Ever since humans formed organized society, social values, cultural context, and circumstances dictated the dynamics of human interaction. These values acquired nuances, prejudices; preferences over time that today form the vast body of sociological research. This essay examines the issue of Race, Class, and Gender politics focusing on the feminist movement as a transformational element in human affairs through the works of Paula S Rothenberg and Bell Hooks.
According to Paula S Rothenberg in Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, in America, race matters. It matters if you are Black or White and there is no doubt that ‘whiteness’ ensures better opportunity and treatment. A black person is more likely to be charged with a criminal offense than a white person. Prison statistics show that more black persons are incarcerated than white. Added to this confluence of negative factors is the question of class. The American society despite the outward appearance of egalitarianism is very class-conscious. To most, wealth determines class. To others, ‘breeding’ also determines the class and those right on top are the ones that have both wealth and breeding. The social construction of difference in America has its historical roots in the days of slavery, the civil war, the civil rights movement, and the various shades of affirmative action that have still not managed to shake off the shackles of age-old prejudices and beliefs. Discrimination occurs in every walk of life including legal discrimination. In America, there are invisible privileges for being white that people take for granted and are not consciously aware of. It is also possible that by knowing that ‘whiteness’ exists, reengineering of the present social systems can be attempted so that real equality amongst different denominations occurs.
Along with race and class issues, are gender issues. Rothenberg believes that the oppression of women is a central theme of the feminist movement. Women, because of their gender are caught in a double bind on almost all issues including issues of sexual freedom. A sexually active woman is most likely to be called a ‘whore’ on the other hand if she remains heterosexually inactive she is most likely to be called “frigid”, “man hater” “uptight” and other derogatory epithets which only reinforce popular stereotypes against them. A black woman, in addition to being gender disadvantaged, is also color disadvantaged which acts as a double negative for her treatment and status in American society.
Bell Hooks in Feminism: a Transformational Politics believes that universal male domination is due to the patriarchal domination of the planet that would require removal of sexist oppression which would finally result in the removal of all sorts of domination. Thus feminist movements must oppose this patriarchal domination as a way forward to remove gender inequality. This view is especially popular amongst western white feminist movements. Hooks denounces America to be a white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal society where women, especially black women have been victimized. Hook believes that there is an interlocking system of domination consisting of sex-race-class which needs to be continually spoken about, resisted visibly so that people are more aware and could be shamed into taking real affirmative action than just pay lip service.
A black woman growing up in a black male-dominated family is more likely to face coercive domination at home that later makes the black women even more submissive when faced with the experience of racism in the society, and the workplace. Thus feminists must persevere to first end patriarchal domination. Hooks offers a clear and concise definition of sexism as a movement to end sexism and sexist oppression. Hooks believes that the feminist movement should encourage small groups because they are important for educating and raising the consciousness of the grass-root level communities who may not have access to the large conferences, seminars, and books that are essentially upper-class phenomena. Feminism is a transformational politic because it strives to take the struggle against domination to not only change the individual but also the underlying societal structures. Hooks also believes that love can be an important source for carrying forward the agenda to end oppression against women. Therefore politicization of love to end domination is yet another facet of transformational politics that requires to be espoused by feminist movements.
The works of Rothenberg and Hooks are deeply disturbing but they ring true. Rothenberg’s effort is more objective, backed by statistical data and scholarly references, and thus appears more intellectually appealing. Hooks, writings are more subjective, abstract but have a certain emotional appeal. After reading the two works, there can be no doubt that race, class, and gender are connected. There is also no quarrel with the central tenet that the white does get preferential treatment in America and that this preferential treatment differs across races, classes, and finally genders, with the female gender being at the receiving end. That the black female comes last in the ‘food chain’ also comes out loud and clear through the treatise that feminists must concentrate on removal of patriarchal domination first sounds overstated. In Europe, feminists are more widely accepted and not looked at with such derision as they are in America. In more traditional Eastern societies such as the Indian subcontinent, the term ‘feminist’ is received with incredulity. Some parts of India have genuine matriarchal societies where accepting the decisions of the woman of the house is acceptable. However, that does not translate to ‘feminist’ issues as the western world understands them. That said, there is no doubt that women have been at the receiving end of societal prejudices the world over. It is here that feminist movements have helped the cause of progressing to a more just society.