Power Located in My Everyday Life

Power refers to the control that one person or group has over another and can be used to influence the choices of the other person or group. But for the most part, one’s power is usually used in a negative way as a way to oppress another person or group. Those in power are described to be the ones that are the dominant, which are generally the few while the ones who hold little or no power are considered to be the rest of the population. The amount of power that a person has in society is based on their race, gender, class, sexuality, ability, language, religion, nationality, and age. Where one places in each of these categories can either help them gain power as being the elites or can hurt them leaving them scarred in society until these “norms” change. The powers of my race, gender, class, and religion have given me the most social location and affect me through my life either in a positive way or for the most part a negative way.
These categories of what is considered to be “normal” is determined by the society and who they feel should hold the most power, which may or may not change in the future. Due to the fact that being in a certain category may be considered to be normal, there is always one group that is not be represented and therefore are left out. It does not mean that if you do not fit into these categories that you are inferior but it has a way of making people feel that way. This creates a problem in society because that is when people start to think that it is better to be a white man instead of a black man. Systems of oppression are used to justify making something right at the expense of the group with less power. One way to show how issues of oppression and privilege are interconnected in society to represent how much power someone will have based on their race, gender, etc. is called matrix of domination. The two categories to demonstrate the matrix of domination of how power is located within our everyday lives is called marked and unmarked categories. People who fall into the marked categories are those who are powerless and suffer from oppression. These people are considered to be a women, people of color, non-Christian, homosexual or transgendered, working class, disabled, children or the elderly, immigrant or illegal’s, and those who speak non-standard English. These people are considered to be minorities because they have no influence on society. Those who fall into the unmarked category are those who dominate the society are considered to be privileged and are more likely to come up with the rules as ways to control the powerless. These people tend to be white, male, Protestant Christian, heterosexual, middle class, young adult, United States citizen, and speak standard English. They are unmarked because it is already understood who they are even if they are not mentioned because they fit into these set profiles. At some point, most people fall into the category of marked because they might not be either a Protestant Christian or may be a homosexual. Being unmarked puts people in a category, which makes them feel left out of society and makes it hard for them or their group to gain power or change the rules without having to fight for it. Due to the fact that those unmarked hold no power, they try to overturn those who have power by creating all types of movements to get their voices heard, as with the feminist and civil rights movements. If people do not do this, they will always remain at the bottom and will accept their place in society. For example, if women did not have all of these feminist movement, they would continue to be considered more lower in standard to men than what they first started because although women have not fully gained the same rights as men or treatment in the workforce, such as getting paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same amount of work, they have come along way from not being able to vote. Looking at the matrix of domination, I find myself fitting into more of the unmarked category and fall into the category of the oppressed and powerless. I am an Eritrean (African-American), heterosexual female, the child of immigrant parents but was born in the United States. The norm would have to be being a Protestant Christian but I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian. I don’t feel that there is much difference compared to other religions such as Judaism. My family, being immigrants from Eritrea are part of the working class who have to work regular 9-5 jobs. My father is a taxi cab driver while my mother is a street vendor and they both work in Washington DC. For those who are in the lower class, it is very hard for them to rise up and be able to change their lives especially when they come from other countries. Even though I may privileged in being temporarily able-bodied, a young adult, a US citizen and speak standard English, it still puts me at a disadvantage because other systems of power have a greater influence on the amount of power that I have. I feel that I am more oppressed because all of the odds including education are the other way and for me to succeed I need to be able to fight against these odds.
