Assignement #3: THe Analysis of Everyday Life

Candace Lee
4/19/08
WMST250
Section 0101

Assignment #3: The Analysis of Everyday Life

Where is the power in our everyday life? In terms of Feminism, power is divided into two forms. It could be “power over” which means the power to influence others, oppression and the other form is “power to” meaning to be able to take action on something, a privilege. In society, what powers is one oppressed and privileged? The matrix of domination in my life that affects my privileges and oppression are race, social status, gender and generation of immigrant.
I am a female American Born Chinese (ABC), born in Orlando Florida. My parents were both born and raised in Malaysia, but we are not Malaysians. My ancestors originated from China and through the generations, my grandparents happened to migrate to Malaysia in hope to pursue a better living and there is where my parents were born. Again in hope for a better living, my parents immigrated to the United States where I grew up following the Chinese traditions, while also learning about how life was like in Malaysia. In addition, my parents often share what they knew about their hometown, such as the foods, customs as well as the different religions and races that exists in Malaysia. At a young age the first language I learned was Cantonese Chinese and I spoke Cantonese with my family members until I started going to school. Once school started, I learned to speak English and from then on I became bilingual. Today I am fluent in both languages with English technically as my second language.
I feel that being a different race in the United States other than White is oppression. Although everyone is treated equally, having the same freedom and rights, but there is still discrimination going on within the society. It is an unmarked discrimination, where it is not the law that discriminates certain races or gender, but the people themselves. In our world today, for example, there are still women getting paid less than men, there are other races getting paid less than another race as well as there are discriminations against individuals who have disabilities. The law says we are all equal individuals, so should we also be treated equally amongst ourselves? An example from my personal experience is that my uncle is the founder of a fairly large corporation in Malaysia, but he is required to appoint an actual Malaysian to be the Chief Executive Officer and the highest rank my uncle can get is what they call the Managing Director (MD). Behind the scenes, it is my uncle who does all the work; the appointed CEO just takes the title and in some cases the credit. Although this is not oppression to me personally, but it still feels quite uncomfortable of how the world is like and how my relative is being treated. Similarly, sometimes I have this same feeling that what happened to my uncle is happening in the United States as well. The only differences is instead of Malaysians dominating the highest level position in a company, it is the White Americans who are in power. Not just that, I’ve notice there usually are very few woman who are in the higher level positions and this is not just the U.S. Other countries around the world may be even worse, where there are no woman leaders in the government or even in corporations. This thought may just maybe my own ‘theory’ and that it probably does not hold true in all situations, but this is how it seems like society works. This part from the matrix of domination is where I feel that I am more oppressed rather than privileged.
However, though in the United States there are still some unmarked discrimination happening but the government tries its best to change and improve America. For example, in the recent politics and more specifically the 2008 Presidential elections support my claim. The 2008 Elections is the first time in history where both a female and a Black American (another race other than Whites) are running for presidency. This is a new turning point for the U.S. because never in history has either a female or Black American participated in the presidential elections. In the past, people would oppose of this fact because Americans felt that they were not ready for a new change of what type of person leads our country. In addition, most people were probably still conservative and did not trust that a woman leader or a leader of a different race would be effective. But these are all just people being biased and still have the mind of a traditionalist. Of course it is not right to have that mentality that only a certain type of race or gender is able to do the job, when anyone can. It is an improvement that in this year’s presidential elections that things fall out of the tradition and that America is accepting something new. It is an honor for my generation to be at the right age where we are allowed to get involved in politics and vote. To other individuals who are younger than us or who are currently not American citizens, this may be one of their oppressions, while it is our generation’s privilege over them. Because the younger generation and the people who are not citizens are unable to experience one of the biggest changes in American History, this is where they are empowered by my generation.
Similarly, the same kind of concept holds true when it comes to education for women and other races. In history, women were unable to pursue an education because society did not accept that a woman could be educated and that their only role is in the household. To be born, grow up and to live in the society today is a great advantage to the newer generation children, especially for a female. Nowadays since females have the opportunity for education, more and more females are graduating and becoming as successful, if not surpassing as men. They are arguing that their role in society is not just in the household and they do not need to be completely focused on the home, but can also pursue a real career, in addition to taking care of the home and family. Women who are able to do work and also maintain order in the household are the ones who are powerful. This means, that I too have the possibility of becoming a very successful individual in the future, if I put the effort into it. The topic of women’s opportunity for education also leads into my privilege that I have the right to go to school in general as opposed to the more disadvantaged young adults in other countries whom does not have the chance. Furthermore, the fact that I am part of a low income family is both an oppression and privilege to me because I am oppressed that life is not like how life would be if my family were on the wealthy or middle class side. But also privilege because the U.S. government offers financial aid to me that other upper class students do not necessary have as an option. In many cases, the college expenses and tuitions can exceed the amount that most upper class families can afford, thus creating a dilemma for them. Provided with financial aid allows me to get the financial burdens off my back and can whole hearty focus on my college career. Because of this I begin to empower some other individuals who do not get financial issues solved. In a director’s meeting I had for my academic program, the presenter mentioned that some students who failed to apply for their Federal Government’s Financial Aid application on time, where subject to pay a few ten thousands of dollars. As a result, if the student is unable to afford this amount of money, they will have no choice but to drop out from the University. So, if that student found other alternative aids, such as borrowing loans to pay off his or her tuitions, he or she would still be at a disadvantage because my aids are grants and do not need to b paid back. My personal view of this scenario is because I have the privilege for the aid, I am empowering many people who are in a disadvantage. On a more personal note sometimes I feel that the requirement of having to go to school is an oppression to me. The only reason is because I do not believe I am a school and studying person, but in order to have a better future education must be completed.
