Assignment #3: Power and Everyday Life

Chris Davis

4/6/08

WMST250

Power; a Day in the Life

“Mommy, I want an ice cream cone just like he has,” said little Billy while walking with his mother through the mall on a Saturday afternoon. “Now Billy, what did I tell you? You didn’t do your chores during the week, so no ice cream,” Billy’s mother said emphatically.” “But I want ice-cream. I bet that kid doesn’t have to do chores” said Billy sobbingly. “Well I’m not that child’s mother and you have responsibilities young man. Now let’s go.” Do you remember when you were a child and you saw something you wanted, badly. You hadn’t planned for it, had you mind on it to get it, but when you saw it, you knew you had to have it just like Billy had to have that ice-cream. In fact, as adults, we still might have those same types of tendencies. So, what is it that stops us? What is it that keeps us from getting the things that we want and desire? In Billy’s case, it was a failure to conform to the task-reward system of doing his chores. In other cases, it might be different strangleholds such as availability, processes which might keep us from attaining our goals. Nevertheless, through my experience, I have seen that power structures play a tremendous role on my life through race, class, sex, women, and family.

When I think about Billy’s situation, as a child, who doesn’t remember wanting something and their parents saying that they could not have it? I certainly remember situations like that. However, in our society, we believe that children are not yet matured and developed to the point where they can take care of themselves and make smart decisions. In other words, it is the parents who have power over the children, to an extent. As infants, we nurtured by our parents and as we grow up, we mature, become more independent from our parents, and we gain power over ourselves to make our own decisions. This parent-child relationship is only one of countless relationships which are governed by those who have and do not have power. In our everyday lives, power is a consistent regulating tool to attain order rather than chaos. Such relationships might be made between government and citizens, managers and employees, and teachers and students. Nevertheless, power can be used in various relationships, and more importantly, in various ways.

When I think about power in my everyday life, some of the major elements come from race, class status, the dominant presence of women, age, and sexuality. These elements combine to make a conceptual map of power within my everyday life. Like the human anatomy, this conceptual map has interrelated parts which associate and tie together to make the conceptual map possible. For example, race is an issue which acts as a subtle, but strongly influential tool in how power exists within our society. Unfortunately, race, tied into class and gender, can often fabricate the image of the ideal, successful person which has historically been, if you are white and male, you most likely will be successful.

Without opposition, one might be able to validate the ideal of the successful person by simply looking back at the history of America. In the creation of the United States, it was mainly the Anglo-American men and their families who were economically prosperous and considered at the top of society while native people, the American Indians, were treated less than human as they were pushed off of their native lands to make way for Anglo-American colonies. In addition, there were the African slaves who were not even considered human beings but property. With these same social conditions having been established for over 100 years, is it surprising that some of those principles of that beginning social system still ring true? With the addition of such ideas of the “White Man’s Burden,” the ideal of the successful person was able resonate throughout America’s history. The “White Man’s Burden” was an idea which accepted the fact that Whites were the dominant race and it was the jobs of whites to civilize the non-white races to be more like whites.

When I first began to think about my everyday life and where power is located in my life, I assumed that when I should think about power, I should think about the abuse or misuse of power in my life, in situations where I am powerful over others and others have power over me. Webster’s dictionary defines power as, “the possession of control or command over others.” I had not really thought about situations where power could be influential or good for others. Relating back to Billy’s situation, the rationale of Billy’s mom not to give him the ice-cream was an intended lesson, for Billy, on responsibility. Nevertheless, this is not to say that situations do not occur where Billy might have done all of his chores for this week, but his mother still might have denied him the ice-cream for no foreseeable reason; just saying “no.” Relationships of power can be beneficial such as when a teacher is there in the classroom to prevent children from drawing pictures with crayons on the wall. However, history has also proven that power can be a terribly oppressive and inhumane tool of control such as in America’s legalization of slave labor and Hitler’s attempted extermination of a human race. In general, power affects our lives whether it be in positive, influential ways or negative and oppressive manners.