I think one way that I have fought oppression is by going to college and trying to change the way that people see African American as being dumb and lazy. This way if you start small, you would be able to change the norm and all of the oppression that is experienced in this society. But I think that being grateful for being given the privilege to go to college to better the life of myself allows me to give something to my parents that they gave me and much more. So that although they were not able to get good jobs, they gave me the opportunity and the resources to become successful. Especially in poor neighborhoods, where the educational system failed in trying to help the students it is up to the individual student to better themselves. I think that with my motivation to live a better life this will hopefully change the systems of power where the only people that have the highest power are white males. This has a lot to do with oppression and how those from the bottom have to find extra ways to change the current people in power such as going to college in order to get their message across. That is where the role of empowerment came into place where those who are empowered find ways to make a change do so while those who are not empowered wait for others to make the changes for them. I think that my gender has had both its privileges and its oppressions on me. Being a woman, you may get more advantages in people treating you more easy than they would for a man especially in workload. But this can also has its side effects in which someone may not trust to give you a bigger job to handle on your own because they may think that you are weak, making it harder for people to rise in their position in life. This may contribute to the reason why many women are not in higher power but are slowly starting to climb the ladder to a higher position. I think that there is a stereotype that women are better at following directions and being told what to do rather than leading a group of people. For women to be able to not be oppressed, they have to be able to make their own decisions with their body including with the choice of whether or not they want to get an abortion. For example, in Eritrea it is very common for women to get genital mutilation and I remember of a young girl who had to get this painful procedure. The sad part is that it was not even her decision on whether she wanted to get this done, it is like they make the decision for her. The rights for the people are limited and so with that the women would have not that many rights as men.
In Eritrea, the women have the stereotypical jobs as being house wives and taking care of the kids. My mother did not even finish middle school because a lot of the times it is not put upon them that they have to finish school like men. So much is put on the female to have to take care of the family that what they want in their life outside of the family is put aside. It is interesting to see to that a lot of them are happy with their role because they have no desire or motivation to work outside of the home. A lot of women feel that if there role is to do housework and if they do not, they are afraid that they will be looked down upon, so they act as if they are happy. My aunt would sometimes remind me that girls my age have a family and do housework.
Another example, is when my female cousin wanted to be an engineer because she loved to fix things using her hands, she felt put down when people would say that she should consider another career such as being a nurse. She felt that people assumed that because she was a female that all she could was certain jobs and if she did not she would be accepted by people. She eventually changed her major to business because she found that the job market for engineering was low and it was hard to find a job. I think that this involves women setting their standards low for men. It is considered for men to be the provider for the women and so if a women is put into a higher position men feel insecure. In my English class, I read an essay called Straightening Our Hair by bell hooks and she talks about how black women straighten their hair in order to look more attractive in the eyes of black men. This relates with the positions of women, in which they feel that they have to lower their standards so that men will accept them, especially if the man is not as successful as her. As women, we should put ourselves first, instead as it was in the past where we put everyone else’s needs ahead of our own. Another category that determines how much power that one will have is by the class they fall into, being working, middle, or lower class. Everyone does not have the same starting point due to either race or gender or any other environmental factors. So a black person would have to work much harder than a white man because they are considered to be generally to be generally in the lower class and even if they are in the middle class they are still not treated equally as a middle class, white male. I have lived in Langley Park, Maryland for all of my life where this place is an immigrant place where the majority of the people are Hispanics and there are a few black that live there too. At one point, there were mostly white people living in Langley Park but they moved due to the increase in the number of minorities moving in the neighborhood. For example, with me I think that growing up in the lower class, it made it harder for me to do well because everyone around me is not doing well and so it was harder to keep the motivation to go to college.
In my high school, there were many pregnant girls, people would come to school either drunk or alcoholic, and gang-based fights. There was just a lot of negativity around me making it harder for me to succeed. But I think that I am privileged in being able to make a change in my life by trying to shift the power to those who usually do not have the power. One does not have to start a movement in order to make a change but by taking little steps such as attending college will help make small changes. The only way that I feel I am able to get out of the lower class is by going to college in order to make a change for myself and my family. I think that the only time that being lower class may help someone is when they want to go to college. Being in lower class has helped for me to get some assistance in going to college. Especially when one’s parents are immigrants, they have to just take the menial jobs that no one else wants and have to do it in order to survive for them and their family. I don’t think that there are any real privileges to being lower class because you don’t make any decisions because people make decisions for you. Being in the lower class, the schools that I went to were not very good because they did not encourage everyone in the school to go to college but only the small amount of people that they feel have a chance to get accepted. . The school only expects people to graduate from high school and just find a regular 9-5 jobs. Those who have power feel that they do not want to spend their money on the lower class because they feel that they will not be successful or go to college. This has a great deal with the matrix domination because if people are not given the same opportunity as another group they will not be able to change the way that the power is located. By not being given the same opportunities as the middle class, the lower class’s system of power is located at a place where if they do not make any changes will always remain at the bottom. Being a minority, people do not expect much from you whether you are black or any other nationality. Sometimes when I tell people that I am going to college they feel so happy and surprised because they feel that I would be living the life that my parents never had. Being African American, there is a low expectation for me because no one expects you to do with anything in your life. The only time my race has helped me was going to college because usually colleges such as the University of Maryland want to be diverse so they will open a small sections for minorities in order to give them the opportunity to get a good education. But I feel a lot of times that businesses will just add a minority in order to fill the status quo based on their race rather than on the skills that they have, which can sometimes have a positive effect if the person is able to move into a higher position of that job. This hurts others because if two people are both qualified, they are most likely to take the minority in some cases.
