On March 1 2017, I attended an event for the anthology A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota. This event included readings, musical performances, and a choreographed performance. The entire event completely captivated me, but I was most impacted by Andrea Jenkins reading from her part of the anthology titled “The Price We Pay: How Race and Gender Identity Converge”. In her piece, she talked a lot about gender identity, race, and how they intersect. Two parts that stood out to me was the story of effects of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination on black children and the effects society has on people who are transgender. Andrea Jenkins referred to a story of how the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. had on the education of black children. After the assassination, she and other black students were sent home on that day and were not allowed back. This fits well with Lorber’s examination of Multiethnic / Multiracial Feminism. A source of inequality for MEMRF are the patterns of privilege. Though white privilege has been prominent throughout many American institutions, it is especially prevalent within …show more content…
Am I still a woman? I will never bleed from between my legs, unless I cut myself shaving. Am I still a woman?” Andrea Jenkins said this in reference to being a transgender woman. I feel like this pairs well with the reading “Trans Action for Social and Economic Justice” in Color of Violence. A common belief of many people throughout the world, specifically America, is that a woman is only a woman if she can bear children. As exemplified by Trans Justice in the following excerpt, “transphobic violence is justified using medical theories and religious beliefs, and is perpetuated in order to preserve US heterosexist values” (TransJustice 228) The theory that only persons who are biologically female can be a woman is a violence against trans women, which is perpetuated daily within the American societal norm of the gender
The LGBTQ community is one that faces an ongoing storm of stereotyping and stigmas and the media is no relief from it. One major factor in this is the common trope of the violent and aggressive transgender woman, which is often shown through
A significant component of Cooper’s work explores the intersection of being Black and a woman in a post-slavery American society.
In these two articles, “Ain’t I a Woman” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” they both are about fighting for civil right and social change due to the unequal treatment of people based on gender and race. It is very common in the past American society since the racial discrimination and gender inequality have a huge impact on millions of people lives for more than two hundred years. Even though those people who suffered from racial and gender prejudice have fought for ending the discrimination and inequality many times throughout American history, it is not easy and smooth. In fact, fighting for social change must have good leaders to speak out for sufferers and to inspire others to stop discrimination as well as those leaders are willing to
America is a diverse melting pot of various ethnicities and heritages all blended together to create the American society. As beautiful as that is, America as a population is mired in fear of addressing issues such as white privilege which is the product of discrimination and racism. White privilege is viewed by those opposed to it that those who are privilege received unwarranted success as a result of status, luck and privilege rather than putting in hard work or using their brain to earn their success. The existence of discrimination from white privilege comes from the privilege attained by a certain as well as oppression and social prejudice facing certain other groups or races. Individuals who are privileged in one society seldomly are unaware of their privilege, not because of their own doing, but simply because it is very easy to be oblivious to the privilege when you have never seen its adverse effect from the other side.
The Life and Accomplishments of Toni Morrison Toni Morrison was the first African- American women to win the Nobel Prize in 1993. She has considerable literary talents which voiced her passionate concerns about the condition of African- Americans, which as mostly women and stressed the importance of equality. She is known for her epic themes and richly detailed characters that reflected her passionate concerns for African-Americans, particularly women. Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain Ohio. Her real name is Chloe Anthony Wofford, she grew up during the Great Depression which has a lot of difficulties and economic hardships which led to her father working three jobs to support the family, which lasted for about seventeen
Whites are not aware of the privilege they have, simply for the fact that this is their life the majority do not know anything different. When you have been drinking coke every day of your life and everyone else has ben drinking diet coke labeled as coke you wont know the difference. Lipsitz (1995) affirms whiteness is everywhere in US culture, but it is very hard to see. This is how white privilege looks to the average American even though everyone else is not getting the same treat as the whites they do not understand it because they have been treated the same way or so they think their whole life as well. Minorities are getting diet coke their whole life, though they see the whites making more money, and treated better in turn they begin questioning and coming up with the
Additionally, these stories reveal the great diversity among women. Generally, women are grouped together, as stated by Lorde: “As women we have either been taught to ignore our differences or view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than forces of change (Lorde, 1979).” Despite the efforts to categorize women’s issues into one mass of problems, White women perceive the world differently than African American women, Hispanic women, Native American women, etc., and vice versa. This conglomeration of “women’s issues” does not address every aspect of being a woman in patriarchal and unjust societies throughout the world.
