Tracy Lai and Evelyn Torton Beck, Essay Example

Throughout the course, we have seen how race often intersects with other “-isms”. One of this is femininism. Tracy Lai and Evelyn Torton Beck each endorsed a particular view of the race that was informed by feminism. Compare and contrast the type of racialized feminisms that Lai and Torton Beck utilize in their respective articles.

Tracy lai and Evelyn Torton Beck through their article address the issue of race and how in intersects with femininism. These two aspects go hand in hand, with one aspect influencing the other and vice versa. Lai discusses the issue of racism as it affects Asian American women while Torton Beck focuses on the Jewish woman.

According to Torton Beck, the stereotyping of the Jewish American woman as Jewish American princess (JAP) is an insult and should be considered as violence towards these women. JAP is a commonly used term in America, when used by a gentile it a form of anti-Semitism and when used by Jews it is a form of self-hating or internalized anti-Semitism. She believes that the subject of the use of the term JAP is not accorded adequate importance. If taken seriously, the use of this term boarders on anti-Semitism, misogyny/woman-hating or even class hatred. All this aspects contribute to racism. To support her arguments, the author uses case studies of events and racial instances various institutions such as the American university, racial captions from the media audio, visual and print media.

Lai discusses the issues of race and femininism in the Asian American society. She is focuses on the view of the Asian people and cultures perceived by the white American community. Lai takes issue with the formulation of laws that limit immigration of the Asian community, which in most cases are viewed as exclusionary laws aimed at women. She also highlights the racist rationale of Asian women being viewed as timid beauties. Lai uses captions from the media as well as publications from other others to highlight her points.

Labels such as JAP or Pilipino are used in the society to show or identify a person/ group of people cultural background. These labels can also be used to formulate community stereotypes that can either be positive or negative in nature. Other racialized labels commonly used in the society include the use of the term oriental beauties which is used to describe usually in a sexual way women from the Asian community and Negro to describe a black person.