Intersections of Race, Gender and Sexuality
Every person has different social identities, which is why people may think of themselves as beings, black women, or Asian-American men. For other people, they keep such identities separately and majorly see themselves as either Asian-Americans or women. It is notable acknowledging that every person has different identities, beyond gender and race/ethnicity. Intersectionality is a method, a theory, or a framework. It is a process in which various characters, such as race, class, gender, and sexuality, interlock to form a new identity (Collins, 1998). The first emergency of the theory of intersectionality was derived from feminist theories and movements. Particularly when intersectionality emerges from the aspects of race, sexuality, and gender, it stems from encounters by women of color who had a feeling that mainstream feminism was very homogenous. Social activities apply intersectionality as an initiative for social activism. An example of such movements is the Movement of Women’s Rights, specifically the Occupy Wall Street Movement, which was led by women of color. Therefore, intersectionality theory is viewed to be a way of understanding the social disparities by gender, race, sexuality, and class that stresses their constitutive natures. It has the potential of clarifying and uncovering unknown inequalities in society.
Exposure to the different types of racism depends on gender, and it may be linked with varying views in the society regarding black men and women. Gender and racial stereotypes in the US often put black makes in a harmful setting compared to the black females and males of other races.]Understanding the contribution of gender in the experiences of minority races is very important. In most cases, black females consistently outdo their black males on life experiences. Regardless of the high status of men in a patriarchal community, black men are more discriminated that black women due to their unique identity of race and gender. In a hypothesis by Collins (2004), while black women are subjected to gender seclusion in a patriarchal society, the primary targets of racial discrimination are the black men. Discrimination based on race is a kind of intersexual competition that makes black men susceptible to treatments of discrimination regardless of their status as men in society.
Indeed, facial features and skin colors are commonly used to define race/ethnicity. When these features are arranged hierarchically, they look like class and status hierarchy in the country. Hence, the white people occupy the top level of socioeconomic order like they are on the racial one. On the other hand, people of color hold the lower level in the socioeconomic prestige and class (Collins & Bilge, 2016). At the bottom hierarchy of socioeconomic class and state are the darkest people. In the United States, race is used as an indicator or a marker for status and class. At times, people use race to reinforce the position of class, in order to keep some individuals in their place. These are among the main reasons why racism has been in persistence in the country. Race acts more than just an indicator of class. Thus, the relationship between socioeconomic striking and race is not statistically correct. People from all races can occupy any social class. At the same time, the correlation between race and class is strong, making it able to use race to rank other people generally.
Regardless of the significant progress in society, structural disparity based on race, class, gender, and sexuality dominates the globe. This disparity is complicated and compounded by the challenges that people face today. Gender violence, particularly against girls and women, is inflicting lasting and profound psychological, economic, and physical damages in the society. Non-whites are unduly incarcerated and policed (Schlesinger, Edwards & Grinter, 2017). LGBT individuals are becoming a significant target just because of their sexuality. However, the realities of today that are very challenging have assisted in fueling vibrant leaders and movements that are getting engaged with innovative activism, as well as imitating unusual alliances.
The basis for the status of most minority groups in the United States is sexual orientation and race. According to sociologists, there are various criteria and definitions of minority groups, and these groups do not fall in all the requirements (Shelton, 2017). The most vital aspect is that the members of a minority group should possess either one or more characters that people use to base their discrimination, regardless of the insignificance of those features to the environment in which the seclusion occurs. Sexual and race orientation are constitutes of social class. The fact that an individual is either a homosexual or among the minority groups’ members is perceived by majority groups as an important information on his/her identity. Once a person is identified as a homosexual or heterosexual, all of his/her behaviors are interpreted based on his/her sexual orientation. In the same way, once the race of a person of color is identified by the whites, any other information regarding him/her are interpreted differently.
Current debates in the United States about affirmative action, gay marriage, and abortion rights are among the flashpoints used to illustrate how issues of sexuality, gender, and race shape personal identity, political mobilization, and religious beliefs across the world (Collins & Bilge, 2016). The origins of such debates and their final stakes are understood best via evaluating their development throughout history. For example, the family has long structured anticipation on gender for both women and men, and their relationships regulate sexual expression by stigmatizing some kinds of these expressions and sanctioning others. This path reflects the interrelated development of sexuality, race, and gender as sharp axes of social differences that structure social classes and inequality. Also, it explores the classifications of gender, sexuality, and race as sources of identity, social organization, and collective belonging, including social organization. It requires people to explore identities that are socially and historically constructed, how sexuality, race, and gender intersect with one another and their support, subvert and constitute on other political and social formations like empire, class, and regime.
Notably, gender, class, race, and sexuality are categories whose intersection affects all facets of the life of a human being. Hence, they all form the experiences of people in society simultaneously. Class, gender, or race may be more meaningful and salient in the life of a particular person. However, their effects accumulate and overlap in their impacts on the experiences of the people. Thus, one may not quickly identify which aspect of his or her social identity is getting attacked. One may find it challenging to evaluate if discrimination leveled against him/her is due to race or gender. All these factors make up the identity of an individual, and they all intersect with each other. Since social identities intersect, sociologists should focus on how the given identities structure the experiences of an individual.
References
Collins, P. H. (1998). It’s all in the family: Intersections of gender, race, and nation. Hypatia, 13(3), 62-82.
Collins, J. F. (2004). The intersection of race and bisexuality: A critical overview of the literature and past, present, and future directions of the “borderlands”. Journal of bisexuality, 4(1-2), 99-116.
Collins, P. H., & Bilge, S. (2016). Intersectionality. John Wiley & Sons.
Schlesinger, A., Edwards, W. K., & Grinter, R. E. (2017, May). Intersectional HCI: Engaging identity through gender, race, and class. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 5412-5427).
Shelton, S. A. (2017). “White people are gay, but so are some of my kids”: Examining the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender. Occasional Paper Series, 2017(37), 8.