“Ding Ding,” goes the alarm clock. It’s seven o’clock and already it is time to wake up. Having had to stay up the night before, studying for an exam, I wipe my eyes and proceed to get the day started off on a good note. I walk to the bathroom, turn on the light, and in that one instant, I immediately know it’s not going to be a good start. Groaning to myself at the stark and sudden changes in luminosity, I proceed to turn off the light, and contemplate the fact that, “Yes, I’m actually awake after four hours of sleep and I wake up now.” I go back and turn on the light, and proceed with my day.

One might assume that power, in some form or fashion, is an influential power in life through various structures. For me, power is established right from the moment I awake through the time and the role which time plays as a power structure in all of our lives. However, I view time as an influential power because it is an ordering principle for my everyday life. Having times to eat, sleep, go to class, meet, socialize, and complete various other activities makes it possible to create a universal system when things of the same purpose can happen for everyone, such as watching American Idol. Therefore, I think that this power structure of time is influential to me and society because it helps order our lives to a degree.

Time can also cause oppression onto society. American’s have adjusted to the now typical eight-hour workday. From my experience, these long hour work days can have a serious effect on a person. Having worked at Giant, a local grocery store chain, for the last few years, there are certain occupations which employees undertake there are rigorous, stressful, and can get tiresome day after day and year after year. Although I do not work eight-hour days throughout the year, I have seen how this idea of power thorough the use of time on the job can create oppression. For example, my mother has worked for Giant for almost 25 years. Along the way she has seen experienced such things as lack of time at home with family, time loss to run errands, and time loss for relaxation. The average workday consumes most of our day, with relatively little to do before or after the workday. In addition, we cannot abandon our jobs because they open up avenues for our sustainability through monetary benefits. I usually go to school and then work in the evenings. Theis restriction of time ion certain areas is conflicting to things that I might want to do. However, there are certain goals that I have established that I would notn’t be able to be fulfilled, such as graduating, if I don’t commit to these certain activities such as school and work. For most Americans, including me, the combination of long hour workdays and the need for monetary gains restricts workers, creating a system of oppression.

There is also an interesting way in which the idea of marked and unmarked categories weaves its way into time. For those apart of the unmarked category, such as those who often assume dominant socially or economically as white males, they might have time for leisure activities on the weekend, such as playing golf or other activities. However, those apart of the marked categories such as those apart of the minority population, find time much more limited because they have to work on the weekends to keep meet their financial duties such as the cost of living. Therefore, time does not only act as power structure but has reciprocal effects of those associated in dominant socio-economic groups compared with those not apart of these dominant groups.

After getting ready for the day, I leave the house and proceed on to school. I get into the car, start the ignition, and immediately see that the fuel meter reads empty. Without hesitating, I immediately drive to the local gas station to fill up. As I put the pump into the fuel receiver and proceed to pump the gas, I lean against the car and look up at the station’s display. The sign reads three-dollars and twenty-three cents. I hear fellow drivers filling up, conversing with each other. “Man, gas just keeps going up. I hear it’s supposed to be something like four-dollars by summer.” Just filling up one’s gas tank is a system of power that many people find oppressive.

With not much competition among major oil producers, major producers of gasoline such as Shell and Exxon, dominate the fueling industry. Add in factors such as a falling economy and you have many people struggling to keep gas in their vehicles. I find this system of power oppressive, because it supports a so-called, “who’s who” system where many of wealthy of Americans do not feel the “pinch at the pump” because they have a greater reserve of money. However, for most middle and lower-class Americans, they have consistent monetary needs for such things as food, housing, utilities, insurance, etc. If the value of gasoline rises, consumers, including myself, begin to feel pressure to meet these needs because as the value of the needs increase, their income is lower than the wealthy and their income does not increase to deal with these price increases. Therefore, I feel that there is a system of oppression where corporations, such as gasoline companies, gain economic dominance while many Americans are struggling to keep a stable economic status themselves.

This matrix of domination deals directly with class oppression. On one hand, you have corporations and companies who dominate consumers. However, within the consumers, you have the middle and lower classes being dominated by the upper, wealthy class. In this situation, it is the high class not being affected by gas prices as are the middle and lower classes.

