Last Blog

After this course I learned multiple things about the issues of race, class and gender and how it relates to today's popular culture. An issue that I myself have never realized was such a profound issue in society is the issue of race and gender. Alone the issue of race still exists in our world. Racism is still persistent among cultures and present throughout our structural system. The most interesting topic to me that we discussed in depth was the two issues on White Privilege and Color Blindness. As a white middle class female, I never really realized the privilege I do have as an individual. And I feel that most of my friends and family are also very blind to privilege our skin color has given us. Another issue that applies to me is the idea of color blindness. Since my family is white and privileged I feel like I have been raised to ignore the issue of racism, and fall into the category of colorblindness. The intersecting of these issues was very interesting and made me think about the privilege I have been given but also the sexism I face daily being a woman. It didn't become as apparent until I wrote my research paper. I wrote my paper on the stereotypes of female athletes. The research involved in my paper was very extensive and I really enjoyed it. Being a female athlete myself made it that much more important to me. But to read about the sexism and ridicule female athletes had to face in order to gain the rights to participate in the Olympics and organized sports is insane. Women had and still have to face stereotypes of being lesbian, dyke, butch, masculine, etc. because they chose to act out of the norm of society and play a sport. After every discussion we have had in class I have come away from class thinking about how corrupt society is. The media and popular culture feed into a large part of why stereotypes, rationalizations, and hatred are present in our society. But the worst isn’t just the media and culture it is people in our society. It is the beliefs that we as people have bought into, the norms and precedents we have set for the people in the world around us. Especially, including our family, friends, and peers. What our society needs to understand is how to adapt. The world is constantly changing, and people need to learn how to adapt to the world around them, rather than create phobias and hatred toward issues they fear.

Since taking this course many things in my life have become much clearer. I understand more about my identity particularly, my race, class, and gender, and the privilege I have been given. After being educated about race and the ideals behind color blindness, racism, and white privilege I feel that I can be much more open-minded. Open minded in a sense of understanding other races, that aren’t my own. And I hope I can spread my ideal of open-mindness towards other races to my family and friends. Today’s world is so diverse with cultures and peoples; I feel that it will be beneficial to me in my life now and for my career. For my career as an elementary school teacher I will be able to connect with more of my students that are of other races and cultures than myself. In addition, being open-minded will give me more of a curriculum to teach and will help me educate and open the minds of other students that seem to be racist or color-blind. As far as my everyday actions and behaviors, I think a huge behavior I need to change not just for myself but for my surrounding community is the ignorance toward homosexuals. I hear many people in my community misusing words that refer to the homosexual orientation, and I feel that that is a big issue. By reacting to how people use such words around me I feel I can make a difference, and change how they use the words. I also feel that in a school setting I can aid children in being comfortable with both race and gender. I also feel that I can promote girls and women in my school system to stand up for women’s rights and themselves as women. Overall, I have learned a lot through taking this course, and feel that I can change others views and make a difference in the world!

blog Prompt for 4/14

During this course, you have become aware of hegemonic practices of racism, sexism, heterosexism and classism as they have intersected with the representations of gender in popular culture. Some of the issues you have been resistant to acknowledging because of personal experiences to the contrary. Some of the structural and institutional issues have felt “true,” even when your individual experiences have been different.

In this last blog post, I want to see you bring the intersectionality issues of race, class and gender together by discussing the way they relate to one another. (You are certainly free to bring in other issues related to minority groups such as religion, national origin/ethnicity, etc. – but be sure to talk about the ways that these issues intersect.) THEN discuss ways in which you believe that you can make a difference in the world – in your everyday acts/behaviors regarding these very important issues.

BLog for April 7th

The convergence of race and heterosexism is a combination of systems that affect peoples everyday lives. According to Margaret Anderson there are multiple reasons why race and sexism converge. "For one, both use similar state-sanctioned institutional mechanisms to maintain their hierarchies." They also share a common set of practices that attempt to instill the status quo and "manufacture ideologies" on racism and heterosexism on the population. Since heterosexism and racism share common ideas they tend to affect a lot of peoples lives. For instance, it forces non-heterosexual individuals such as LGBT to remain closeted and segregated from one another. Because of this notion racism is very similar, because race also segregates people like heterosexism does. Heterosexism like race also oppresses people. Heterosexism oppresses people because they feel that since the norm is to be heterosexual they must conform to the norm, oppressing feelings that they may in fact have toward the homosexual orientation. Race, as we have discussed in class before oppresses certain people. For example, the white race oppresses other races due to white privilege. Anderson states that racism and heterosexism are the prison and the closet, this statement is true because of how racism imprisons races. Although slavery isn't present in society today it is still present through oppression. African Americans, and many other minority races are oppressed by the white race, and are imprisoned. As far as heterosexism goes it forces people to remain in the closet because of societies norm of being heterosexual. Therefore, racism and heterosexism affect all races and people in society. Norms of our society force people to feel imprisoned and closeted through both racism and heterosexism.

