Class dilemna
My brain is spinning.I've been reading so much lately on class it makes me insane. I can't even do a simple thing like walk to work or make myself lunch without it slapping me in the face. Everything I do, I ask whether I am merely acting as a product of my class background (a complicated identity to be sure). I know that this interpretation is too simple, that I am a tangled mess of intersecting identities, not only my class (which in a word would be working class) but lesbian/queer, white, christian, liberal, feminist, student, politically active, geek, activist, librarian, et cetera.
Of course, this makes me remember the argument that as long as we look at class as a personal identity and not an oppressive system we will continue to perpetrate the oppression not only in our own generation, but the following ones. How can we begin to tackle this system when we are coerced into believing that it is part of our identity not the means of oppression itself?
What constitutes class? How does it serve to oppress people individually, and collectively in relation to other identities? How does one go about working to dismantle it?
Why are we unable to look at class in the U.S.? Why do we ignore these problems and let them continue? Why is money such a secret and dirty topic of discussion? WHY DO WE INSIST ON BLAMING THE VICTIM?
In claiming a class identity does one actively participate in this socially constructed system that pits people against one another, devaluing their worth as individuals in order to quantify and replace this with the worth of their possessions? Or in claiming a class identity does one fight the silence that surrounds this taboo topic?
So many questions that I don't think I could ever answer, but ones that I definitely am trying to, or at least get a better handle/understanding on in my own mind.
posted by naemean @ 6:03:00 PM
2 Comments:
I recommend looking into standpoint theory, particularly bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins. (I have articles if you're interested.) Standpoint says that marginalized positions are both personal identities from/to which to claim empowerment (as a different, more informed way of looking at the world than those who are not marginalized in one way or another) while at the same time being a product of a system which is inherently build on oppression and power. We can talk more about this if you'd like... it's still a little early for me to really go into it. ;) It's good stuff though.
I suggest Cornel West.
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