Dismantling Social Structure By Lorde, Mcintosh, And Collective

On May 20, 2014, a professor of English, Ersula Ore, was stopped by a Tempe police officer next to the Arizona State University Campus for jaywalking on a public street. As video footage of the initial arrest emerged the public and University’s reactions were noted. If we were to look at this incident from three of our class theorists, Audre Lorde, Peggy McIntosh, and The Combahee River Collective all three theorists would have something different to say about this incident. While Peggy McIntosh would unravel this incident by targeting the idea of white privilege, Audre Lorde will prove through the incident that society’s values will never dismantle society’s structure, and The Combahee River Collective will target the idea of black feminism and how it relates to the incident.

Peggy Mcintosh’s, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, discusses white privilege and equates it to having an “invisible knapsack” full of tools, special provisions, and other items that can help someone survive. First, looking at this incident in Tempe, McIntosh would first notice that Ersula Ore, the woman who got charged for assaulting a police officer is a black woman. From the looks of the video McIntosh would focus on the reason the cops are trying to arrest Ore and analyze the cop’s, who happen to be white, motives and their white privilege and male privilege. McIntosh states that, “the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious” (McIntosh 12). This quote from the text exemplifies how McIntosh would analyze this cop incident. In this particular incident Ersula Ore is resisting arrest and telling the cop to not push her against of the car because of how she is dressed. The cops ignore this request and pushes her on the floor, causing her to expose herself in front of several people. From McIntosh’s point of view this action would be seen as male privilege. 

Being a male is not acknowledging that one’s male actions can be seen as threatening to a woman and put them in danger. Being that both arresting cops were male they failed to acknowledge their privilege, in this case men being the dominant ones and therefore are oppressing others. McIntosh would specifically notice the situation and perspective from those who are doing the oppressing, in this case it would be the cops. From McIntosh’s perspective, she would notice that these particular cops have privileges that they do not even know they have. One of McIntosh’s privileges of being white that she states is, “If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race” (McIntosh 13). This statement alone explains the incident with Ersula and the cops. Ersula cannot be sure that she isn’t being singled out because of her race, as she states, “I never once saw a single solitary individual get pulled over by a cop for walking across a street on a campus” (Kingkade Huffington Post). This statement made my Ersula shows that she may be questioning if the reason she is getting questioned is because of her race. McIntosh would believe this to be in important issue because although this incident is seen as one act of discrimination or cruelty is it actually occurring in, “invisible systems conferring unsought dominance on certain groups” (McIntosh 17). In conclusion, McIntosh would look at the cop’s white privilege mostly in this situation and state that the invisible system of racism and discrimination is the reason that this incident happened and is a product of white privilege.

The next theorist, Audre Lorde would have a different perspective on the incident involving Ersula Ore and Tempe cops. With Lorde’s work, The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, we can step into her shoes and analyze the cop incident from her point of view. Lorde is stating that the Master’s tools are things that society values such as, family, looks, status, education, money, and privilege. The Master’s house is society and these particular structures. Lorde would look at this incident involving Ersula and define the Master’s tools as looks and privilege in this specific situation. The cops used their privilege of their job and power to overpower Ersula in this situation. Audre Lorde would look at this situation and analyze that situations like this will never end because people in the minority, in this case Ersula, would have to not exist to change to occur. This is stated in Lorde’s work, “Master’s Tools” when she says, “They may allow temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change” (Lorde 23). Lorde would argue that one of the main reasons these cops tried to arrest Ersula was because of their lack of acknowledgment of their privilege. Lorde states in “Master’s Tools”, “those of us who are black- know that survival is not an academic skill” (Lorde 23). In other words, in this particular situation with the cops, Ersula refuses to get arrested because she knows she is getting wrongly arrested based on her race and looks. When ASU initially reviewed the dashcam footage of the arrest, they found nothing wrong with the officer’s actions. 

