Schyler's Blog # 3

Race and gender share a critical relationship in our society and, in particular, in our daily lives. Until I had the opportunity to study this relationship in college, I did not see “race”; I fortunately appreciated the people around me regardless of their culture, history, language, and ethnicity. Similarly, I was unaware of the inequalities people endured because of contentious issues surrounding race. I believe that my neutral reaction towards “race” is a direct result of factors including the social environment I grew up in; my parents are extremely liberal and my schooling was very diverse. On the other hand, I was aware of the dichotomy between men and women because of factors including the social environment I grew up in as well. For example, my mother always stressed the need for me to become a self-sufficient woman, without the hindrance or need of a man. This concept manifested itself, at least in my mind, as if women need to maintain or strive to attain the same opportunities as their male counterparts. However, when I entered my freshman year of college, I was able to study the interaction between both race and gender in a historical context. Through my schooling, I have understood that race is merely a social construct, a means of socially defining and stereotyping individuals. Although my personal appreciation of individuals has not changed since I have learned about this relationship, I have come to terms with the inequalities that people have experienced because of racism and its correlation to gender.

Aside from what I would call “common knowledge,” including the idea of racism as a prominent feature in historical events such as the White slavery of African Americans, gendered racism is prevalent today, something that I believe many people take for granted. In “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” Audre Lorde discusses the differences between White and Black women and, in particular, their distinctive perspectives of one another because of their distinctive personal experiences. But aside from their contrasting views, both Black and White women share a common notion of maintaining a heterosexual population because of patriarchy. As Professor Messner stated in class, people might be willing, even unconsciously willing, to dichotomize men and women, in addition to people of different “races,” because of power. Power is the notion of keeping things the way they are. Thus, by keeping these categorical gendered and racial differences by maintaining a heterosexual foundation, some might believe that they can sustain this power relationship. Likewise, Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill note the importance of the terms “multiracial feminism,” “racial ethnic women,” and “women of color” in their article, “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism.” The terms are applied as a means of defining individuals and keeping gendered and racial superiority in different parts of the world. I believe that the notion of situated knowledge, the knowledge gained from where an individual figuratively stands in society, is an impediment to seeing the world clearly because of the stereotypes that are learned, passed down, and adopted from generation to generation.