Patricia Hill Collins' "Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination" takes a close look into the interaction of power binaries and the importance of recognizing how power dynamics influence each other as opposed to compartmentalizing them. What I believe to be her most important argument is summarized in this statement:
"Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed."
This excerpt was particularly intriguing to me because it presents an idea because it seems to challenge the way we commonly think of power imbalances. We think of and refer to them as binaries - distinctions between two groups - like WHITE/black or MALE/female, but this oversimplification is dangerous. Implicit in the idea that one group is oppressed by an oppressor is the idea that the oppressor is not oppressed, which, as Collins argues, is not always true. For example, a person could be an oppressor in terms of the WHITE/black binary, but oppressed in terms of the MALE/female binary. With so many constructed imbalances that exist today, is it possible to not be both oppressor and oppressed?
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