Me! in Four Parts - Capstone Project CAP 220 Continued

 History, the Political Economy, Social Location, & Me

Taking the time to reflect on "Me" as situated in relationship to social class in:

Wealth inequality and the "Death of the Middle Class"  

I am saddened at the realization that my family and myself are living in the wealth gap. Factually, the median wealth for a black family is only 8% of that of a white family (Smooth 2015 :26-:33). Financially we are situated at the edge of the "cliff affect" where we do not make enough to qualify for much, if any assistance, but also, not enough to easily afford, if at all, the necessary healthcare and dental care that we need. Like Gomez's family growing up we struggle at times to take care of basic needs (TEDx Talks, 2019).

Occupational Hierarchy

On thinking about occupational hierarchy, as a Black "stay at home mom" my reluctance to take on menial jobs or jobs with little to no upward mobility as a means to "contribute" to my family I am seen as lacking or less than. Whereas, my white counterparts are seen as self-sacrificing and dedicated mothers. Instead, I aim to position myself as mother who prioritizes the careful rearing of her children and weighing the benefits against the deficits.  Possibly, due to wealth inequality, I am not afforded the privilege of being able to stay home in the long term and so I must balance acquiring additional education and skills while raising children.

Gender and Gender Inequality

Addressing gender and gender inequality, the greatest example that I can give is the difference between how mothers and fathers are seen as caretakers. My husband's family recently commented how he had the "patience of a saint" while he was interacting with our children. This struck me as biased because my husband works 8+ hours a day and draws boundaries with our children around certain activities so that he gets some time away from them. In contrast, I am home with our children, caring for their physical, emotional, and even social wellbeing without reprieve and am equally patient with them, yet, it is unremarkable. It is implicitly understood that men who "help out" are something to be praised, instead of men sharing in housework and childcare being the more obvious choice for healthy family outcomes (Kimmel 2015). 

White Privilege

As Borrega mentioned, I live in a world where my family is not given the benefit of the doubt. It is questioned whether or not we belong in the spaces that we occupy. I am concerned for how my children as well as myself are viewed in conjunction with our neurodiversity. A white child with attention deficit disorder is seen as needing supports, in contrast a black child is seen as having a behavior problem. As I navigate schooling and requesting resources for my children I must be aware of how we are perceived because we are a Black family (TedEx Talks 2016).

Me, Here & Now

Looking out to the world, I see myself as a Person of Color by way of my historical family roots. I see a juxtaposition between what is perceived as middle class and working class. I view myself as a unique individual specifically distinct from my college educated; white; fully employed and stay at home; non-Christian and Christian peers. In addition, in my own root family, I seek to break away from generational trauma, undiagnosed psychiatric and neurological conditions and cycles of hate and subordination.   

Socially, I am a seen as a Black working class, married, heterosexual, cisgender female who is able-bodied, but also disabled. I am eclectic and somewhat free-spirited, but my life is also heavily informed by trauma. 

Social Justice & Me

As a future professional in the behavioral and therapeutic professions I believe it is extremely important to address client experiences as part of treatment. Some practices that I can implement in order to treat the "whole" individual are: validating client experiences of microaggressions and discrimination. Researching and applying scientific studies on the effects of oppression and racism on the brain. Working to offer low cost and sliding scale services as much as possible. Helping clients build advocacy skills. Taking all clients' background into consideration, empathizing with both a straight white male who feels pressure to conform to toxic masculinity and the queer black teen, etc.

Me in 20 Years

Looking forward to the future, I hope to see that many systems of oppression have come under close scrutiny. I envision that through our current education and efforts of exploring and dismantling various schemas of class, race, gender, etc that there will have begun a systemic change in how we view, treat, employ, educate and care for all iterations of identity.

On Studies of the Self in a Multicultural Society in Two Parts: Part 1

On Thinking through the Keywords 

Over the course of this term I have become acquainted with a number of  Key Terms. These terms greatly informing and being central to the study of the behavioral sciences as we apply them today. Here in Part 1 I would like to provide the audience with working definitions of these words as I have interpreted them and apply them to a general discussion of self in our current culture. 

