This week’s reading, ” The Combahee river collective statement,” is about an organization that includes black feminist lesbians. The intersectionality happened because the feminist movement and the civil rights movement didn’t address the concerns of these black feminist lesbians. The quote “We might use our positions at the bottom to make a clear leap into revolutionary. 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.” This quote means to me that to get rid of oppression, we have to hit it at all angles. If black women are not free, then none of us are free. Time and time again, we see the injustice to black women. There is much work to be done, but if it is, then it can cause a chain reaction to ultimately being liberated by the oppressors.
Identity politics is a movement that helps address race and social background to allies to make an effort to change things around them. In the film “Paris is burning,” we see identity politics play a role in their golden age. Around the gold age, we can see drag queens; gays created a place for them to live out the life that they wished they had. They made a ball that allows them to express themselves as they want to bring out joy and happiness to them. They can be as creative as they want without being judged by people that don’t understand.
What do race and gender have to do with capitalism? Well, gender and race have been used to ultimately profit by exploiting a particular race or gender. It is more accessible to underpay a person from a different race because they are more vulnerable to the white man. The form of oppression because they aren’t white and the white man means power. In terms of gender, today, women are trying to find equality. The equality to get paid is the same as if a man were to do the job. This is oppression because the higher class still oppresses you, usually referred to as the white man. The film Paris is burning is a perfect example of exploitation. You have Jeannie Livingston, a white woman taking the life of these incredible ballroom dancers and documenting them to gain attention, leading to profit in the end. None of the people she recorded was happy about how things turned out, and of course, she did nothing about it. She continues to profit from these people’s lives.