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.