Patricia Hill Collins Matrix Of Domination

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Patricia Hill Collins describes the matrix of domination as the relationship between the oppression and activism of black women. In addition, she explains that race, class and gender are the primary levels of oppression for black women although other forms of oppression exists such as religion, ethnicity, age and sexual orientation. Patricia Hill Collins believed that one could not fully grasp the position of the oppressed without validation of knowledge through emotions and empathy (Hill Collins, 1990). This Afro-Centric/Feminist epistemology was contrary to the Eurocentric/Masculinist theory that require the inquirer be detached from the experience and remove emotion and values from the knowledge validation process (Hill Collins, 1990). In my opinion, the matrix of domination is the systemic categorization of people based on several levels including race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation and age to create a hierarchy of dominant and subordinate …show more content…
While Essay 36 in our textbook, The Matrix Reader: Examining the Dynamics of Oppression and Privilege, focuses primarily on the struggles that women have experienced within the workforce, it also calls attention to the matrix of domination. For example, between 1910 and 1950 the percentage of white women that worked as private household workers decreased significantly while the decline of black women in the same field was marginal (Ferber, Jimenez, O'Reilly Herrera, & Samuels, 2009). In her writing, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Patricia Hill states that white feminist recognize their oppression as women but resist their privileges of having white skin (Hill Collins, 1990). In addition, she discussed the fluctuating extents of penalty and privilege from the systems of oppression that structures individual