Theu.s. Bernard s Lecture Notes, And Class Discussions

This week readings, lecture notes, and class discussions, reminded me of my experience with intersectionality in United States. Arriving in American in 1979, my first encounter of intersectionality was in my junior high school, where my race, gender, and culture had a negative role to play in my life. First, on preparing to emigrate to American with my family, my older sisters and I had our hair platted in cornrows with colorful beads, not knowing the negative impact it might evoke upon arriving in America. Few days after our arrival, we started our junior high school. It was at the school we encounter intersectionality, because all the white girls and boys constantly teased and make fun of us with our hairstyle and our name becomes something of a joke. To make matter worse, it was during this time the movie ‘Roots’ was brand new on the television screen. However, to my dismay the black girls joined the bandwagon. As Dr. Bernard stated in her lecture note that oppressor tends to separate/divide in order to dominate, justify and control, which is the case of the white students. We were feeling powerless, experiencing culture shock at the same time discrimination and marginalization was at its worst. We felt like a ‘transplant’ as Petersen (2006) described it as someone who is delicate and subjected to being exclude by her peers or community. While at the same time, the oppressed (black girls) had now become the oppressor. This was a double jeopardy in the sense that my