Portfolio Reflection

            When I signed up to take Gender, Race and Class Studies, I had no idea that I would be taking so much away from the course. I decided to take the class because the description sounded like something that I would be interested in, but the experience has been very astonishing, and it has definitely humbled me. Growing up, my parents taught me that not everyone had equal opportunities in the world, but that our differences is what makes us who we are and that everyone deserves to be taught with respect. When I was younger, I didn’t give much thought to this other than that maybe some people had big houses and some people didn’t. I always took what they said into consideration, but my early adolescent brain didn’t give explore it much more than that.

            This class has shed a deeper light on the different inequalities in a person’s life that determines what kinds of opportunities they have or how they are treated through an intersectional lens. For many of these people, these are the situations that they are born into and can’t change, and these factors determine the kind of experiences that they will have in life. This class allowed me to see the deep-rooted factors that influence the ways we view each other and the way that they cross and intersect. I have also learned that to blame someone for the situation that they are in or say that they are not trying hard enough ignores systemic components that are crucial to understanding American society and is a vicious way of thinking.

            For my portfolio project, I chose to focus on intersectional concepts that stood out to me throughout the course. As a black woman in America, this course humbled me in a way that I now appreciate the kind of life that I have. My first two blog posts are about differences in shared black and white experiences.  I use Netflix’s original show Love Is Blind to analyze the obstacles faced when in an interracial relationship as well as the importance of representation in the media. In another article, I discuss how something as simple as a hairstyle based on the color of your skin can subject you to discrimination in the workplace.  I discuss systemic disadvantages of being in the lower class through COVID-19’s distance learning, mass incarceration in the black community, and COVID-19’s illumination of the racial wealth gap. I then discuss the new trending racism on a new social media platform TikTok, and the dangers of the colorblind perspective in America. I also talk about the educational differences based on socioeconomic class, and studies about discrimination based on an individual’s name. Finally, I wrap up with a personal recount of slut shaming.

            I have been fortunate enough to take this class which has shown me the range of injustices that individuals go through on a regular basis. Although there are many that we have not covered, I definitely look at things with a new perspective now, and will continue to be empathetic to others.