Work Definitions of Key Words: 

Ambivalent sexism consisting of hostile and benevolent sexism, this concept serves as a complementary means to keep women subservient and justify sexist behavior and norms 

Classism is a system of belief which creates inequality. It can be thought of as meritocracy: each class is separate and succinct from one another, but the overall perception is that each higher level came be reached from lower levels through “hard work”; s “the oppression of the poor through a network of everyday practices, attitudes, assumptions, behaviors, and institutional rules” (Smith et al, 2016, p. 129) 

Classist microaggressions are ‘subtle, commonplace exchanges that intentionally or unintentionally communicate demeaning messages to people of’ lower socio-economic status 

Color-blind racism as legitimizing ideology Colorblind racism is a legitimizing ideology that serves to uphold the status quo. Individuals use the argument that they don't see race which denies both systemic racism and BIPOC racialized experiences. "Ignoring race and not acknowledging racism actually reflect racial intolerance and prejudice among whites." (Neville et al. 2013, p. 461.)  

From Yi et al, we see that CBRI has a high association with anti-black sentiment and negative attitudes towards Black people and in fact, those who subscribed to CBRI had less general empathy as a whole. (2022) 

Contemporary racism, three forms or types:

Symbolic racism can be likened to the meritocracy of races, meaning that "Symbolic racists believe that Blacks are unwilling to help themselves and undeserving of government assistance" (Neville et al., 2012. p. 341). They feed into and embrace negative stereotypes of Black people as lazy, less intelligent, etc. I would go as far as to describe this group of racists as the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" camp. They completely ignore the fact that not everyone was given boots and if they managed to work "hard enough" to get boots, they either could not afford bootstraps, or the boots were taken away. 

Aversive racism encompasses individuals who maintain that they are not racist, but that viewpoint is justified by their avoidance of interracial interactions. In addition, they are averse to the implication that they might be prejudiced, but in actuality have internalized negative attitudes towards Blacks. I would summarize this as, "I've never acted racist towards anyone (because I have never had an encounter with anyone of another race)" (Neville et al. 2012 p. 342). 

Laissez-faire racism is perpetuated by those who believe they, the dominant culture, have earned the right to monopolize resources as well as viewing the lack thereof on Black people themselves. "I deserve this, and you don't and it's your fault for not being as superior as I am." In addition, they feel that to give "others" more means that they enjoy less privilege, so they work to undermine progress towards equality. (Neville et al. 2012 p. 342). 

 
a mixture of inborn and acquired, that is, learned characteristics. (Elder, 2022 p 202). What we consider to be gender is actually a sex/gender system. Sex/gender system, as described by Rubin in “The Traffic of Women” is “the set of arrangements by society transforms biological sexuality into products of human production” (Elder pg 224). 
Gendered racial microaggressions - subtle slights and insults that result from the intersectionality of race and gender, mostly based on stereotypes. (Lewis, Mendenhall, & Harwood, 2016). 
 
 
A racialized social system is a system where social groups are racialized in order to create a subordinate and superordinate hierarchy that effects the economic, political, social and ideological arenas. and  Many times groups are racialized based on phenotypes, but this is mores socially based than biologically based. (Bonilla-Silva 1997, p. 469)  

Gender (Elder, 2022, pp. 195-224; Fiorio in Kids Helpline, 2020; Scott, 2013).  

 

Heteronormativity - a type of cultural imperialism where the dominant group (i.e. heterosexuals) are perceived as the standard and all other iterations of sexuality are substandard and therefore under-represented in visibility among other things  

Cisnormativity falls into the category of cultural imperialism: society normalizes non-transgender experiences creating privilege for the “standard” and marginalizing those who fall outside the dominant group (Boe et al., 2020. P 158) 

Intersectionality Crenshaw’s Intersectionality is a framework for understanding the discrimination and privilege that comes from a person being part of multiple social groups concurrently (Crenshaw Crenshaw in Institute of Art & Ideas, 2021. :39). It is where the various aspects of who you are and how you are perceived come together to inform how you experience life. “the study and critique of how multiple social systems intersect to produce and sustain complex inequalities (Cavalhieri & Wilcox, 2022 p. 111. 

