People Power and Politics: Issues of Race and Gender

Issues of Race and Gender
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Institution
Issues of Race and Gender
The issues of race and gender are highly debated around the world with the main focus being on the challenges faced by the racially discriminated and women. These two groups are treated as lesser groups of people due to what they lack based on what is viewed as acceptable by the society.
The authors of both papers have addressed different issues concerning race and gender. In both papers, non-whites and women are treated as lesser people. In the paper ‘white by law,' the author notes that Asian Indians were viewed as “effeminate, caste-ridden and degraded race” by some of the anti-immigrant groups. This means that they viewed the non-whites as an inferior group of people and they, therefore, did not deserve to be citizens of a white people country. In addition, non-whites were denied citizenship based on their lack of whiteness. This whiteness was viewed as a privilege since being white came with special benefits. Similarly, in the paper ‘the second sex,' the author reveals that women are not viewed as complete autonomous beings since they were derived from a man. In addition, men view themselves as more superior creatures than women, an attitude that is instilled in them by the society, despite the fact that both sexes go through the same phases and behaviours during growth.
Women have been viewed as inferior beings in both papers. They are deprived of the right to be independent individuals without being associated with their male counterparts. The author of the white by law reveals that women who qualified to be naturalised were denied citizenship if they were married to men who were not eligible for naturalisation. Moreover, those women who had citizenships faced the risk of their citizenships being revoked if their spouse did not qualify to be naturalised. On the hand, the second sex author reveals that men “can think of themselves without woman, but women cannot think of themselves without man.” This clearly indicates that women are not viewed as independent individuals and they have to rely on a man for their existence.
It was clearly revealed that race is not viewed as a natural occurrence, based on the decision of the Supreme Court in 1909 to use common knowledge to determine the whiteness of a person. Race is viewed as a social construct, based on what the society believes to be white, rather than basing it on scientific evidence. On the other hand, gender is a natural occurrence that can be biologically differentiated using the reproduction function of male and female beings. T...