Over the past decade the term white privilege has emerged in our American history. White privilege is the concept that one particular group is benefited which is typically identified as white people. Most of the victims experiencing harsh conditions are non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances of mistreatment. A conversation took place with a few people about white privilege whose race is identified as white. An interviewer started that “the belief that being white comes with unearned advantages and everyday perks”.
This is helpful to her audience who may not already know the exact definitions. Rogers further includes logos with the statement “by suggesting that gender doesn’t exist and that you are only the sex you were assigned at birth, your argument is that transgender people don’t exist.” (Rogers,par.16). Understanding that gender and sex are not the same, and that they are able to exist at the same time, will enlighten the audience to understand the deserved rights of transgender individuals. Pathos is further included in the article with Rogers expressing that it is important to “honor and respect the rights and dignity of all women, however they identify.”
Society has a very black and white view of gender. If you have male genitalia you are a man and if you have female genitalia you are a girl. This view was harder on transgender people because they were either not accepted as whom they identified as or were degraded because of their sexuality. However, there are some transmen who transition after giving birth or are in the process and these views are the hardest on them. In Transparent Rosskam shows two different viewpoints of transmen that give birth: some who are completely unhappy and uncomfortable during their pregnancy and some who form a motherly bond with their children.
As a summer long intern, team members couldn’t reject me because they were under my authority. As an adult, the kids couldn’t decide to get picked up by another van or choose someone else to walk them to the bathroom. I don’t think I fully realized the extent of this privilege while I was there, but after reading “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” a new set of privileges came to me that I didn’t realize before. Those were the privileges to not think about or not worry about things other people had to. This summer, because of the power from my race, and my position in the organization, I didn’t have to think about
Although miscegenation is not a new topic, the effects that this phenomenon has on people’s lives has been the source of inspiration for many literary works. “Miscegenation” by Natasha Trethewey is an autobiographical poem that expresses the difficulty that mixed-race people face in accepting their identity in a society that discriminates people who are different. That is, this poem expresses how racial discrimination can affect the identity of those people who do not identify as white or black. Besides, in this poem, Trethewey narrates her origin, as well as how her parents were victims of a society that did not accept their relationship. Therefore, the speaker starts by saying “In 1965 my parents broke two laws of Mississippi” (Trethewey 1); those two laws that broke the Trethewey’s parents were that they were married and had a daughter.
There is one particular example that I can think of in my personal life that goes along with this theme of ‘white privilege.’ I attended Northeast Guilford High School, which is a primarily African American high school. Therefore, I was the minority. Right before I transitioned from middle school to high school, the district lines in my county were ‘redrawn’ and many of the black students who used to attend Eastern Guilford that lived in the lower income housing were now being sent to Northeast. It was almost as if they wanted to pull as many of the African American students into one school because they didn’t want those students of color to be attending the same school as the rich, white students.
As a child, she recognized that her imitation of ‘White” afforded opportunities of mobility, education, acceptance and privilege. Her mother’s appearance as “Black” afforded opportunities of poverty, inferiority, and inequality. So, she fails to mention her mother’s identity and occupation to classroom peers and teacher. Sarah Jane wants cultural assimilation and white privilege.
Kareen Harboyan English 1C Professor Supekar March 15, 2018 Word Count: Crenshaw’s Mapping the Margins: The Marginalization of Women of Color Analyzed Through Generalization and A Feminist Lens Crenshaw's Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color expands on the multifaceted struggles of women of color and the generalizations ingrained in society that limit women of color and keep them in a box. In this text, Crenshaw builds on the concept of intersectionality which proposes that social categorizations such as gender and race are intertwined and have great influence on one another.