32 notes &

Just because some people don’t think of themselves as having any class identity, it doesn’t mean that they have none. Indeed, under certain circumstances, the very lack of awareness of elements of one’s own identity is a significant reflection of that identity. For example, my being and having a sense of myself as white in this society can be said to be reflected in the fact that it does not occur to me to note it, nor am I required by convention to note it; the conventions about self-description allow me to refer to myself simply as “woman”. But if I were a Black woman, people would think I was withholding important information if I did not qualify “woman” with “Black”.