Even though the creation of affirmative action may be considered to be a privilege, sometimes it seems as if minorities need this help because usually the schools that they go to did not teach them enough or they lived in a negative environment with high levels of crime. With minorities, it seems as if those in higher power try to justify the reason that minorities are not in power is due to the fact they are not strong enough instead of attributing these factors to the systems failure. Race is probably the biggest category of the unmarked and marked category because when people first meet you that is what that they see. Race is something that cannot be changed because that is the first thing that people first notice when they meet you while ones sexuality can in some cases be hid, so that no one would be able to tell whether you are a homosexual or a heterosexual. For those who fall into most of the important unmarked categories, they have the most power whether they choose to use it. For example, for a white person it is easier for them to get by and be able to get into higher positions rather than a black person who has to try harder to get even the same kind of respect. I think that Americans privileges makes immigrants such as my parents oppressed because they are able to get the good jobs while they are able to leave the hard physical work for the foreigners to do. It was interesting because in bell hooks Feminism is For Everybody ,she states, “All white women in this nation know that whiteness is a privileged category.” ( 55 ) hooks tries to show that there is a difference between white females and black females because they have different things that they have to fight for in order for a change to be made. I think that even with feminism this term is more associated with white women rather than black women because not only do black women have to fight for women’s rights but they have to fight for African-American rights. In my African American Studies class, I learned that black women considered themselves to be womanists rather than a feminist because not only do they have to try to fight gender oppression but they also have to fight racial inequalities that were occurring at that time.
Another category that I think is important especially in the United States has to deal with religion especially after the incident that occurred on September 11, 2001. There are so many different groups within Christianity but they are all for the most part have similar beliefs. I think that I am privileged to be a Christian because other groups such as Muslims are not treated fairly. People do tend to treat Muslim differently because I know that with my father, he tends to looks Muslim he feels that he does not get treated equally, especially in high security places. They think that he may be a terrorist and may look or check him differently that they would not normally do for other people. My father tends to not consider himself black and so he feels that he is not well represented when he fills out forms.
Sexuality has become a big issue especially involving the issue of gay marriages. I think that with sexuality it can be changed or at least be hid while ones race is with them forever. This interconnects with religion because in a lot of religions including Christianity, they are against any form of homosexuality. It must be hard for people such as bell hooks because not only is she a black women but she also is a lesbian putting her into most of the unmarked categories. Even though I may be going to school and trying to better myself, I could still be looked as the black girl from a poor place. When people look at you they do not see what is in your mind but rather they see your race, gender, etc. Intersectionality is based on how everything such as race and gender are not independent of each other but instead they are interrelated to created these forms of privileges and oppression. This means that even though you may have one form of privilege on the other hand you may have to deal with forms of oppression. This helps to create inequalities in different categories including race, sexuality, and gender. This deals with intersectionality where you may be doing good things but have other problems going on outside of that.
I think that being informed about the matrix of domination will help people to overcome oppression. I never realized how much race, gender, and other categories influence our social location in our society. I hope that with this information, it will allow the way that power is currently located in our society so that no one will be categorized based on their race or gender. Power should be spread out so that every group of people will be given the opportunity to rise. People in the marked categories should be able to change their lives so that they will no longer being considered to be marked. Having these categories puts different groups that are not even connected in one group making it so that each individual loses its identity.