å Monday, April 17th, 2017

According to Roderick Ferguson’s text, the queer of color is the primary key of liberal capitalism, Marxism and social reconstruction. In the background of industrialization, the social status and labor division become more clarify. There is also bearing the different racial and gender. The materialism is the representation of Marxism. He believes the property, capita; and prostitution is exchange materials. There is the symbol of dehumanization in the capital. The prostitute is kinds of label of poor working class community in Britain during night teeth century. The prostitution is a marginal side of capital in this case; women become a private property exchange in the market. Also, he measuring the work’s body is property of capital. But, there are many outcomes because of sexual normativity, such as the sexually active, early marriage and sexual harassments. It’s also cause the sexual confusions in ideology.

The economic exploitation is a major factor of the labor market. Ferguson describes the sign of capital, which is market and slaves. The inequality of African American’s wage and power in the labor market. Human become a part of property behind the industrialization. The capital encourages people norm ideas of heterosexual, which means the reproductive. Population is increasing, brought more developing of economic.

Culture helps capital to reconstruct the social class, the identity and the regulations. There is racial argument between African American and White American in the society. The culture help the capital more diversity and give people more chance to choose their own identity. There are many literature and arts show us how the sexual heterogeneity of African American racial in society. Developing of capital, the culture becomes a major factor to increase the economic.

The queer of color is a part of social reconstruction, and involved the Marxism’s political ideology. It does also connect between labor market and social conditions. And how the society create the basic structure of property, sexuality and capital.

In his book, “Aberrations in Black; Toward a Queer of Color Critique”, Roderick Ferguson distinguishes the connection between property, capital, and prostitution. This connection holds a link to his analysis, which in his words is known as “queer of color”. He beings to talk about the history of race in the United States of America, specifically the history of the exclusion of African American men, including their lack of rights as not just citizens, but even humans. Their lack of rights as humans was shown in the clear discrimination of them in the economic and racial settings (vii). The author pulls this all from an image he analyzed in the preface of his book. He further explains the meaning of this picture, connecting it to the sexuality behind racial exclusion. Such exclusion promoted the sexual purity and mobility of white women and white men (viii). As we move into the introduction, Robert Ferguson fixates his analyzing skills on Marlon Rigg’s “Tongues United”, where an African American drag queen prostitute is shown. The author depicts the individual as a feature of urban capitalism. It could be argued that she is displaying the many, as the author would like to say, socially disorganizing effects of the capital and political economy. In such an argument, it would mean that she represents a much larger black culture for her racial difference, which leads to a big connection with her sexuality, gender, and class. But the confusion would lie in characterizing her as a heterosexual or a homosexual, due to her “conflicting” role as a prostitute and a drag queen. This makes her not so liked by those of the African American culture and those not, as they want to present the black culture to be about everything that she is not. Simply put, such mindsets want the culture to be universally accepted as normal (2). Now, this is where the queer of color analysis comes in. The author describes it what is used to study what cultures can produce in the name of identifications and how it handles the unwanted “baggage” that comes along with it (3). Adding on to that, queer of color analysis believes that liberal ideology stops the crossing of race, gender, sexuality, and class in forthcoming social customs.

According to Ferguson, the relationship between property, capital and prostitution stems from racialization and heteropatriarchy. Using Marxist concepts in his discussion, Ferguson criticizes capitalism for normalizing heterosexuality and whiteness in society, which exploits those outside the norm as property. The hierarchy of property ownership is compared to a tribe, with the owner being the “chief” of the tribe and the extension of the tribe ending with the slaves being the lowest. The division of labor in this hierarchy is influenced by the heterosexual and patriarchal family structure. Ferguson brings up the concept of property ownership not only referring to people owning people as slaves, but also using it as an analogy of the capital state “owning” the people working in this system. The “slaves” of the capital tribe are the unskilled workers, which essentially are the immigrants. The state exploits these groups of people as cheap labor that benefits the capital, with the surplus immigrant populations providing more than enough labor for the state. Prostitution is related to property and capital as it is the intersection between these two factors. This occupation dehumanizes a person, forcing the person to sell their body to survive, essentially turning that individual into a piece of property working for the capital. As for prostitution and capital, the connection between the two is that prostitution allows the capital to step out of heteronormative ideology, disrupting the heteropatriarchy and exploiting the man’s lust for profits.
When taking into account of the “queer of color” analysis, it breaks the silence of the racialization and heteropatriarchy that stems in society. Using Ferguson’s example of the black drag queen prostitute, this individual breaks all the stereotypes associated with society’s standards, going against the natural roles that have been instilled into the citizens of the state. The “queer of color” perspective promotes an ideology that goes outside of the “box” of capital, showing the contrasting side of race, gender, and class.

Roderick Ferguson states that by analyzing the statuses and identities of black queer prostitutes we could reveal capitalist economy, the state and the western ideology operating as a force that generates the intersection of multiple forms of oppression such as definitions of inferior cultures, race, class, gender and sexuality. Non-white subordinated groups are the working class of the capitalist system. This class is created by the constrains and limitations imposed by the state, and at the same time the state promotes the order and the normativeness of white heterosexual ideals.