After taking a deep breath, realizing that my wallet was figuratively lighter, it was time to get to school. I remember my first day starting at the University of Maryland. There were so many new people everywhere, all trying to acquire knowledge. One distinguishing factor that stood out was how different every person was from the next. There were people from all different racial, ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds roaming the campus. However, I did see occurrences where there were more of a certain racial or ethnic groups than there were of others. This observation was more heavily distinguished in the classroom than just walking around the campus.

In several of my classes during the first semester, I saw many white students but fewer black students. For example, one day I actually counted how racially diverse my communication class was. There were 28 white students, one Asian student, two Hispanic students, and three black students. As I realized that the class compilation was of students that chose to take this class, not forced, still the number in different races represented in the class was stark.

While it was interesting to think about the diversity within the university, it made think more about the broader picture of race in America and in how being a certain race still seems to have power over other races. To begin with, I remember as a small child, my mother telling me how she moved out of the, “heavily crime-prevalent streets,” of Washington D.C to the suburban community of Columbia, Maryland in an effort to create a better opportunity for her and her children. When I asked her what she meant about, “creating a better opportunity”, she explained that the conditions within the southern part of the District of Columbia were a place where many kids dropped out of school, were heavily influenced by drug dealers, and it was a rarity to find many who were going to college if they graduated from high-school. The big issue that stuck out was that my mother was relating specifically to African-Americans and we as African-Americans were the heavily dominant group in these areas where crime was normal and constant and most living conditions were poor and easily susceptible to degradation.

While I continue to be in awe of what my mother did in acknowledging the difficulty and courage it took to pack up and leave a place that she was familiar with in the sake of living a better, successful life for her and her family, I really continue to think about the dynamics of her situation and how many more people might be from these downtrodden and oppressed areas throughout America who find it almost impossible to provide a better life of themselves and, as my mother said, “get out of the ghetto.” To relate, in Architecture, we relate to the famous architect Bruno Zevi who expressed idea that the beauty and meaning of architecture can only be known by having experience within a space or a certain place. Presently, in the democratic battle for president, we have seen how both candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have used their experience in politics to gain credibility on various issues.

This notion of having experience and power in certain situations gives us particular influence on problems within those situations. In this case, when I still visit the many family members that I have in Washington D.C and I still see some of the concurrent characteristics that my mother told me about those many years ago; how it is hard for African-Americans to escape these areas. The fact that there is this large population of African-Americans in urban cities made me think about the history of African-Americans and our opportunity for advancement. From my experience and knowledge of the country’s history to this point, there was the emancipation of African-Americans, increased segregation laws immediately following such as the black codes, Jim-Crow laws which essentially held back the advancement, socially and economically, for blacks mostly in the southern parts of America. While the civil rights movements of the 1960’s really brought African-Americans into the mainstream to have equal civil rights in the right to vote and not to be segregated or discriminated against, I still wonder, “how much of America’s experience with race relations between whites and blacks influence today’s Americana culture economically and culturally?” A piece of me refers back to those neighborhoods in D.C to concur that today is much like yesterday.

After the long, nearly eight-hour day school day, it’s back home to enjoy the nostalgic feeling of the family and togetherness. “Chris can you help me with my homework,” my five-year-old little brother says apprehensively. I’m not sure about that natural feeling of sympathy that we have to help our younger siblings, regardless of what they want, but I end up being a sucker for it every time. Nevertheless, there is a dynamic power structure that lies within a family. Particularly, the relationship between older and younger members within the family poses as a power structure. From my experience, I was told as the oldest child that I was to be the example for my younger siblings. They were going to be looking up to me to learn what was good and what was bad. A system of privilege is created here because the younger siblings don’t face the mistakes that the older siblings have made. Similarly, guidance from the older siblings helps the younger siblings with new experiences. However, if the older sibling does not promote a positive mentorship-like attitude, but rather an attitude of non-concern, it could lead to a situation of oppression of power where the younger sibling has his own power to make his/her own decision without experience or a source of guidance.

