Readings for 9/23

This weeks readings discussed the various roles that race plays in feminism.I chose to focus on the two online articles because I felt they best related to previous readings. In her article, Audre Lorde asks why she was one of the two black women present at a conference for feminism. She also delves into how difficult it is to also be a lesbian. She is a minority is so many aspects of her life that her struggle is multiplied. She feels that feminism thus far has had too narrow of a focus and actually weakens the movement. By incorporating more kinds of women such as, women of color, homosexual women, and women of various socioeconomic statuses, the feminist movement would be bolstered and gain momentum. She writes that women should all join to form one powerful force but keep individual differences intact; "Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged...Without community there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression. But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist."I think she makes a great point that women are constantly trying to teach men (and society) how women should be treated. When women must educate other women about how they should be treated, it detracts from the ultimate goal: "Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and our needs...that it is the task of women of Color to educate white women -- in the face of tremendous resistance -- as to our
existence, our differences, our relative roles in our joint survival. This is a diversion of energies and a tragic repetition of racist patriarchal thought."

McIntosh discusses a similar problem but from the opposite perspective. She is writing as a white female about the problem of racism. She admits that it is hard as a Caucasian to always understand white privilege. She writes that white people are taught from a young age that they are not privileged; intentionally or not, Caucasians learn what they can expect from society. To further elaborate, McIntosh lists some example of white privileges that she gathered from a daily basis. The list includes, "
24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race."
I think directly relates back to past readings about social norms and "programming" or the workings of the "system." No one person is responsible for the way that society functions and yet each individual exerts some influence on the whole. Many times, we act in accordance with societal laws without questioning why or considering alternatives. It is difficult for people in different strata of the system to understand alternative perspectives because they have only lived according to their designated role in society. A white man may never truly understand what it's like to be a black man because his whole life he has only ever been white. McIntosh also explains that privelage may not be the right word for these advantages because "We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work systematically to over empower certain groups." McIntosh elaborates to explain that privilege just acts as an excuse to dominate one group over another and it may do so without the individuals knowing, "In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth." Overall, both articles write about how society needs to change and address differences between people. These differences should neither be abhorred nor ignored, but rather appreciated. By peeling away the hierarchical layers that society as built, we can better see the oppression of various groups and create change for equality.