Explorations of Diversity - Paper Example

Diversity in the forms of kinship, economic and social status is a common aspect of virtually very society. It is impractical to have an entirely homogenous society on gender, class or other forms of social stratifications. Collins first used the paradigm of the matrix of domination referring to the discrimination of black American women in America and their subsequent struggle for equality (Collins, 1990). It premised on the black feminist epistemology. Despite the fact that people can be exposed to the same social challenges, it is misleading to aggregate them as having similar experiences. In essence, social aspects affect individuals in extremely different ways. Based on the assertions of Collins, various imperatives about what matrix of domination means emerge (Limpangog, 2016). Nonetheless, her discussions indicate that the form of domination provides an explanation of the intricacies between various social aspects such as class, race, and gender. The paradigm draws a link between the different aspects of diversity such as racism, social classification, economic stratification and gender (Patricia, 2008). It draws from the understanding that though most studies look at them in isolation, they are significantly interconnected (Wallace, & Alison, 1995). The characteristic wave of feminism in the 1990s was a move by the women to extricate themselves from different forms of insubordination. (Collins, 1990) Nonetheless, domination takes various forms thus the paradigm underscores the need to explore it more objectively without unnecessarily focusing on a particular segment of the community such as African Americans or Black women (Limpangog, 2016). Ideally, every person experiences different forms of domination hence diverting the discourse towards the interconnectedness of the systems of insubordination.

A critical dimension of the matrix of domination is that it heavily relies on the context under retrospection. In essence, it derives from the fact that whereas an individual may seem to be privileged in one dimension, he or she may equally be oppressed on the other facet (Limpangog, 2016). For instance, whereas the American women were discriminated and made subordinate to the men, each of them still had unique experiences of domination hence it is difficult to assert that they had a similar feeling of oppression. Different practices such as patriarchy, capitalism, and racism result in various forms of oppression that is felt differently by every person subjected to the social issues (Patricia, 2008). The concept of the matrix of domination is in tandem with the theory of intersectionality that it is important to evaluate the interrelationships between different systems of oppression.

The model indicates that domination is often a complex phenomenon perpetrated by individuals as well as social institutions such as the media, formal organizations, churches and schools (Wallace, & Alison, 1995). In most cases, the agencies and systems operate in such a way that the dominant groups perspectives or inclinations are portrayed as the overall standpoint of the entire society. This process results in different underlying dissension among subgroups and individuals who have divergent viewpoints (Limpangog, 2016). For instance, in a more diverse society such as the United States of America, different forms of oppression may intersect to manifest in a greater magnitude of suppression based on sex, religion, gender, citizenship, race or class (Patricia, 2008). The nature of abuse is that an individual can either be a member of a dominant group or subordinate groups, but still they still belong to the broader spectrum of the precise or interpersonal mechanism of domination.

References

Collins, Patricia Hill. (1990). From Black Feminist Thought, Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Unwin Hyman. References in this section of the notes are to pp. 221-238, from http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/courses/BLKFEM.HTML

Limpangog, C. (2016). Matrix of Domination. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 1-3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss611

Patricia H.C., (2008). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.

Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. (1995). Contemporary Sociological Theory: Continuing the Classical Tradition, fourth edition, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.