I have me brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words.
Gloria SteinemRead
The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together.
Interpretation
The oppression based on sex and race is interconnected and must be addressed simultaneously to achieve true equality.
Gloria Steinem's quote highlights the idea that the social hierarchies created by both gender and racial discrimination are closely linked. To dismantle these oppressive systems, efforts must be made to address both issues at once, recognizing that they influence and reinforce each other in society.
In practice
During a panel discussion on social justice, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for comprehensive reform.
I have me brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words.
If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?
Age brings a freedom. When you're young, you're much more subject to the idea of what feminine is or how you should look or how you should behave.
All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
Obviously, there is much similarity among the challenges of transgender people and all women - from health care to harassment to discrimination in the workplace.
Progress is always relative: to the oppressed, it can only be viewed as an all or nothing deal - if oppression continues, even in a modified form, then the system must still be attacked until that injustice is eradicated.
I must remind you that starving a child is violence. Suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. Discrimination against a working man is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence.
What does it say about our society that we invest more in a golf course than the homes of Black and brown Americans?
Boycotts have been a critical part of social justice in American history, particularly for African-Americans.
Part of what our problem as blacks in America is that we don't claim that. Partly, you see, because of the linguistic environment in which we live.
The thirst for liberation and equality can never come at the expense of dehumanizing other marginalized groups - especially at a time when hate crimes against Jews have increased significantly.
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