Race, Class and Gender Essay -- Social Issues, Homosexuals

Franklin (1987) also alluded that patriarchy did not serve black men; the notion of black men being domineering over groups is questionable. Besides, Pleck (2008) claimed that the male heterosexual-homosexual dichotomy is used as the main symbolic tool defining the rankings of masculinity. Highlighting racial politics, it would be interesting to have a study focusing on the power relations between white gay men and black heterosexual men. This is premised on the stance that the racial hierarchy, regardless of its dismissal, seems to continue to characterise socio-economic relations. stated that race remains a factor because it is deeply embedded within the subconscious, a discussion on this shall follow suit. McClintock (1992: 5) declared that â€Å"race, class and gender are not distinct realms of experience existing in splendid isolation from each other. Rather they come into existence in and through relations to each other.† Moreover, colonialism was not experienced in the same manner due to the political nuances that transpired. For a purpose yet to be illustrated, the historicity of colonial experiences shall be sidelined. Colonial justifications were premised upon pseudo science about race and the application of the Darwinist rhetoric. McClintock (1992) cited that social evolutionists applied the allegory of a tree as an indication of subordination and hierarchy of racial groups. There were concepts such as the family of man whereby a racialized and cultural hierarchy relegated black people to the bottom of the chain within a gendered order. Economically, white men came first, and then white women; black men and women followed respectively. Thus black men, although observation and living within an imposed binary const... ...the assumption of equality have influenced gender relations. Moving back to her reflection of heroic masculinity, Unterhalter (2000) inferred from the autobiographies she analysed that adventure, danger, daring in thought or deed and loyalty were key parts of masculinity. This notion of loyalty can be detected in Malema’s willingness to â€Å"kill for Zuma† utterance. However, what other explanations are there for the then loyal support of Zuma despite. A possible reason, which may be viewed as interlocking with the gender analysis, is Chipkin’s work titled ‘The Sublime Object of Blackness’. Chipkin (2002), in his endeavour to identify the discursive mechanism relating to the notion of blackness, showed how aspects of the subjective characterization of blackness under the black struggle against apartheid have permeated into post-apartheid definitions of blackness.