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Assignment 09

As a youth, there were many instances where I felt as though I was an outsider. The majority of students enrolled in both my elementary school and middle school originated from financially and socially fortunate families. Most of my friends and the student body were able to afford the quality clothing, school supplies, and other commodities. Their families were so fortunate that they were able to afford luxury cars, expensive family excursions, and vacation homes in addition to their permanent residence. I, however, received clothing that was either thrifted or passed down to me from older family members, meaning they were often too large for my much smaller form, or were damaged in a very noticeable shape or form. I could not afford even a handful of the things that my fellow youths had access to. Furthermore, I have lived within the projects all my life, surrounded by people who spend their entire lives being unproductive and simply selling illegal substances that they use to make themselves appear as powerful and important figures that they are in fact not. All of my friends from the past lived in buildings equipped with fancy looking furniture and doormen their entire lives. These were all things that I was not accustomed to. The differences that existed between my friends, fellow students, and I made me feel as though I didn’t belong in the same environment as them.

In Patricia Hill-Collins’ essay Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought, Collins states that one trait of the social construct identified a oppression is that it is based on the organization of both animate and inanimate beings according to the ways in which they differ from one another. Collins claims that certain members of society can be led to believe that they are justified in deeming others as outcasts if they are the “insiders” that possess similar experiences, histories, and knowledge.