WEEK 4 THEORY

"A simple example might be to consider my own childhood: as a person of South Asian heritage, I was often confounded while dealing with crayons that did not have any color to represent my skin tone. I was told by teachers to color in bodies as ‘peach’ because that was the norm in the 1970s, in the United States. But my body was not peach.

The disjuncture, cognitive dissonance, and alienation between what I experienced as body and what I represented was unaccounted for: the tools (i.e. crayons) and the representation could not align unless I let go of wanting to see myself represented in that image. I had to make myself into something I was not, and it very quickly became clear to me that I was not the ‘norm’ in the world of crayons." p87

This specific example is something I have been thinking about and researching since I too never had the correct crayon to draw my skin colour as a child. The interesting part about it is that there would always be one crayon with the name ‘skin color’, which would be light pink and then there would be all the other colours which would have names like peach, brown, beige and so on. As a kid, I never really questioned that because it seemed normal to me and everyone around me, but growing up my knowledge became broader and I gained experiences. This is just one example of how we as a society understand white as the norm or even a neutral, while everyone else is portrayed as the other or different (p.22, Wekker, 2016). The reason why this example is crucial is because it shows how even the youngest members of our society are being educated in the wrong way and eventually become innocent adults who are unaware and uneducated about race and it’s impact. Now, 10-15 years after I was a child, there are more brands that make crayons with different skin tones but oftentimes still don’t represent enough people.

"That realization is a small gesture that has huge implications for the ways in which the material culture of schools can be changed. A key tenet of decolonization has to also include a sense of intersectionality. So another clear example might be the heteronormativity of public bathroom spaces, particularly in schools. If the architecture of our early childhood spaces structurally reiterates gender binaries, we will never grow up to really be comfortable in non-gendered bathrooms because our comfort is first introduced and developed at a young age. Prior to those moments, most children do not think very much about who is around them when they perform any biological act. If we change the gender markings of early education bathrooms, we have changed the embedded social meaning of everyday practice in the future." p89

"Often we feel trapped in one system, and we feel the system is so much larger than we are; but we are the ones who are keeping that system going. So once you recognize the inequity, and trace how your own body is being disciplined and kept in a certain place, you can begin to think through how you might design intervention, as a creator of cultural material. "p90

"If, due to your body experience, you have never had to question how the world looks at your race/class/ethnicity/ gender/body, or if that has never impacted the way the world identifies your research or work, you should know that that is a privileged experience. And that privilege or lack thereof, informs you and your praxis." p86

Separated bathrooms contribute to an outdated binary system that always tries to put everything and everyone in a box, even though that doesn’t make sense, since gender is a broad spectrum with space for countless identities. I recently heard that the sister of my friend had her second baby and my first question was if it is a boy or a girl. One second later I immediately corrected myself because I thought it was stupid of me to ask that and apologized. She didn’t understand why I corrected myself at first and said it was a normal question but I think it is sad that my first thought was what the baby’s gender is rather than if the mother and her child are healthy and happy. It made me think about my thought patterns concerning gender. Lately, I’ve noticed that I say certain things and then correct myself, even though I’ve always been saying them. With my knowledge expanding, being in the process of shaping and changing my own opinions, I sometimes realize that I don’t agree anymore with views that were forced upon me as a part of the socialization of my younger self.

The difficulty of relating to the system we are living in is due to it being so large that it becomes too abstract for us to see our impact on it and its impact on us. This is why it is easier for us to understand and connect to world views like symbolic interactionism rather than macro level conflict theories such as Marxism and Feminism. I’ve personally learned that communities can be a strong force in shaping society and have a great impact on its individuals. Everyone has their role and skillset and can contribute to a community that grows and attracts more people with the right mindset. One place where I have found that is the museum I work for and that is because I can feel how my contribution as much as everyone else’s leads to a growing community of likeminded people who all, in this case, are eager to support and embrace creative talent in the museum OSCAM located in Amsterdam South-East.

There’s not that much I feel like adding to this quote. I completely agree with it and notice the patterns of this privilege in my everyday life, politics, economy and every other aspect of society. This quote is what I find particularly interesting about privilege: Not having to even think about race, class, ethnicity and gender. It’s almost something to be jealous about. I sometimes wish that I wouldn’t have to always think about my skin color, ethnicity and gender when applying for a job or introducing myself as German or when I want to walk home alone at night. The fact that other people don’t have to deal with this isn’t fair but it is even harder to understand that some people are not aware that it is a privilege to not deal with these thoughts and concerns every day. I try to check myself and be aware of the privileges that I have myself, such as benefiting from colorism or the fact that I am cisgender.