Journal #9

Gadson

Aliyah

For this Journal, I chose to use The Power of Illusion, Class and Power, and
A Primer on Privilege. I chose these because they were the ones that I found the
most interesting, and I felt that they would add an interesting dynamic to my
understating of feminism from various perspectives as well as in Caroline Lubys
case specifically.
In The Power of Illusion, it is argued that race is a social construct. Although
scientists may argue that race is not real or natural, I would have to disagree. Even
if we created race, even if it is a construct that we created to divide ourselves, it is
still real. It still affects the way in which we live our lives and the way that we are
perceived. In Caroline Lubys case, she is white. Her race allows her a certain
privilege that someone who looks like me does not have access to. Race is not real,
but people who look like her still would get paid more on average than people who
look like me. The argument that this is due to racism while race does not exist does
not sit well with me. I would be willing to bet that whoever wrote this piece was
looking through a white lens. It is harder to see the issues that our society faces
when youre the one with the most privilege.
For Caroline Luby, she used the mascot situation at UCONN to tell her story
because she felt it was a good outlet that was relevant to her and her community at
the time. If she was a different race or had a different background, she may have
used another outlet due to the fact that what is relevant to us is objective to our
experiences. Social Classes depicts this with its explanation of how our culture,
socioeconomic status, and may other things impact our decision making and output
on life. So many factors that we can and cannot control impact the way we live our
lives.
The piece A Primer on Privilege, had some pieces with which I disagreed.
The first would be her idea that privilege is not about you. Privilege is all about you.
If you were not different, if you were like everyone else, if everyone was the same,
then how would privilege even exist? Would we create some way to categorize each
other even if we were all the same? Probably. Even then, privilege is wrong. It is not
right to say that one person inherently deserves more than another based on their
background. The second issue that I have with this article is that she says privilege
is not your fault because if youre not willing to fight for equality and change, then it
is your fault. I do however agree with her statement that privilege is blinding.
As I stated earlier, Caroline Lubys choice of outlet probably would have been
different if her privilege and intersectionality were different. At the same time, the
way people perceived her message may have been different as well. If she were
black or latina or anything else but white, then would her letter have even made
national attention? It is hard to know, but even if it did, then the makeup of the
audience probably would have been completely different. Would she even have
been taken seriously? It is sad that we even have to ask these questions, and it
makes me wonder how many important voices have been silenced.