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Seeing Our Place in the Matrix

by Kimberly B. George 06-10-2010 | 5:11pm
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I won't forget the day the 15-year-old Korean exchange student I tutored informed me she needed surgery to "correct" her eyes. I stopped my grammar lesson and had her teach me about racism.

"Don't you know?" she said to me, surprised at my ignorance. "Lots of friends back in Seoul have had surgery to make their eyes look round - like Britney Spears. There's so much pressure to look a certain way to be pretty."

In my list of learning moments as a teacher, this one remains one of the most important, for I was learning about what feminist and critical race theorists call intersectionality. "Intersectionality" is a term developed by Kimberle Crenshaw (I touch on it in the article "Liberating History" in the June Sojourners). Briefly put, it means that all social justice issues have many axis points

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by: Joe_Allen_Doty

06-10-2010 @ 6:47pm

I had a friend when I was a grad student at Oral Roberts University. John and I had been friends when we both lived in the undergrad dorm and he had not earned his BA yet. The last year I was at ORU we ended up as apartment mates in grad housing.

John's father was a European American and his mother was Chinese. John had the nickname of Chino.

I cannot prove by USA issued documents that I have European and Jewish ancestry. But, I have a card issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs that proves that I have Cherokee ancestors and a membership card issued by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma that I am enrolled with them with a membership number, too.

I just say that people should be allowed to be whom they are. But, I have known some full-blood Cherokees who by the way they lived were European white. Some didn't even want others to know they were Native American.

by: Triune

06-10-2010 @ 9:11pm

Powerful and poignant. I remember a while back Donald Miller's blog post, how the stories you believe are screwing with your mind. Seems the real metanarrative never deconstructed and unlikely to be so deconstructed is American capitalism. As an Asian American your opening point brings me to the point of tears.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

06-10-2010 @ 6:47pm

I had a friend when I was a grad student at Oral Roberts University. John and I had been friends when we both lived in the undergrad dorm and he had not earned his BA yet. The last year I was at ORU we ended up as apartment mates in grad housing.

John's father was a European American and his mother was Chinese. John had the nickname of Chino.

I cannot prove by USA issued documents that I have European and Jewish ancestry. But, I have a card issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs that proves that I have Cherokee ancestors and a membership card issued by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma that I am enrolled with them with a membership number, too.

I just say that people should be allowed to be whom they are. But, I have known some full-blood Cherokees who by the way they lived were European white. Some didn't even want others to know they were Native American.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

06-10-2010 @ 6:47pm

I had a friend when I was a grad student at Oral Roberts University. John and I had been friends when we both lived in the undergrad dorm and he had not earned his BA yet. The last year I was at ORU we ended up as apartment mates in grad housing.

John's father was a European American and his mother was Chinese. John had the nickname of Chino.

I cannot prove by USA issued documents that I have European and Jewish ancestry. But, I have a card issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs that proves that I have Cherokee ancestors and a membership card issued by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma that I am enrolled with them with a membership number, too.

I just say that people should be allowed to be whom they are. But, I have known some full-blood Cherokees who by the way they lived were European white. Some didn't even want others to know they were Native American.

by: rustys1

06-10-2010 @ 10:56pm

"As Christians who care about social justice, we need to be especially careful to examine the logs in our own eyes, lest we unknowingly participate in the very unjust systems we are speaking against."

Fantastic point!

Passionate people can advocate for systems that in the end harm the very people they wish to help.

by: Triune

06-10-2010 @ 9:11pm

Powerful and poignant. I remember a while back Donald Miller's blog post, how the stories you believe are screwing with your mind. Seems the real metanarrative never deconstructed and unlikely to be so deconstructed is American capitalism. As an Asian American your opening point brings me to the point of tears.

by: Triune

06-10-2010 @ 9:11pm

Powerful and poignant. I remember a while back Donald Miller's blog post, how the stories you believe are screwing with your mind. Seems the real metanarrative never deconstructed and unlikely to be so deconstructed is American capitalism. As an Asian American your opening point brings me to the point of tears.

