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Jacqueline Vidal

Professor Lee

AAS 201

Race Project Analysis

Society has been traced to follow categorization through the means of appearance,

gender, race, and sexuality. This has caused a variation of differences among the people, their

community, and experiences.

In order to analyze the experiences of individuals from a different race, gender, and

sexuality they were interviewed. One of the few issues that majority of individuals faced was

sexism. Sexism is prejudice on the base of sex. An individual in particular, Kimberly Sorai, 23

year old Mexican-American, has dealt with this issue practically her whole lifetime. She

mentioned, My mom was raised in a household where men were seen as superior, where

women didnt have a voice, and to always obey the male figure in the house. I was to never

question dad. Racist America Roots, Current, Realities, and Future Reparations by Joe R.

Feagin explains that women have and are still considered second class. Feagin informs in his

book, White women are also significantly underrepresented at the top of major corporations and

other powerful organizations, as we see in 2012 figure of just 14 white women serving a Fortune

500 CEOs.(p.215) This is to inform that not only because you are a particular race means youll

still be benefited like the others, gender leads where a person is classified of capability, a men is

believed to be more superior.

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Society has formed the roles for both a man and woman, such as who can manage things

better. This has created an identity for both genders for example men being portrayed as tough

and heartless, and women seen as weak and emotional. Feagin mentions, Even after decades of

affirmative action efforts for Americans of color and white women, the overwhelming majority

of those who run most of the more powerful political, economic, and legal organizations in

society are still white men. (p.214) Women have fewer opportunities than men do because of

the belief that they are incapable of completing things the way men are. Sorai is currently going

to college and is majoring in biochem, she explains that majority of her courses are full of males,

she said, Once in one of my classes I had a question in regards of the topic like a theory of my

own about it and one of the guys told me I didnt make sense to just be quiet. She also

mentions, I love playing soccer and played in teams throughout my whole life I wanted to be in

the game. The guys didnt allow me to play so I asked if they were a club or some sort of team

and they responded they were only playing for fun so I said they have no right to not allow a

woman to play simply they were sexist. The experiences she encountered demonstrate what

sexism is, it can either be men outcasting women or in reverse.

Appearance and race play a major role in society as well, it elevates how far a person can

go at times. Race is groups of people that share similarities in appearance, racism on the other

hand is a prejudice act against a different race. Racism is embedded in every single level of

society through education, finances, communities, and work, it is a known as white privilege.

Sandy Celine Mendoza, 22 year old interviewer said, When I was 9 years old my brothers got

locked up, they were always associated with drugs and gangs, this really affected my family but
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it did set the example of what not to follow for me and my sister. Before mentioning her

brothers Mendoza mentioned the area they lived in which is considered a middle class area that

is surrounded by lower income communities. What these communities have in common is the

level of education received in schools which is poor in comparison to other communities. The

schools her brothers attended exposed them to the negative world. If her family were wealthy

enough to live in a wealthier area and were able to send her brothers to private schools they

would not be where they were right now, this is considered white privilege. White privilege

began with slavery, when Caucasians brought African Americans to be slaves. Caucasians had

the privilege of ownership of slaves and land in which led them to become wealthy enough to

pass on to their future generations, allowing them to be at the top of the ladder and all other

ethnic groups below. Therefore wealthier communities are more Caucasian based and lower

income communities and ghettos consist of Latinos and African Americans. The level of

education also has to do with the communities wealth, since the lower income communities

consist from a diverse of ethnicities whose primary language isnt always english created what is

called Individual vs. Systematic. The schools in these communities are institutional, they have

created a system where they track the level of education of students, those who are unable to

speak english are considered a low level this is race classification. If schools werent institutional

about basing the level of education of a student by their language and instead by their knowledge

schools wouldnt have a poor education, since wealthy communities consist of Caucasians whos

primary language is english they are ranked as high level education schools. If this werent the

case Mendozas brothers would have intended to have an opportunity of a greater future.
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One of the common things these interviewers experienced was racial discrimination

based on their appearance. Faith Breeaun Dixon, 21 year old African American woman, says

about her experience, For instance I went into a Sephora in Beverly hills and got followed

around the entire time while all of the customers who were Caucasian didn't get bothered. The

security guard also stopped me to check my bag and no one else's. Another interviewer, Daniel

Anthony Barragan, Mexican- American says, At the time I was like 10 years old and after a

game around 3 in the afternoon some friends and I went to go explore around, they were all

African American I was the only Hispanic and out of nowhere a Caucasian cop starts chasing us

for no apparent reason. The cop put us against the wall and started searching us as if we did

something wrong and he began to curse at us so my African American friend Ray tells him to

stop cursing at us and the cop just throws him on the floor and says to have respect for him.

Dixon and Barragan faced double jeopardy and were treated as criminals because of their

ethnicity and appearance. They faced a prejudice act because they belong to a certain group. A

experiment in 1934 by a Caucasian man named Richard La Piere took a couple Chinese to a

Caucasian restaurant, they received good service while he was there. A year later La Piere wrote

the restaurant a letter saying that a few of his Chinese friends will be going and to treat them well

so that they have a good experience. The restaurant responded that they will not attend them and

under no circumstance would they be allowed. People who are not classified as a Caucasian are

not seen superior, they are denied and labeled due to the actions of the people they share similar

characteristics.
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Denial and unfair opportunities are present problems people of color continue to face.

Kimberly Sorais mother has faced unjust treatment since her arrival to the United States, she

said, When my mother first came to the United States she was working for a fabric factory

where she would sew clothing. The fabric paid my mother $2.50 for her labor at the time and the

Caucasian woman that worked next to her was paid $5, they were both doing the same labor.

This is seen as structural under Individual vs. Systematic. Sorais mother was paid less not

because of her work but because of of her appearance. It was unclear to Sorai at first as to why

her mother did not stand up for herself, her mother was afraid of deportation. Daniel Barragan

went through a situation similar that did not allow him to defend himself he says, The first time

I legitimate experienced racial discrimination was when I went to walmart in Utah a white guy

called me a beaner and I couldnt do anything because I was on a scholarship and if I wouldve

reacted by hitting the guy I probably wouldve been all over the news over there and would most

likely lose my scholarship so the best thing to do was just ignore him. People live in fear of

consequences because the likelihood of a person who is not considered Caucasian undergoes a

hardship. This entitles a person to belittle by others and presses them to keep quiet rather than to

educate a person about the wrong in the situation.

People of different race, appearance, gender, and sexuality assimilate to common

experiences that have affected their lives financially, educationally, and within their

communities. Society will not change unless it is educated by the people in order to understand

the system.