Dismantling The Existing Inequality Based On Race, Class and Gender

Article: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection by Patricia Hill Collins

Patricia Hill Collins’ article, ‘Race, Class and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection’, takes off by conceptualizing the idea of the race, class and gender categories and their analyses. She does this by stating that we must avoid and move our discourse away from additive analysis and the two key premises that we are so habituated to making when faced with issues in our daily lives. First premise, according to Collins, is dichotomous thinking – classifying things/people that we see into two distinct opposite groups. The second premise is the ranking of these dichotomous differences. A good example would be ‘women are inferior to men.’ Through these suggestions, Collins argues that these characteristics, in real life, interlock with each other, producing a complex set of identities that cannot be taken independently in each and every person.

Following the ‘ re-conceptualization’ of the categories and analyses, Collins delves deeply into the cases of race, class and gender discrimination in three different ways or the so-called ‘dimensions’. The first idea, ‘Institutional Dimension of Oppression’, refers to the structures of domination and subordination exacted by the social institutions such as schools, hospitals and government facilities. Secondly, the author presents the idea of the ‘Symbolic Dimension of Oppression’ by which human beings are differentiated and categorized according to the prejudices and stereotypes against them. Lastly presented is the ‘Individual Dimension of Oppression’ which arises due to the influence of the other two ‘dimensions’ in each individual in the formation of his or her preconceived notions toward certain social and ethnic groups.

Collins then proposes three methods to ‘transcend these barriers’ and ‘build the types of coalitions essential for social change’. After all, it has been observed by him that even though we passionately talk about equal opportunities and equal rights, there exist in abundance, marginalized people who are unjustly discriminated due to their gender, race, color and other inborn characteristics.  The author begins by claiming that the different circumstances that people are born under shape their privileges differently and therefore, view the world from different and often contrasting perspectives. These power and privileges are easy to go unnoticed and unappreciated. This links to the third solution that the author talks about – the power of empathy. Empathy is, according to Collins, having interest in other people’s lives. In my personal interpretation, empathy, in today’s small world in which people mix easily, does not seem to be a choice, but a necessity to resolve any issues regarding unequal treatment of people based on their ethnicity, gender and color of the skin. Lastly, the author suggests that a common enemy would encourage these different peoples and groups to bond and interact harmoniously. However, she stresses that this seems to happen based on the necessity and therefore, asserts that “we must support each other’s efforts, realizing that they are all part of the larger enterprise of bringing about social change".

Thank you! :)