blog prompt for april 7th

Patricia Hill Collins in “The Prison and the Closet,” argues that the assumption that racism and heterosexism are two separate systems of oppression obscures the fact that racism and sexism rely upon each other for meaning. She writes about the intersecting relationship between racism and sexism as two hegemonic ideologies. Explain how the convergences of these two ideologies both affect the everyday lives of all people.

Chappals and Gym Shorts

The essay Chappals and Gym Shorts used many different useful techniques in order for the reader, myself, to become centered on her life rather than the life I live. In her description on the visit of her father I was able to see how her culture functions. How Muslim women were to be married off to a Muslim boy. The history on her previous marriage proposals also helped in understanding the importance of marriage to Muslims. I also really was able to connect with her during the explanation of her argument with her parents over the sports attire. She made the description so easy to connect with because she didn’t harp on the idea that she was arguing for the shake of being a Muslim and going against her culture. She made it as though she was arguing as any other adolescent would. With that connect I feel that most would be able to really connect as I did.

A section of the essay that I found harder to connect with but still did thanks to the author, was about being a feminist Muslim women. I can connect with the idea of being a women and fighting for women’s rights, but it was hard at first to understand the struggle she faced as a feminist Muslim. Like she said “the feminist agenda in her community is centered on ending violence against women, fighting for queer rights and maintaining women’s reproductive choices.” This idea is hard to handle at first but then later into the essay the author breaks it down to a better way for readers to understand. And that was what I understood and connected with. She did so in explaining more about herself and what she has done and where she has been. Also her examples of the issues she’s faced made it clearer to understand what she was fighting for, why and how she developed such a strong feminist idea as a Muslim women.

Missing People and Others

In reading the essay Missing People and Others I was able to change my focus and connect with the author of the essay. An aspect that was most beneficial at first was the author’s explanation of his heritage. Stating "he does not fit into those mental sets that define America and Americans." Plus, describing his physical appearance, speech patterns, name and profession really helped to gain an understanding for the author as a person. A key point that the author discusses is how Americans view his race and how he is viewed as an “other”. In his descriptions of his hometown and the Americano around him I feel that I can really see into his life. And create a picture in my head of the town, his friends and family, and the Americans outside the town.

The background that the author goes through also helps to shift my center into the life that he lived, giving me a different perspective. The best example that helped me shift from my ideals was the paragraph on schooling, how schooling is more socialization than education. Because I can understand how schooling is strongly socialization I see how the author felt an other, and felt that he was different and was, “aware of being distinct, and conscious of being dissimilar.” The portion later in the essay on his denial and downplaying of otherness was a very true and common feeling for minorities. And as he mentioned these feelings were made clear when he attended UCLA, and found that Mexican-American students were invisible and the Mexicans that were present worked in food service and groundcrew.

Overall, the process that the authors mention using was very effective for me. Being that I am of the dominant race I find myself unaware of other peoples challenges with race. But with the authors explicit description of his history, personality, and life struggles I was able to shift my center in order to understand what being an “other” might feel like.

Blog Prompt for March 24th

In their introduction, Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins write that they want students to “. . . think about race, class and gender as systems of power. We want to encourage readers to imagine ways to transform, rather than reproduce, existing social arrangements.” Additionally, they posit that a helpful way for us to begin to explore the world is by changing our frame of vision. (p. 3) They use the metaphor of taking a photograph to explain how to make that shift of re-framing. We simply shift the frame slightly to include those who have normally been left out of our vision. I sometimes refer to that as “shifting our center” so that the focus is less on ourselves and those who are similar and more on those who are in the margins of our lives, who often are invisible.
Please choose two essays from the readings from today, and explain how that particular essay enabled you to “shift your center” so that you could creatively enter into the life of someone different from you. What were the benefits to you of that exercise?