this essay will discuss how hooks’ definition of oppression demonstrates the double-bind in race relations, forcing the socially underprivileged minority to “never win,” and as a result allowing the privileged dominate “norm” to not experience perpetual segregation.
African-Americans often are discriminated against, suffer from a barrage of racial remarks, and even endure racially based acts of violence. Unfortunately, this crime against humanity goes both ways. Those being oppressed may retaliate as a matter of self-defense, sometimes becoming that which they despise most. In many cases the Black man is forced into developing racist mores against the White man due to past history and to the fact that Whites discriminate against them. The victim of oppression can become the oppressor and, in fact, this 'reverse racism' may easily develop into a feeling of superiority for Black people. Although both parties, Black and White racists, suffer from the belief that their own race is the superior one, it could be said that the Black community is oftentimes more justified in their beliefs. Black writer, Sapphire is quoted as saying "One of the myths we've been taught, is that oppression creates moral superiority. I'm here to tell you that the more oppressed a person is, the more oppressive they will be" (Walker, Fall 2001). I believe it not only creates a more oppressive group of people, but a group that believes they are morally superior. This moral superiority is evident in the writings and the personal lives of Olaudah Equiano, Toni Morrison, Sapphire and Maya Angelou. These writers display a common point of view held among many African-Americans in their views of Africa versus America, morality among Whites versus morality among Blacks, and racial inferiority versus racial superiority.
A careful examination of the sexual violence against african-american women in this piece reveals imbalances in the perceptions about gender, and sexuality shed that ultimately make the shift for equality and independence across race and class lines possible during this time period.
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.
She sheds a light of how early Black feminist scholars such as Collins have been criticized for relying too heavily on colonial ideology around the black female body. Subjectively neglecting the contemporary lived experience of Black women. Critiques such as these highlights the Black female agency in the representation of the body. viewing this as a human and sexual rights or health perspective has been lending to the contemporary Black feminist debates about the representation of Black female bodies and Black eroticism within the culture of
Hunt’s essay may be difficult for some to understand at a level that goes beyond what is said in the passage. I believe that a critical message that readers should take away from this work is the concept of black feminism. Black feminism is the interpretation that race and sex are inevitably linked together. Some acknowledge
...e and gender, were by default always arguing for universal equality. In no instance could black women argue specifically for their rights and freedom, without necessarily raising up the all blacks and females. As the famous phrase declares, black women were “lifting as they climb” (Brown, 44). In their fight for enfranchisement, they were advocating for universal suffrage; in their movement to end lynching, they were urging, “that every human being should have a fair trial;” in the demand for fair, living wages, they were insisting that all people should have the capacity to live honestly and adequately from their pay (Brown, 34). Black women, not only assumed a peculiar position in society, where they had to band together to fight for their own rights, but also they were in a powerful situation, which granted them the capacity to fight for everyone’s rights.
Leith Mullings is an anthropologist and professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center. She came up with a powerful idea of Intersectionality, “which provides a framework for analyzing the many factors especially race and gender that determine how class is lived and how all three systems of power and stratification build on and shape one another” (406). Intersectionality is simply a more focused idea on the inequality that happens in the country, just looking at it with a lense of race and gender. Mullings did a study on the impact of class, gender and race on women’s health and infant mortality in Harlem in the 1990s (406). This study led her to find out that due to the poor conditions of housing, employment, child care and environmental factors as well as the quality of public spaces, parks, and even grocery and retail stores might affect the health outcomes (406). This shows us that due to race and gender as well as social class, women and their infants were affected by opportunities for employment, housing, and health care in this particular
“These denials protect male privilege from being fully recognized, acknowledged, lessened, or ended (Shaw, Lee, 86).” It is hypocritical that men are getting the heat for not recognizing their over-privilege when white people cannot recognize their own. White female feminist who advocate equality, and seem to fail to realize they have more privileges than most other minorities. Peggy McIntosh tries to recognize her white privilege in her daily life, so she composed a list of fifty-four observations. From her observations McIntosh drew the conclusion that her morals have been affected, because she believed in equality for all, yet she did not realize she had a dominance which opened many doors for her. We see daily that the white race has more power over other races. In her essay she mentions: “At school, we were not taught about slavery in any depth; we were not taught to see slaveholders as damaged people. Slaves were seen as the only group at risk being dehumanized (Shaw, Lee, 87-88).” If students were taught to see slaveholders as damaged people, then it could impact white privilege which “needs” to remain
In the publication Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, author Patricia Hill Collins, she discusses sexism, gender and the new racism. Collins discusses that heterosexuality operates as a hegemonic ideology that influences human sexuality, racism, and psychological processes (Collins 2004 p.37). This placement of heterosexuality at the top, positions it as the basis of understanding sexuality. For example Collins illustrates that the term sexuality itself is used so synonymously with heterosexuality that schools, churches, and other social institutions treat heterosexuality as natural, normal, and inevitable (Collins 2004 p.37). This in turn facilitates stigmatization of individuals who engage
Being a black woman in this society and seeing how sexism is the number one seller in this society makes it really hard for Mclune (2015). Mclune (2015) discusses “Notes of a Hip Hop Head” by Kevin Powell stating “Socioeconomic” is the reason for the sexism in the hip hop field and it is a way to keep the black females quiet (p.222). Kevin Powell states “But just as it was unfair to demonize men of color in the 1960’s solely as wild-eyed radicals when what they wanted, amidst their fury, was a little freedom and a little power...” (Mclune, 2015, p. 221-222). Mclune (2015) clarifies that Powell completely overlooks that females also have a hard life, yet they still have to overlook the objectification that black men bring to the table. Even though sexism is not the answer, it will always sell no matter
This example groups females togethers and gives the impression that all women experience the same things. However, it fails to addressed the fact that a woman of color is more likely to subjected to oppression than a white woman due to factors such as racism and classism.
As Tamsin Wilton explains in her piece, “Which One’s the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbian Sex,” society has fronted that heterosexuality, or desire for the opposite sex, is the norm. However, the reason behind why this is the case is left out. Rather, Wilton claims that “heterosexual desire is [an] eroticised power difference [because] heterosexual desire originates in the power relationship between men and women” (161). This social struggle for power forces the majority of individuals into male-female based relationships because most women are unable to overcome the oppressive cycle society has led them into. Whereas heterosexual relationships are made up of the male (the oppressor) and the female (the victim who is unable to fight against the oppressor), homosexual relationships involve two or more individuals that have been freed from their oppressor-oppressed roles.