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Assignment 9

Living in New York City alone often makes me feel like an outsider. There is a vast diversity of residents living in NYC and most of the times, I feel that the only place I can truly be myself is when I am home. In rare occasions, I would hear someone say a racist comment as I walk by, and my response is that I just ignore them and think nothing much of it. After reading Patricia Hill-Collins’s, “Learning from the outsider within,” it made it realize that maybe by ignoring it and not responding to it, I am actually succumbing to the oppression. Hill-Collins tells us that victims of oppression should be actively rejecting the stereotypes that dehumanizes and exploits. Moreover, the absence of objection is the same as accepting one’s “otherness” and allowing the oppression to go on. I believe that Hill-Collins is trying to persuade the readers that oppression is something we must actively fight against. When one becomes used to being subjugated, then one tends to forget their own value and start thinking about themselves in a way that society has shaped them to be. Oppression will continue to exist if the oppressed is unable to recognize when they are falling victim to objectification.

When I’m not in school, I am usually surrounded by people of my own race. I spend time with my family, go to Korean supermarkets, Korean restaurants, and Korean church. Maybe the reason why I sometimes feel so unfazed to racist comments is because I am able to feel so at home with my family and know there’s a community that I belong to. However, when I meet with my non-Asian friends, it becomes difficult to share my cultural experiences and I find myself trying to suppress that cultural part of myself. In opposition, Hill-Collins stresses the importance of being able to embrace ourselves and let out all of our qualities, because that enables us to truly find ourselves and reject what the rest of the world thinks of us.