Forum Post: Toward a New Vision
Posted 13 years ago on Sept. 29, 2011, 4:18 p.m. EST by dandydextrous
(3)
from Richmond, VA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The true focus of revolutionary change is never the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within us. ~ Audre Lorde
http://www.memphis.edu/crow/pdfs/Toward_a_New_Vision_-_Race__Class_and_Gender_._._..pdf
Arm yourself with knowledge, empower yourself with truth.
This is required reading in sociology classes.
Main points of the article are:
Our lives are framed by multiple systems of oppression
We need to understand these as not mutually exclusive categories for analysis but as intersecting, parallel and dialectical
They can be understood simultaneously as dimension of the fundamental relationship of domination and subordination
Collins offers a new vision that is distinctive and intersecting.
Move away from dichotomous thinking – either/or categorization (e.g. black vs. white, man vs. woman, rational vs. emotional, oppressed vs. not oppressed)
Dichotomous (binary) thinking leads to ranking of oppressions and seeing, for example, all whites/all men as oppressors
To an integrated and/both analysis – that is inclusive of the intersecting identities
Recognizing that privilege and oppression coexist
Must think in terms of inclusion
Strategies
building coalitions: finding a common ground or course for social change; shared histories with individual and institutional forms of oppression
building empathy: each side needs to engage in self-scrutiny and engage in understanding; understand one’s own privilege
awesome find.
it's a great article and patricia hill collins is a great writer and speaker! hope you enjoy it!
Thank you for posting it.