Like mentioned earlier, I am come from the working class family. My father also was from a very poor and large family, to a point where my father did not get an opportunity to continue his education because of the financial difficulties. Many of my uncles and aunts were interrupted from their education at a young age because they had to start working in order to help out the family. My mother in contrast, came from a fairly wealthy family where everyone was able to complete their education or at least get a reasonably better education than other families. Despite my mother coming from a middle-upper class family, I did not get this privilege of spending a life with wealth as my grandfather did not pass down his business to my mom. Instead, my parents and their two daughters (my sister and I) lived a life where the monthly budget was just right and sometimes the expenses exceed the income. Due to my marked category of being part of the working class family, I grew up to learn how to be independent and efficient on saving money. Personally, I feel that this characteristic is more of a privilege rather than an oppression. Generally speaking a child born into a working class family will learn more valuable life lessons than that of a child who was born into the upper class. Although the child from the upper class may be living in the “American Dream”, where they are have high quality living environment, education and personal items, but are they privileged to grow up and learning what it takes to be a responsible and independent individual? Will they understand the importance of money and savings? I do not believe so, because they never personally experienced the difficulties of life and how important money can be in our daily lives. It might be an oppression that I am not as wealthy as them, but for personality character traits I am oppressing them. From personal point of view, I it is not very likely to me that young adult and some adults from the upper class would understand the hardship the working class experiences in their daily lives, therefore because of this fact we see that those upper class young adults are more spoiled. My college roommates are good examples, sometimes I see my roommates buying items without checking the prices and if they do check the price, they would feel that it is inexpensive when I would consider it as an expensive item. It is due to our different life styles and life experiences when growing up that we view what is considered inexpensive and what is expensive. It also involves parents and how they convey how one should live their life. The power in terms of social class works both ways, the rich can overpower us working class with their wealthy and status, while we working class can empower them with our personal qualities of being a more reliable person.
Currently, I am a nineteen year old teenage female living in the 21^st century and part of the unmarked category in terms of age. Over the years, Black Americans had fought for their rights and freedom; women had fought for their independence and rights as well. But has there been a time in history where young adults fought for their rights? Do they have any rights specifically for their age group in society? In my knowledge of history, I do not recall teenagers or young adults ever trying to fight for themselves, not necessary freedom or rights because these are all included in their race and gender. Instead we young adults should fight for respect from the older generation. It is common that if an eighteen year old made a point about something verse an older person who made a similar point, who would people most likely believe, the teenager or the adult? Most would probably trust the adult more because apparently they have more experience in life and therefore know more than teenagers. Of course this is true in many aspects, but sometimes it might be helpful to hear what an eighteen year old might have to say because they may very well know what they are talking about. As most people do not trust what teenagers say about certain things and by this I think that it is somewhat along the longs of lacking respect for this particular age group. There are obviously exceptions, such as in terms of a discipline, a professional adult would be more creditable in what they are saying than a young adult who is just a student.
Moreover, oppressions can change to privileges when one hits a certain age and it can also go the other way, privileges changing into oppressions. By state law in most of the U.S, when someone turns sixteen years of age, they have the right to choose whether or not to stay in school without parents’ consent. If the child is under sixteen years old, it can be considered as oppression that they need parent’s consent to be in school, they do not have their own choice. However, once they are sixteen and over the oppression are changed to a privilege where they have a right to make their own decision on staying in school or dropping out. Similarly, a teenager turning eighteen years old will have many factors that were previously oppressing them lifted off and those oppressions will become privileges instead. They are now able to vote, get a full drivers license, watch R-rated movies, be able to call and order things online and the biggest change is being treated as an adult. I remember last year when I turned eighteen years old, I felt that I suddenly became more powerful, having more power to be able to control my life without my parents consent and having the power to be more independent and responsible. Then the next stage in our lifetime is turning twenty one, where we are now a full adult, able to drink, smoke or become a full grown adult where all the previous laws oppressing you of being underage is now lifted off, it has become a privilege for you to drink or whatever you want to do. Thinking to the future, more specifically in the next two years when I turn twenty one myself, what kind of oppressions will I have when it comes to age? Certainly, I will be oppressed of having all the responsibilities an adult has that a younger individual may not need to worry about.