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by: rustys1

06-10-2010 @ 10:56pm

"As Christians who care about social justice, we need to be especially careful to examine the logs in our own eyes, lest we unknowingly participate in the very unjust systems we are speaking against."

Fantastic point!

Passionate people can advocate for systems that in the end harm the very people they wish to help.

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by: Joe_Allen_Doty

06-10-2010 @ 6:47pm

I had a friend when I was a grad student at Oral Roberts University. John and I had been friends when we both lived in the undergrad dorm and he had not earned his BA yet. The last year I was at ORU we ended up as apartment mates in grad housing.

John's father was a European American and his mother was Chinese. John had the nickname of Chino.

I cannot prove by USA issued documents that I have European and Jewish ancestry. But, I have a card issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs that proves that I have Cherokee ancestors and a membership card issued by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma that I am enrolled with them with a membership number, too.

I just say that people should be allowed to be whom they are. But, I have known some full-blood Cherokees who by the way they lived were European white. Some didn't even want others to know they were Native American.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

06-10-2010 @ 6:47pm

I had a friend when I was a grad student at Oral Roberts University. John and I had been friends when we both lived in the undergrad dorm and he had not earned his BA yet. The last year I was at ORU we ended up as apartment mates in grad housing.

John's father was a European American and his mother was Chinese. John had the nickname of Chino.

I cannot prove by USA issued documents that I have European and Jewish ancestry. But, I have a card issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs that proves that I have Cherokee ancestors and a membership card issued by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma that I am enrolled with them with a membership number, too.

I just say that people should be allowed to be whom they are. But, I have known some full-blood Cherokees who by the way they lived were European white. Some didn't even want others to know they were Native American.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

06-10-2010 @ 6:47pm

I had a friend when I was a grad student at Oral Roberts University. John and I had been friends when we both lived in the undergrad dorm and he had not earned his BA yet. The last year I was at ORU we ended up as apartment mates in grad housing.

John's father was a European American and his mother was Chinese. John had the nickname of Chino.

I cannot prove by USA issued documents that I have European and Jewish ancestry. But, I have a card issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs that proves that I have Cherokee ancestors and a membership card issued by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma that I am enrolled with them with a membership number, too.

I just say that people should be allowed to be whom they are. But, I have known some full-blood Cherokees who by the way they lived were European white. Some didn't even want others to know they were Native American.

by: rustys1

06-10-2010 @ 10:56pm

"As Christians who care about social justice, we need to be especially careful to examine the logs in our own eyes, lest we unknowingly participate in the very unjust systems we are speaking against."

Fantastic point!

Passionate people can advocate for systems that in the end harm the very people they wish to help.

by: Triune

06-10-2010 @ 9:11pm

Powerful and poignant. I remember a while back Donald Miller's blog post, how the stories you believe are screwing with your mind. Seems the real metanarrative never deconstructed and unlikely to be so deconstructed is American capitalism. As an Asian American your opening point brings me to the point of tears.

by: Triune

06-10-2010 @ 9:11pm

Powerful and poignant. I remember a while back Donald Miller's blog post, how the stories you believe are screwing with your mind. Seems the real metanarrative never deconstructed and unlikely to be so deconstructed is American capitalism. As an Asian American your opening point brings me to the point of tears.

by: rustys1

06-10-2010 @ 10:56pm

"As Christians who care about social justice, we need to be especially careful to examine the logs in our own eyes, lest we unknowingly participate in the very unjust systems we are speaking against."

Fantastic point!

Passionate people can advocate for systems that in the end harm the very people they wish to help.

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07-10-2011 @ 9:39pm

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08-11-2011 @ 5:53pm

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08-11-2011 @ 11:31pm

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08-13-2011 @ 11:56pm

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by: Triune

06-10-2010 @ 9:11pm

Powerful and poignant. I remember a while back Donald Miller's blog post, how the stories you believe are screwing with your mind. Seems the real metanarrative never deconstructed and unlikely to be so deconstructed is American capitalism. As an Asian American your opening point brings me to the point of tears.

by: mobile affiliate profits review

07-21-2011 @ 5:17pm

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