Ivan De Los Santos

Prof. Hollis Glaser

GWS 100-1300

Discussion 10

What is meant by the following quote?: “We might use our position at the bottom to make a clear leap into revolutionary action.  If black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.”

What I think there’s falling quote means is that for there to be changed or if these different struggles of Oppression, black woman women especially should take action, whether that is protesting and doing everything they can to stop these oppressions because if they fight for what they want, they will destroy the social norms the racism the oppression that they have gotten for years and has been caused due to white men in society also women want to be treated as equal. They still haven’t gotten it today, so they should take action.

What does the Combahee River pool mean by “identity politics”? How do you see this operating in Paris is Burning?

Identity politics has to do with how somebody identifies themselves, but because of that, they must go to war. However, if the politics of society, for example, they have to fight against your sexual identity, your racial identity, your class identity, this concept is what black families use to help them combat The oppression they face and the social injustice. Women who identify as different things, such as binary trans, even the color of their skin, have experienced These struggles and have had the strength to explain those experiences in Paris burning.  They expressed how they want Society to be and how they see women living in society as equal but that they needed Unity to do it, but it showed that they are confident if they are together to fight for freedom. 

What do race and gender have to do with capitalism?

Race and gender have a lot to do with capitalism. For example, in history, capitalism was built on exploiting different groups based on race and gender, so that was the blueprint from the start. And if you want to go further into that, capitalism has to do with money, right? So by the expectation of black people back in the day when slavery was happening, the wealth of white people was built on that based on what I know from High School. Additionally, the gender pay Gap is a big thing in capitalism because it is all about exploitation, so that they would exploit these women for specific jobs. Still, they wouldn’t get paid as much as the men, devaluing women’s labor.