Question

Directions and criteria for Final Essay 2A:

Write an essay (3 to 5 pages in length), with works cited (minimum of four citations)responding to the following instructions:

*Outlines are optional. However, if you include an outline your outline will be worth 20 points. This will mean that your overall quality and research will be worth 60/100 and not 80/100.

Part I:         Begin by defining your relation to power and privilege according to your sexual orientation, ability-level and race. Next, analyze the impact of the intersection of sexual orientation and ability level as it has affected you either positively and negatively within the systems of privilege in which you participate. Then, place yourself at a level on one of the racial identity development models and discuss your movement on the selected model over the course of this quarter.

Part II: Focusing on your own lenses of perception, use social construction theory to explain your current and past perceptions of and micro-aggressions against persons who are perceived as queer. Integrate into your explanations your role taking “the path of least resistance”, along with your resistance to or participation in systems that oppress this otherized group.   

Submit (the paper and works cited) by the assigned deadline as one document.

Grades will be based on the following criteria:

1) Overall quality of self-reflection in your paper 40 points. Adherence to and thoughtful coverage of the complete instructions for this self-reflection assignment.

2) Research content and quality of essay 40 points. Discuss yourself contextualized in course content which has been researched with your sources cited. Your story should be clearly and thoughtfully expressed.

3) Presentation 10 points

Appearance, neatness, margins, and font size.

(12 point font for the entire body of the text including works cited)

4) Works cited 10 points

Variety, credibility, and the stylistic format of sources. Include at least four citations in either MLA or Chicago styles.

5) A late paper will lose:

10 points the first day (after 24 hours)

20 points the second day

40 points the third day

After that, it is no longer accepted.

Answer 1

Power tends to be a vital issue for anyone who craves a more equitable society. It mostly relates to power of political structures or other power such structures which affect the society we live in. Each one of us has a difference relationship to power.

Power can be a lot of different things for a lot of different people. For me, more than something that comes from outside, it is something that comes from within and you can see the results on the outside. It is the influence you have over others. You can cultivate power but your thoughts and actions. This means that unlike what most people believe, power is not something that comes attached to a title or designation. History, culture, beliefs and behaviour all play a role in creating the conditions that lead some people to have more power than others, depending on their social identity. As an example, US president Barrack Obama, irrespective of this position, he face so many challenges to his nationality, education etc, simply because of his being African American, though he held arguably the most important and powerful office in the world.

I am a straight Indian female brought up an a non-conservative Indian household. I was born and was brought up in India. My family does not have an important last name, netiehr does my family a ton of ancestral money. My social identity is just what it is, it is primarily Indian. My sexual orientation does not play a big part in it. Being a woman definitely plays a very important part in it. Social conditioning has resulted in me and a lot of women like me feeling like we do not have power, even though there has been education, travel, exposure and ability level to say otherwise, but it is something ingrained so deep that it is difficult to get out of it. For example, compared to a white straight white man with average ability, I would not feel very confident in front of a room full of white people and if a straight white man questions or contradicts me, I would get nervous, even though I may have nothing to worry about. He may be wrong but he can the confidence and also he demands/expects that when he speaks everyone sits up and listens. That is what my relationship to power is.    

I feel like I am still at the IMMERSION stage: I feel like i have not fully processed my feeling about racism and sexism, I still feel angry about it, because I feel like I still face it and people still practice it. It may not be every White person's fault or a man's fault as far as sexism is concerned but it is very much something that people of color and women have to live with on a daily basis. Basic interactions with people remind them constantly or I'll say make them feel constantly like they are inferior. Hence I feel like I have not moved past the Immersion level yet.

There have been biases against Queer people for as long as there have been queer people simply because they do not fit in the mould that society has built for them. Queer people have always faced microaggressions or discrimination in small says, small to the people who discriminate and not the people who are discriminated against which leads to there being suicidal thinking, higher rate of substance abuse among other things. I feel like most of us who have no problem and are supporters of Queer people too, even though consider them the same but have never really done anything to lash out against those who discriminate against Queer people. It is not always for the same reason. Sometimes it is for the fear of being judged by society sometimes it is simply because people are in their own comfort zone and do not want to disrupt a going system by creating friction which is not required for their existence.

As for me, I have never participated in groups that have otherised Queer people, but to think of it I have never done anything to stop it even. Activism is not something that I have done, though I should have done. There is a voice, but the confidence to go follow that and stand up for what is right in front of the whole world is still not there yet. It may be a result of my relationship to power and how I feel like I have none and my saying or doing anything as an individual will have no real impact. However I realise that the least it could do is make me feel better about having spoken up and said what I really believe.