The inclusion of rivalry between siblings also can be oppressive where, in my position, the older and younger siblings get more attention than the middle siblings. Famously satired on the show The Brady Bunch, I have often seen my parents give me attention because I was the first child to be born. My youngest brother often gets attention because he was the last to be born; our “little one.” So where is the attention for my middle sibling? Due to the attention which my little brother and I get, it creates a system of power oppression.

A major power structure within my life has been the presence of women in my life and what type of role which they have on my life. I have always found the relationship which a boy has with his mother and the relationship which a girl has with her father parallel. For me, I was raised by a single parent (my mother) for the first several years of my life. Having no dominant male figured at the beginning of my life perhaps challenged the traditional power roles for parents within the household. Nevertheless, my mother attempted to use the situation to free me from the oppression which can come with the relationship of father and son. Specifically, she used the situation for me to explore who I should be a male and not having a male figure as model of what counts as being male and what doesn’t.

In terms of women being a power structure in my life, there has been no greater source of influence in my life than that by women in my family. Dominating the family demographics nearly two to one, it was from an early age that I saw the importance in a woman’s influence. It was not to the point that I was given a heavily feminine view on how to think about things. Rather, I was given the freedom to think about things for myself, with their expertise and experience thrown in. I later saw when my mother married and my stepfather and I formed a relationship, it was more of me trying to be like him. While this relationship was not exactly oppressive, there was psychological pressure ,that I had to be as good or better than my stepfather. Contrastingly, the relationships with the women in my family were not as strict, but more open. I felt at ease to talking with them because they seemed to actually listen to what I was saying more than offering advice and saying, “here, this is what you should do.” Therefore, the power which women have had in my life lies in the influence that they have presented in being open and not judgmental on me and my actions.

“What are you looking at the car manual for? I’m surprised you even still have that thing. You know they mean for you to throw those things out after you buy the thing. You don’t need it. They just sit in the glove compartment collecting dust,” said my friend. “I looking to see how you’re supposed to check the oil on the car,” I said frustratingly flipping through the yellow-tattered pages. “What? You don’t know how to change you oil, man? Ok, I know you haven’t been driving that long, but come on. What guy does not know how to change his oil?” said my friend questionably. “Me” I said simply. “Forget it. It’s not in here” I said. “Hey Mom, do you pull this dipstick out again?” I yelled. “What? Oh come on man, what are you asking her for?” my friend said angrily. “Hey, I’ve seen her do it before.” My friend paused, sighed, and then said, “I can’t believe this is really happening.”

Speaking from experience, I have never memorized a car manual, and I never plan to. Nevertheless, why did my friend expect me to be able to know how to change my oil on my car? More interestingly, why did he expect my mother not to know how to change the oil? As a male, I have observed that the power structure of being male can certainly be considered the most powerful power structure, just because of the history of male and female roles since the beginning of time. Society has seen the male take the role as the household leader, while the woman has been taken subordinate the subordinate role. Even in my own household, with me being an 18-year old sibling in a single-parent family, it seems at times that my brothers look up to me more than my mother. Nevertheless, my mother is the person in the home who has had more experience in life than any of us siblings. In this case, I am not directly pressured to be a dominant male figure, but this marked category of being a male is strongly presented to where even children can understand that a male is the dominant figure in the family. This type of psyche creates a power system of oppression directly on females where they are not respected or even acknowledged as an equal parenting figure in comparison to males.

Power is an undeniable factor of how we live our lives. From the major functional structures of our society to the small minute things that help to keep our lives organized and non-chaotic, power surely exists. Nevertheless, it is in the implementation of power society that people must always be willing to stand critical against and ask the tough question, “Is power of a certain structure creating situations of privilege or oppression toward me or anyone else.” From this assignment, I have realized that it is the veiled issues such as power which creates system of oppression and privilege. Moreover, I realize now that it is the tackling of such issues as power; topics which we might want to talk about, or deny, that lies at the heart in the discussion for social justice within society. The issues of race, sex, class, and women have been areas where power has affected my life dynamically in both positive and negative ways. I believe, each individual analysis of these veiled, but important issues of power constructs a way in which justice and equality can be recognized for all.