Lorde would argue that the reason ASU did not find anything wrong with the cops’ actions is because the Master’s house, system, will never be dismantled with the Master’s tools, respect and fairness, in this case. Audre Lorde would choose to look at this case from a perspective that there is obviously differences between the police officers and Ersula Ore, power ranking, gender, race, and probably several other differences, but if these differences were to be recognized more in society and not looked over, perhaps this situation would not have happened in the first place when Lorde states in “Master’s Tools,” “The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson” (Lorde 23). From Audre Lorde’s point of view, “women of today are still being called upon to stretch the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and needs” (Master’s Tools Lorde 23). Ersula Ore had to prove to the public that what she did was not wrong, and she only pleaded guilty to resisting arrest. Having to prove herself to the public is wasting time and in Lorde’s eyes Ersula would be taking so much time educating about race inequality from the police system that she would have no time to take care of herself. This statement made my Lorde would apply to Ersula, a woman, educating men about sexism and inequality not just race. Overall, Audre Lorde would look at this situation and focus mostly on Ersula and the negative impacts that this incident has caused her.

The last and third theorist, a group, The Combahee River Collective wrote a piece of work titled, A Black Feminist Statement. This piece of work is written by a group of black feminists that have been meeting since the 1970’s. The first thing that this group of women would focus on is the professor that got stopped by a police officer, Ersula Ore. The River Collective would notice that she is a black woman and the cop that stopped her was a white man. A big point that The Combahee River Collective focus on is intersectionality and how this personally affects one’s experiences in life. Being that Ersula is a black woman, the River Collective would pay special attention to this and how it affects the situation at hand. The River Collective would notice the small detail that the cops had not previously stopped anyone for doing the same thing, jaywalking. According to Phoenix New Times, “Ore took her fight to the public, setting up a website that sought donation, claiming the arrest and Ferrin’s treatment of her was based on her race” (Stern). The River Collective would support Erusla’s decision to defend herself for the action that were taken against her. The River Collective also believe that black women are valuable and there is such thing as racial-sexual oppression. An example of this would be in the incident with Ersula Ore. 

When she was in the middle of getting arrested for jaywalking a form of sexual assault occurred. According to CNN, Erusla can be heard stating in the dash cam for the officer not to grab her genital area, “she can be clearly hear on the dash ca video instructing the officer not to grab toward her genital area prior to him reaching for her in attempt to pull her skirt down over her exposed private area (Lacey-Bordeaux). The River Collective would see this event as a form of racial sexual oppression as stated in “A Black Feminist Statement”, “the history of rape of black women by white men as a weapon of political oppression” (River Collective 61). In other words, the cop in this situation is using his power to political oppress Erusla by using force and sexual oppression. The reason that they River Collective would see this as a significant issue is because this entire incident is based on the fact that Ersula Ore is a black woman and was a victim to white male patriarchy. The River Collective, analyzing this situation, would result to perhaps doing a workshop or talk about black feminism on a college campus to spread the word about this incident involving Erusla Ore and educate others why and how this event happened. Taking everything into account, The River Collective would mainly focus on Ersula Ore’s background and identify to further understand, and then reveal why this incident happened in 2014.

Furthermore, if all three theorists were to be in one room discussing this case study together, their opinions on what they would focus on, notice, conclude, and see as important details in this study would differ from each other. While Peggy McIntosh would mainly focus on the white male cop and his unacknowledged privilege and abuse of power, Audre Lorde would look at this situation from a societal point of view, commenting on how respect and status is what society values, letting the cop have his actions justified in our society. The Combahee River Collective would argue to both of the first theorist that the reason this is an important case study is because it reveals how being a black woman can affect your life experiences and, in this case, negatively with a cop interaction. In conclusion, all three theorists have important points made and see can see why this case study is important to understand and make conclusions about, whether based on white privilege, societal norms/structures, or the how the intersectionality of a person can affect their life experiences.