Week 9 Difference

 For this weeks reading and zoom discussions we analyzed “Difference: A Third World Women Issue” by Trinh T. Minh-ha. Trinh expresses the importance of recognizing how stereotypes are used to define people. She touches on sexism, racism, and faults in equality throughout society. One important point that she made, is that company’s need a specific dynamic environment. They need some percentage of the company to be women, some percentage to be colored, of different backgrounds, ect. And that raises the question of did I get this job because I am qualified and deserved it or was I hired to meet a percentage? I found this interesting because on one hand it is a good thing that it is frowned upon for a company to hire only white middle aged men, however at the same time it does beg the question was I hired/ promoted for the right reasons? I have a family member who works for a large company and a part of his job is to monitor who works for the company in each branch and maintain diversity. Until reading “A Third World Women Issue” I didn’t understand the downfall in this system.

This is where tokenism comes in. In other words a workforce makes an effort to recruit groups of people such as women or people of color to work for the company in order to make the company look like equality is important to them, or express that they aren’t sexist or racist. I think that a good solution to some of the flaws in this program would be to value the things that diverse individuals bring to the table. Minority groups could be represented in predominantly white company’s in big ways and implement changes so that diversity is not only attained but also valued. Today women and people with different ethnic backgrounds, for the most part, all have the same opportunities to get an education and work experience in most fields. That being said, tokenism shouldn’t have to be a “standard or goal” because qualified personnel should already be abundant in all types of people. Right? Wrong. Unfortunately there are still advantages for white men socially and economically. It is almost impossible to assume equal opportunity will ever fully be attained. For example, children growing up in unfortunate households will not have the same opportunities as children in fortunate households. They may have access to the same school but one may have access to tutoring or more help from their parents at home. Maybe one has better nutrition, sleep schedule or a better role model. These are just a few factors that might cause one student to succeed and the other to fail even though they have access to the same study resources. Unfortunately lots of uncontrollable factors play a role in a child’s upbringing that can cause them to not actually have “equal opportunity”. This brings me to think of other viscous cycles such as systematic racism. This continues the cycle of oppression, exclusion, and competition. 




Cite:

Trinh, T. Minh-Ha. Difference: 'A Special Third World Women Issue'. Feminist Review, 1987. 


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