In today’s society the majority of the people’s religion is Christianity, at least the people I know are all Christians, except for me. Truthfully speaking, I do not really have a religion nor do I personally believe in any of beliefs Christians believe or beliefs that my parents’ religion believes in. The traditions my parents follow are along the lines of Buddhism, but do not follow closely to the customs of the religion. Technically, my immediate family is not religious people, my parents may follow some of the customs that of Buddhist, but my sister seems to be an atheist. I may consider myself as an atheist myself, however, according to the Chinese customs and the youth must respect the elders. I, as the daughter of my parents should respect what they believe in, although I may not necessary agree. Perhaps, this can be one of the religious oppressions in my life, that I should follow my family traditions and customs. In a boarder sense, it seems that my family religion is oppressed by the Christians as Christian churches dominate the neighborhoods, cities or communities. If something or someone dominates over others, naturally there is a feeling of power that comes from the dominator over the other groups that do not dominate. But since the U.S and as many other countries has the right of freedom for its people, it is also a privilege that we are able to choose our religions.
As an ABC, I am considered as an American and the blood I let out is also the American blood. It is a great privilege and advantage to be an American citizen. We seem to have more benefits for being a citizen in the U.S than other countries, say China. Hence, it is one of the factors for the United State’s high levels of immigration. No matter if its Asians or Hispanics, everyone from around the world always dreamed of settling in the U.S and this has in fact been going on many years in our history. With the high levels of immigration, gradually this will pose immigration problems for our country, therefore not everyone are so lucky to be able to live in the U.S and receive citizens’ benefits. Being part of the unmarked portion in nationality really is an advantage as children born in the United States have it far more easy than those who are immigrants and want the same type of rights. I know in the previous generations, when my parents wanted to set foot on the North American borders, it required going through many obstacles and hardships to be able to live here legally. My mother giving birth to me here in the U.S have taken the oppression off of me that I may have to go through if my parents were to decide to stay in their hometown. Everyone knows life is hard and unfair, but as a citizen in the United States, it just makes it a tad better for when it is time for education or when we want to become permanent residents. If you apply to universities or colleges, the application process is more efficient if you were an American citizen in contrast to an International Student or a student who’s an alien.
With a disadvantaged background as my parents were not well educated and therefore cannot really assist me in school work, I am oppressed by other students who have parents that are better educated and are able provide the academic assistances as needed. By this oppression I was unable to be admitted into the university as a regular student because I did not meet the academic requirements by the school. Because I am living in the United States and not in other countries such as Canada or England where the school systems seem to be a lot stricter, it was more advantageous for me. I was given the opportunity to be considered for admissions into the University of Maryland through the special program designed for students like me who need some academic assistance, called the Academic Achievement Program (AAP). As part of this program I was required to go through a rigorous curriculum over the summer and into the first two years of my college career. The summer school was the preparation for the fall semester in the upcoming year and it also determines if I am admitted into the school or not. After completing through the intense six week summer transitional program, I successfully passed the ‘test’ and was officially accepted into the UMCP as an AAP student. I consider this experience as a huge privilege in my life and have also become a privilege not just a part of my life, but in my everyday life. Since I am part of the AAP, it is a great benefit for me during my first two years in college because I get the help I need to get through some tough college classes. I used to think that this program was my oppression as I am not as accelerated as the rest of the students in the university, but now I have come to realize that in some cases I am the one who is oppressing them because I get the extra treatment and care from the school that others do not. On the contrary, although I get more care and looked after by the school the downside of it is that I have more work to do and more classes to attend that the rest of the university does not have to deal with. The AAP is considered a marked category in the education portion of my matrix of domination because I am part of one of the smallest and different groups of students in college.
Today language is an important skill to have in our everyday lives because many employers hope to seek candidates with more than one language talents. Again because I am bilingual there is a privilege that I hold against the unmarked category of White individuals and yet there are others in my marked category that is oppressing me. For example, during a job search I have a slight advantaged in the particular career that requires knowing more languages than others who only are fluent in English. In contrast, there are so many individuals out there who are oppressing me who are not only bilingual, but trilingual and some maybe their “lingo” prefixes represents a higher number of languages they know. In fact, even people within my race are oppressing when they know how to read and write Chinese in addition to speaking it. This ability I currently do not process.
After analyzing my everyday life in depth, I have come to believe that I hold the most power in the social class section my matrix of domination. It is because I am in the working class that shaped me of who I am today. Looking on the positive side of being in the working class rather than the more oppressing side, I learned to become a young female who cherish her processions and what really need to be valued in life. Additionally, I would not have gotten the opportunity to be part of in the university that I attend today, nor would I have had the smallest opportunity to be part of AAP, a program that truly looks after their students. My social class has brought advantages to my educational life as well as my personal life. Based on my personal view, this is the greatest power that I hold in this society and that others in a higher social class do not necessary have. Social class is the greatest domination of power in my everyday life.