Patricia Williams Woman

The employees were getting paid a low hourly wage and they were not receiving any benefits. Sam Walton was chasing after power, it might not have been the power of having money, but making sure whenever someone talked about him in a positive way. Employers such as Walton are not generous and they are more than harmful when they stifle activism; for example “[w]hen workers tried to join unions and Wal-Mart ruthlessly crushed them, firing anyone foolish enough to speak out”(Packer,354). This example shows how the employees were powerless while working at Wal-Mart. Consequently, Wal-Mart was not the only company. If the Wal-Mart’s corporate heard anything about any worker wanting to receive more benefits about what was actually happening they would quickly act upon that and fire the employee. In addition, the power that corporate would show when other workers saw this would prevent any further action. While the workforce might be powerless, at least they are protected from the streets. On the other hand, women living in the ghetto who do things for safety is a source of power for them. In both of these situations, they are doing more harm than justice. Joan Morgan explains the struggle that takes place in the black community and more so in the black women’s community. Both groups, the low paying employees and African-American women are born to fail, but sadly either one are doing anything to try changing this problem and allows it to continue. The employees at

Ehrenreich chooses Minnesota at whim. After some internet-based research, she is convinced that there will be a comfortable correspondence between rent and wages. She decides she wants to work for retail, and applies to Wal-Mart. After the process of applying which includes a survey and a drug test, she is later hired for $7 per hour. Working at Wal-Mart makes Ehrenreich realizes there isn’t much human interaction in retail. “I could be a deaf-mute as far as most of this goes” (Ehrenreich157). There are also the people in the store who tend to make work a living hell and can turn regular chipper people into angry, cranky pushovers. “Once I stand and watch helplessly while some rug rat pulls everything he can reach off the racks, and the thought that abortion is wasted on the unborn must show on my face, because his mother finally tells him to stop” (165). In many cases the “smiley” greeters who welcome people into the store, are very unhappy and think unkind thoughts about everyone who comes to visit the store, “I even start hating the customers for extraneous reasons…” (165). This sudden change in character can be strenuous on a worker, regardless of their personality. Resenting the people who workers work for isn’t a healthy trait. “ ‘Aggressive hospitality’ gives way to aggressive hostility” (165).

Patricia J. Williams, a renowned legal scholar from Harvard Law, studies and defends issues of society and how it intertwines with race, law, and power; furthermore, she is a mother, which makes her stance of her argument even stronger along side of her credentials (“Patricia”). In Williams article, Are We Worried About Storm’s Identity—or Our Own in 2011,she provides a broad-spectrum of societal problematic topics as a comparison of this gender identity crisis; furthermore, it aids her argument by providing insight and familiarity to a topic the common person would not feel comfortable thinking about. She is not arguing that gender neutrality is a need, but rather a choice

Modern forms of this include racial profiling, discrimination, and assumption of guilt. The author of the book, Brian Stevenson, discusses in the book numerous instances in which he himself was the victim of racial profiling and discrimination. He was racially profiled by cops while parked in front of his own house. They pointed a gun at his head and illegally searched his car, and then told him that he was lucky because they were going to let him go (Stevenson 39-42). Later in the book, during Walter’s trial, he, along with all the other black people who are there to support Walter McMillan, is discriminated against by courtroom officials. They were refusing to let any black people in to the courtroom. The guard did not know that Stevenson was the attorney, and so he refused to let him in until Stevenson told the guard who he was (Stevenson 174). Stevenson is not alone in these types of experiences. Every single one of his clients, and their families, are the victims of racism and

Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal Jim Crow, the perpetuation of prejudice, institutional racism, and discrimination towards African Americans continued. The tolling effects of this social paradox on the African American community are manifested within the works of Ann Petry, an African American writer whose short stories reflect her own perspective on the results of discrimination. The short stories, The New Mirror and In Darkness and Confusion conjunctively display the negative psychological consequences linked to racism, such as loss of personal identity, social reflectiveness, insecurity, anxiety/paranoia, weakened family bonds, and violent outbreaks.

Women have been discriminated against throughout the history of the United States. Women were typically associated with being “mothers” and having to take care of the children along with other so called home “duties.” They were not allowed to vote until fairly recently. Astonishingly, women in the United States were not allowed to have their own bank account before 1974. There is no reasonable excuse for such restrictions, except to keep women under the control of men. Altogether, the United States’ has a history of discriminating against women. Women have historically been treated as second class citizens, especially in the workplace, which kept them from doing certain jobs that were meant for men. The reality is that women have proven more than capable of doing labor intensive work. World War II proved that women were more than capable of replacing men. Women’s rights in the United States have definitely been improved, but they continue to be discriminated against in the workplace.

