Symposium kicks off with lecture on identity politics, oppression

03/31/05 - The 11th Annual University of Rhode Island Symposium on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Issues held the first of its many events this week with a lecture last night in the Multicultural Center.Beverly Jenkins, a well-known and openly gay activist and organizational consultant, discussed issues such as dismantling single issue politics in her lecture, "Toward a More Inclusive Movement: Exploring Intersections of Identity Politics, Ethnicity, Socialization and Oppression."

"It's necessary to discuss who we are in this social movement, especially in this GLBT movement," Jenkins said.

Jenkins talked about the importance of identity by relating some of her early college experiences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"My college years were very confusing," she said. "I found myself struggling with my identity. Who was I?"

Jenkins said she struggled with being an African-American woman on a college campus that had a large white majority, calling it "very difficult and different."

"As a woman, I felt like an outsider," she said.

When she was in the company of other women, she was the only black woman, and when she was with other black people, she was the only gay one, Jenkins said. "There was really no one place I could fit in."

In order to figure out their identities, people must look toward a non-monolithic construction of who they are, she said.

"In the GLBT community, we must think in terms of multiplicity," Jenkins said.

Jenkins also discussed the role of oppression in regards to being an obstacle in finding identity, calling it "multi-layered" and "embedded in our own individual consciousness ... [and] an inherent part of our society."

"Identity politics work against the GLBT by creating the tools which further entrench the tools of oppression," Jenkins said. "By focusing on single-issue politics we are creating barriers to our success."

Jenkins presented a diagram she referred to as "The Tools of Oppression," made up of three concentric circles.

The outside circle included single-issue terms such as "sexism," "classism" and "racism" that tend to cause society to place individuals in stereotypical categories.

The inner circle contained the tools of oppression: violence, marginalization, economic exploitation and tokenism were just a few of the instruments used to oppress others. In the center of the diagram were the terms "power" and "control."

"It's difficult to oppress if you don't have the power," Jenkins said.

"Each of us is an oppressor and each of us are oppressed," she said. "That is the nature of society."

Jenkins said in order to find their true selves, people must "stop oppressing" and "start empowering each other."

Jenkins also talked about the circle of socialization and how society influences the individual into thinking a certain way, often leading to negative stereotypes about those who are not a part of the "norm." This process repeats itself in an endless cycle unless the individual does something about it, she said.

"The stop comes when we stop looking at 'otherness' and start looking at ourselves," Jenkins said.

People have to realize it is having differences that make them the same, she said.

"In the GLBT community, one size does not fit all," Jenkins said. "We are all different. And different is good.