Knowledge community is a concept that illustrates that we are not made to hold all this knowledge ourselves, so we often adopt the beliefs of those around us. (Fernbach in TEDx Talks, 2017). 

Contagious understanding is feeling that we understand because someone somewhere understands. This causes us to double down on our beliefs even though we have little concrete knowledge of the truth of them or even how our beliefs are really our own. (Fernbach in TEDx Talks, 2017). 

Misogyny is a preconceived notion that men are superior to women and therefore inequality and mistreatment is justified (Aron, 2019).  

Oppression & its five “faces”  

The Five Faces of Oppression are essentially five categories in which to determine how and whether or not a person or a people-group are oppressed. Young makes their case such that we can determine which groups are more oppressed because they fall into multiple categories without reducing oppression to a scale or hierarchy (Young 2004, p12). The five faces of oppression include, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence.  

Exploitation involves devaluing the work/energy expenditure of some to the benefit of others. “The injustice of capitalist society consists in the fact that some people exercise their capacities under the control, according to the purposes, and for the benefit of other people.” (Young 2004, p 6).  

Marginalization refers to groups of people who are deemed not “useful” and have, therefore, been deprived of autonomy, privacy and other personal rights that are given inherently to independent persons. 

Powerlessness refers to persons who lack the authority to make decisions concerning their work, both what they do and how they do it; are limited by what they can do in regard to growth and development and lack a sense of self-confidence in the professional world. (Young 2204, p 9) 

Cultural Imperialism seems to be the most pervasive in American society. It is the practice of reaffirming the dominant culture’s experience of life as the norm and dismissing the perspectives of the non-dominant cultures by not recognizing them as perspectives and legitimate experiences of our world. (Young 2004, p 10) 

Violence is classified as oppression because of the commonality and lack of appropriate reprisals for committing violence against people of specific social groups simply because they are members of a group. Using violence as a means of harassing and intimidating groups which the perpetrators fear or hate contributes to the overall oppression of these groups. (Young 2004, p 11) 

 

Systemic racism A system of social structures and policies which form institutional and cultural fixed practices that affect the life chances of the members of the races regardless of their acceptance (Bonilla-Silva 1997, p. 473) 

Racialized organizations tie racial schemas to resources in such a way that the structure, habits and practices become the societal standard (Ray 2019, p. 33). 

Mental harmony puzzle helps to facilitate our tendency to throw out information that doesn't fit with our preconceived notions. Our mind wants to be in harmony so after viewing a “complete picture” in our midst, we filter information in order to maintain our preconceived notions. 

Selective perception filters the information we receive so that everything still fits within the picture or opinion that we have already formed. TEDx Talks (2015). 

Social Class is different from classism as it is the status of class you occupy based on available resources (Cavalhieri & Wilcox, 2022) 

Occupational Hierarchy is the belief that certain peoples were created and intended (by God) to perform the drudgery work of society (Wilkerson, 2020, pp. 128-136),  

White trash refers to the perceived inferior “breed” of poor whites in America.   (Isenberg, 2016, pp. 310-322).  

Social identity & Social location is the point where all aspects of your identity - the various groups and communities of which you are an affiliate, intersect. (Okazawa-Rey, 2007, p 14). This includes facets of our identity determined by what of us is a reflection of * our ourselves received from others around us. (Tatum 2003) 

Trans-misogyny Serano says that "trans-misogyny specifically targets transgender expressions of femaleness and femininity."  Essentially it is where oppositional sexism, the desire to keep the categories of male and female distinctly separate and traditional sexism, the idea that females are inherently inferior, intersect. (Serano 2021). 

On Theorizing the Self Where Social Identity & Social Location Meet Social Justice