Social systems of power have impacted online spaces, which causes lateral violence in social justice movements. In the reading Digital Intersectionality Theory the authors discussed the ways social systems of power have impacted online spaces. In chapter 2 of The intersectional Internet the authors discussed how a white male academic who identify as “male feminist” attacked women of color for the work they do; while their white feminists counter parts turn a blind eye. Daniels How can they call themselves feminist? When one of their own contributors is involved in racist online attacks. Writer and pop culture analyst Mikki Kendall grew frustrated by the inaction of the white feminists that she created a hash tag #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen. Which made white feminists and activist lash out at Kendell. Kendell was merely calling out that one of their own who does feminist work as being problematic. Instead of admonishing the male she got the blow back. These are some of the ways that white feminist refuse to acknowledge their role in implicit whiteness. In the early days of the internet people thought they could escape the confines of gender and race. They were wrong. “Race and racism persist online, both in ways that are new and unique to the internet and alongside vestiges of centuries -old forms that reverberate significantly both offline and on. (Brock, 2006, 2009; Daniels, 2009, 2013).
Daniels did three case studies one of them was a book by FB chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. Her book was widely discussed online by feminist bloggers. Her book Lean In is not just a book it is an online campaign. Sandberg discussed how women should assert themselves in work spaces that are dominated by males. That women are limiting themselves. Her book is problematic in several ways. She fails to account for race. Yes we are all women but our race dictates how we navigate in certain spaces. Her book is more for middle, upper class white women. What she articulates is liberal feminism that intersects with white privilege, class, colonialism and heteronormativity. She speaks about marriage in terms of cis-gender no mention of gay or lesbian relationships. As I stated before there is no mentions of women of color. Leaning in will look different to women who are not white. (pg46) Daniels
Crenshaw writes”The failure of feminism to interrogate race means that the resistance strategies of feminism will often replicate and reinforce the subornation of people of color.” (Crenshaw, 1991, p.1252)
Sources:
Noble, S. U., & Tynes, B. M. (2016). The intersectional Internet: race, sex, class and culture online. New York (N.Y.): Peter Lang.
Week 1
Social Construct, Wikipedia and plagiarism
For this weeks reading that I chose to summarized “The Social Construction of Difference.” I chose it because I can identify with the reading. Author Johnson discusses Americas social construct of gender, race, class, and sexuality. One interesting point that struck out to me that was made by the late James Baldwin an African American novelist assertion that there is no such thing as whiteness. “No one is white before he/she came to America he wrote. It took generations and a vast amount of coercion, before this became white country.” Baldwin Which brings me to another point being made a woman in Africa considers herself African and has never experienced white racism. That is until she comes to the United States. Where privilege, skin color and race is socially constructed. Because she has dark skin she isn’t seen as African in the United states she is black. I identify with that as someone who is brown people assume I am just black. Johnson further goes on to discusses the mechanisms of privilege and difference and what that looks like. Why is the word privilege such a loaded word for white people. People get upset when it is pointed out that they have privileges that other groups don’t get. He also discuss the varying ways privilege shows up daily. Some people do benefit from white privileges. For example a straight black woman can talk freely about her life her husband and marriage. This is a form of heterosexual privilege someone who is LGBTQ can not talk freely about their relationships like someone who is heterosexual it can put them in danger. I am brown but I have heterosexual privilege.
Sources: 1) Adams, Maurianne, et al., editors. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. 3 edition, Routledge, 2013.
Wikipedia Summary Avoiding Plagiarism
In your doing research and writing an essay for school one must be very careful to not plagiarized someone else’s work. Plagiarism can get you banned from Wikipedia if you are not careful. Plagiarism can show up in many ways. One of them is where you copy text and don’t credit the author. Another form of plagiarism which is something I found surprising. Copying text word for word and citing it is still consider plagiarism. But what I found out is that in academia the rules are not as strict with Wikipedia. Also don’t close paraphrase even when it is cited. If you are going to paraphrase use your words and ideas. When you find information on Wikipedia you should put it in your own words. When in doubt always cite.
Cited sources: Zúñiga text according to Wikipedia guidelines for avoiding plagiarism (Links to an external site.).
Week 3
Posts
Posted on October 20, 2019Edit “Wikipedia and class readings”
Wikipedia and class readings
For this weeks reading I decided on to blog about Ch 64. Feminism: A Movement to End Sexist Oppression. (bell hooks ) I chose this reading because it highlighted the ways certain forms for feminism have contributed to many forms of oppression. It asks the important question what does equality look like for everyone. Not everyone gets the same equality; that depending on your gender, race, class and sexuality it dictates how society will treat you.
Not everyone is treated equally in that is why it is important to include an intersectionality view. The authors discussed people’s views on what feminism means and why it is a disservice to lump everyone has the same. “Most people in the United States think of feminism or the more commonly used term ” women’s lib” as a movement. that aims to make women the social equals of men. This broad definition, popularized by the media and mainstream segments of the movement raises problematic questions. Since men are not equals to white supremacist, capitalist’ patriarchal class, structure, which men do women want to be equal to? Do women share a common vision of what equality means?” Hooks (pg 360) The simple broad definition dismisses the factors of race, class, gender, and sexuality as I stated earlier before. White women are not quick to call attention to race because they were not being affected by racism. While women who were non-white and lower social class, did not benefit from the women’s liberation movement. They were seeing in their every day lives how the men in their family were oppressed. The factors need to be address in order for all to be equal.
I was not surprised that some women have a hard time calling themselves feminist. I was the same way due to its history. Like those before me that did this work. I did not want to be associated with a movement that had racists undertones. I saw it mainly as a white women’s movement. It was not until I got to college I understood what feminist meant. I thought; just like in the reading that its “anything goes”. In the reading this form of feminism is defined as apolitical in nature and tone. Most liberal women find this form of feminism to be appeasing which romanticizes the notion of personal freedom; which is a more acceptable than a definition that emphasizes radical political action. (pg 361) Hooks
Sources cited: Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Catalano, D. C. J., DeJong, K. “S., Hackman, H., Hopkins, L. E., … Zúñiga Ximena. (2018). Readings for diversity and social justice (4th ). New York: Routledge.