There are unacceptable behaviors such as touching a person’s hair without asking for permission or commenting on their hair in a mean-spirited way. These are things that will never happen to white people, yet it is the reality for black women everyday as they get to work. Personally, this is perplexing to me because I can’t understand why people do things they wouldn’t otherwise do if the subjects are white women. Touching other’s hair is incredibly rude, more so when it is done without the person’s permission. The fact that this happens so often to black women showed that black women were treated as less than white women, that it is okay to touch their hair without their permission, as if no permission is needed because black women are inferior to them. Moreover, focusing on one’s appearance instead of their merit undermines their efforts and capacity at work, thus devalues the contribution that they make to the company and prevents them from moving upward. Women in general share this problem because a woman’s appearance usually get more attention than her ability and competence to work. Therefore, black women not only face discrimination against their race but also their

The landmark case speaks “directly to the psychic injury inflicted by racist speech by noting that the symbolic message of defeatism affected the hearts and minds” of the students (Lawrence 2088). The message still emerges in today’s society through the racial comments on minorities. The harassment and demeaning towards the minority students because of their difference in culture and race is inhumane. They deserve to be able to attend school without fearing that they might be a perpetrator's next target of racially assaulting speech. The racial slurs and “harassment often causes deep emotional scarring and feelings of anxiety and fear” that filters through the victim's life (Lawrence 2088). People need to acknowledge that “there is real harm inflicted by racist speech and that this harm is far from trivial” (Lawrence 2087). By accepting Lawrence’s argument that the regulation of racist speech can alleviate the damages done to minorities, there will be a positive outcome regarding the mental health of minorities. The benefits of regulating assaultive racist speech is the diminishment of negative psychological thoughts of the minorities. Racist speech causes the minorities to think negatively about themselves since the perpetrator emphasizes that being a minority means that they are inferior, which increases the chance of the minorities clouding themselves with

The population that is targeted in this community focused alicyesed is the working class woman. The woman make up a little over half of America’s workforce, in turn they are paying a little over half of the American taxes needed to keep the county from becoming completely bankrupt. However these woman are often not treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. More often then not woman are treated as if they are worth less than their male counterparts. The woman in the American workforce are payed less than men who are working the same passion and job as they are. They are often overlooked for promotion due to beliefs and discrimination that people have about woman.

Consequently, this has potential implications for the investment on the next generation; if parents view daughters as less likely to earn market wages or take paid work, they may be less inclined to invest in their education, which is woman’s fastest route out of poverty. Also, in a job market dominated by men who monopolize the most important positions, the male faction generally retains the opportunities for success, for advancement or for higher wages. In fact, a recent class action lawsuit filed on behalf of 1.6 million women employed by Wal-Mart stores alleges the retailer’s sexual discrimination has led to women losing out on pay, promotions and other advances; women are paid less than men in every department of the store. According to the study named in the lawsuit, two-thirds of Wal-Mart’s employees are female and less than one-third of its managers are female Until recently, social development, by design has guaranteed women limited growth in the employment ranks by the standard curriculum path recommended for the female gender; typical high school and junior colleges required home economics and other domestic-related courses to be completed by female students. Thus, the woman high school or junior college graduate enters the world without adequate training to compete in the business world beyond basic trade or “blue collar” worker positions.

Katherine, in spite of her academic depth and brilliance, was deliberately marginalized by her peers. As she was the only black person in the office, her peers made sure to provide her with a “colored” coffee pot which they did not fill with coffee. However, the most blatant injustice was the fact that she lost hours of work because she was forced to run back and forth to the only “colored” bathroom on the entire NASA complex. Nevertheless, her struggles remained an unseen issue to her colleagues because it was not their reality, and the lack of having a bathroom near their desk did not negatively impact them. It was not until she was questioned about her daily absence that she was able to raise the problem with her supervisors and confront her peers. It took her raising the issue, making this “hidden” issue visible, for quantifiable change to take place. Sometimes in order for change to take place, a marginalized group must be willing to make visible injustices they face and someone in a position of authority be prepared to articulate how that injustice is negatively impacting everybody.

“You can’t judge a book by it’s cover”. Every day our parents tell us as children that we cannot judge things based on the first glances that we see. However, people in our society today have filled their heads with stereotypes in order to judge people and their abilities. And when hiring employees, stereotypes and first glances is all an employer sees and therefore care about. In her book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich proves that a person’s race and gender have a massive influence on the type of low-wage work a person can find, due to the stereotypes that are associated with gender and race in our society today.

In today’s world, the American still has barriers to overcome in the matter of racial equality. Whether it is being passed over for a promotion at the job or being underpaid, some people have to deal with unfair practice that would prevent someone of color or the opposite sex from having equal opportunity at the job. In 2004, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores Incorporation was a civil rights class-action suite that ruled in favor of the women who worked and did not received promotions, pay and certain job assignments. This proves that some corporations ignore the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects workers from discrimination based on sex, race, religion or national origin.

In the Carbado and Gulati article, A Black woman (single mother) named Mary is secretively discriminated against not only because of the color of her skin or her gender, but how she presents herself in the work force. Mary was up for promotion but was denied and created a case in court with the hopes of finding out why she never got partnership. There were four Black women working with her at the

For centuries and even today, gender inequality and racial prejudice continue to exist. Throughout time these concepts have overlapped and intertwined, each other creating complex interactions and a negative influence upon society. In the 1980s, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw through her article, named Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, introduced the term “Intersectionality.” Intersectionality, is the theory of how different types of discriminations interact thus, goes hand in hand with Judith Butler, in her article titled “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” which expresses the term “gender acts” and helps decipher a probable cause of the many discriminations faced in contemporary society. Since both gender inequality and racial inequality share a common thread, I believe that what intersectionality represents will help understand Judith Butler’s view on gender classification and the dynamic it’s caused on our social and political formation.