Existing in the intersections

Equal rights for me doesn’t mean less rights for you

Since the inception of this country the white ruling class has operated under Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. He never explicitly linked his theory to civilized human society but an avowed racist by the name of Herbert Spencer extrapolated on this and coined the term “survival of the fittest”. The theory was applied to the racial hierarchy in the United States and it was used to justify the oppression of all racial minorities who did not assimilate into the white culture. The policies that shaped this nation, giving white people the upper-hand in every socio-economic way possible. From striping black people of their right to vote to the federal government establishing the Federal Housing Authority to guarantee loans for home-ownership to white people, while denying and enacting legislation to prevent blacks from owning property. Ever since the civil rights act of 1964, the country has moved in a proper direction of true equality in law, but not in practice. Although things are slowly progressing forward we have a ways to go before equity for all is realized. As different institutions take different measures to ensure that opportunities are distributed equally among those who are not privileged. Many times those who are benefiting from white privilege and the privilege of those who fall into hetero-normative roles feel threatened by these changes. From the perspective of those with privilege, they are being stripped of a ‘right’ that they held for hundreds of years. Often times feeling the reparations have already been made and the move towards equality has overstepped its boundaries. Many white conservatives have preached of reverse discrimination when they are no longer operating on a playing field with an advantage designed to give them an advantage over other groups so they can get a step ahead in life. In the eyes of a white southerner who lived from the 1940's until now, they no longer hold a significant advantage over other racial minorities. The institutions that were designed to accommodate white people were designed the be superior to the ones which were relegated to minorities. Even though in law these institutions were to be separate but equal, in practice this is not how things operated. According to their preconceived idea of the survival of the fittest in which white people are the superior race, any system which provides any sort of assistance to minorities only helps them succeed through artificial means. It used to be so ingrained in the American psyche that it was the driving force behind the creation of our nation. It was called Manifest Destiny and it was embedded in the belief that the white race was superior to all others and that white people were destined to dominate the land. You can draw a parallel between the way that our system has been set up to benefit a particular race of people and the way that patriarchy affects women. Even though in the past men held much more power over women such as voting rights or that marital rape was not criminalized, the reality of the power dynamic between men and women today is that men still hold significant power over women and are unwilling to make concessions to move towards equality between the sexes. In Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble she discuss the ways in which men cannot walk along women as allies without confronting the patriarchy. Unless men move to understand both the ways that the patriarchy provides them privilege as well as forces them into the walls of gender binaries then they will continue to see the equality of women as the loss of their privilege in a way that echoes that of white privilege. Men do not see discrimination taking place since it is not directed at them, so they don’t believe it occurs at all and as an extension of that, believing that there is now equity between the sexes. Similar to the way that white people see any moves to provide equity to people of all races as giving them advantages, men and some women view feminism as a way to provide women with advantages over men. Many see new wave feminism as a militant entity that poses a danger to their well being or even their existence. They believe that concessions made to appease the demands of feminists are unfair and redistribute the power dynamic to favor women, when in fact feminists demands are to create a truly equal system. One that allows men to move out of gender binaries as well and would afford them rights they don’t have now. It would allow them more rights as fathers when fighting for custody, give them more power when reporting domestic violence or instances of rape. Human rights are not a finite thing that must be rationed out among all, it is something everyone can benefit from with hindering others.