I want to start off by saying how much I enjoyed this week’s readings. Garza’s The Power of Identity Politics established excellent points and ideas about identity politics and helped me understand it a lot more. It’s interesting — white people were the ones who created race and gender classifications, and are the first to propose that we simply eradicate the concept in favor of sameness. But, we are not the same, because of the many obstacles we face compared to the overwhelmingly white, cisgender, heterosexual standards of our world. Simply ignoring this will create no change. As Garza put it, “Identity is the elephant in America’s room.” We need to discuss identity politics in order to dismantle our oppressors, and very systems that uphold bigoted standards.
I really enjoyed Williams’ story about coming to terms with her identity in a way that feels right for her. It’s important to acknowledge that we do not have to force ourselves to fit in a box — and the way we experience race, ethnicity, and culture is unique to each and every person.
As for what topics we should focus on moving forward, I read Aleah Alamo’s discussion post and agree that it would be great to focus on race’s impact on poverty. Systemic oppression has everything to do with the lack of available resources, education, and all opportunities for marginalized groups. The quote, “Sure, I am empowered to decide what I eat for breakfast today, but larger forces create the options I can choose from—or whether or not breakfast is even available to me,” from Garza, describes this perfectly.
Have a great spring break! =)
Hi Paulina,
I’d definitely agree going more into depth on race’s impacts on poverty is fundamental. It may lead us to better understand people alongside there own individual social construct, an I believe that is the key to eventually accepting everyones race no matter where they may be from or where they may be striving to go.
Hi Paulina,
Learning about race’s impact on poverty would be helpful to understand how the racism effect classism or social classes deeply. Especially after generation and generation, the poverty gap becomes bigger and bigger.
Hello paulina. I like when you said “It’s interesting — white people were the ones who created race and gender classifications”. I think white people are the one’s who created the stereotypes and also the division between genders but, also they are too the first one who say things like “The Black people want to make us feel guilty go their lives” and that’s not true because Black people just want to be free and have rights that they deserves.