In order to discuss the cultural factors and causes of inequality, poverty and subordination of black queer we should look into the economic development of capitalism, we should observe the ideology of western society and see how they are intertwined with state regulations and production of knowledge.Ferguson critiques the capitalist economy and its mode of production as responsible for social formation and class segregation. The capitalist system creates antagonism between wealth,  order and refinement, and poverty, disorder and decline. Capitalism and the rules of the state contradict each other in some way, but this clash is constantly reproducing the identities of white and nonwhite people. Also, patriarchy, race, division of labor, definitions of normative and deviant sexuality, social class, gender, age, and segregation are some of the variables that Ferguson places into perspective to reveal that U.S. ideals are aligned with the aim of capital accumulation and capitalist property relations.

Ferguson examines historical materialism as the starting point of division of classes and division of labor, when a surplus mass of workers are deprived form their means of production and willing to sell their labor power to survive. With industrialization, demands for labor and merging racial diversity in urban centers  in the U.S., Mexicans, Asian, and African American workers create fertile ground for the expansion of capitalism and exploitation of workers. The state implements programs to control nonwhite populations which are fixed into a  racial profile. Mexicans are americanized into domestic service, Asian and African Americans are segregated from middle class neighborhoods and  regulated by laws that prohibit interracial marriage. Capitalists produce more capital employing subordinated groups in the market and also by limiting their opportunity generates a surplus mass of workers that are willing to work for wages, sell their bodies and adjust to the circumstances of poverty because they have no other choice. Nonwhites are excluded from economic freedom, culturally and racially excluded  from the politics and economic spheres of society.

Roderick Ferguson characterizes the relationship between property, capital and prostitution in his book “Aberrations in Black” using the “queer of color” analysis. “Queer of Color” describes individuals that are outcast from society for having different identities (some may be deviant while others may be more accepted), along with the emergence of the drag queens and prostitutes.

According to Ferguson, property is a commodity (land or in some cases, property can be people such as slaves) and a social standard. Although we, as individuals, are not owned, we are considered property in the sense that we provide labor for a wage rate to the institutions that we work for. It is essential that we work in order to obtain wages from our employer, in the hopes that we can acquire capital in order to sustain survival.

Capital is seen as human labor, basically commodifying the individual for the purpose of labor production. Within capital, there is a hierarchy that is comprised of skilled and unskilled workers, followed by women and children with the lowest wage rate being provided to the worker for the highest amount of labor production attainable for the institution to profit. Ferguson points out that the state can influence the heteronormative nature of capital, without the state.

Ferguson continues to explain that prostitution is a combination of property and labor capital. Prostitution is different from property and capital because it is disconnected from the conventional, heteronormative values of race and gender. But, prostitution is still the ownership of an individual that provides a service (labor) for a waged rate. Ferguson explains that prostitution is a threat to the system (and ultimately not protected socially or legally) because it provides a method of mobility that would otherwise not exist for people in those demographics. Queers can gain wealth through the labor of prostitution, that could elevate them financially in a way that society doesn’t want or allow.

“Queer of color” analysis is important to the connection among property, capital and prostitution because it exposes the ways in which queers and prostitution go against the heteronormative state and threaten the patriarchal system. Homosexuality and sexual deviance are thought to be tools to destroy society and the morals of the heterosexual man. Creating a system that gives a sense of identity and wages (potential wealth) to these members of society could potentially grant them power and means to success that are directed to heteronormative men only. If queers can gain wealth through prostitution, they would take power away from the patriarchy.

In his book Aberrations in Black Toward a Queer of Color Critique”, Ferguson reveals how African American are placed outside heteronormative patriarchal norms and how racial segregation is a way in which capitalism keep gender and sexuality norms. Ferguson also suggests that there is a relationship between property, capital and prostitution. Property relations within tribal communities are heterosexual and patriarchal arrangements. It is interesting the relationship between capitalism and prostitution because the symbol of prostitution was used by Marx to represent the man’s dehumanization (Ferguson p.7). Prostitution was the representation of man’s feminization. Wage labor did not allow a man to be independent by himself and that need forced him to become prostitute and sell himself to his work to get capital and survive. In nineteen century the prostitute was a racial metaphor for the gender and sexual confusion created by capital, which related the figure of prostitute to sexual savagery of black women and to establish nonwhite sexuality as the alliance for other kinds of womanhood. While the industrial capital was developing working-class white women with a limited income, but the prostitute became the racialized figure that represented demonstrations against those changes.

On the other hand, the transition from an industrial economy to a post-industrial economy created a slope in manufacturing jobs, but at the same time occurred an increase in service jobs, in the private sector and government jobs as well. This improved the development of different social classes among African Americans. Ferguson also explains this relationship between capital, property and prostitution is related to “queer of color” because capital produces different kinds of social creations as the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and class that surpass the limits of what is considered the rationalized gender and the sexual ideas of the different individuals and the same time the queer of color represents the malformations of modern society.

Roderick Ferguson characterizes the relationship between property, capital, and prostitution in his book Aberrations in Black Toward a Queer of Color Critique. He explains this relationship with his “Queer of Color” analysis. Which he describes as building on the idea that capital produces emergent social formations that exceed the racialized boundaries of gender and sexual ideals. His main subject in explaining his Queer of Color analysis is a Black drag-queen prostitute. This image puts forth the act of going against the social norms of property, capital, and prostitution in all forms. The simple fact of being a prostitute goes against these social norms because it is a form of income seen as far lesser than those with more “normal” forms of income and are viewed as less deserving of legal protection. Prostitution is seen as illegal in most of the world and this can easily stem from the perceived notion that it is an immoral act going against human rights. Sometimes this is the only way a person can earn an income, and even in some cases, it is a profession people want to pursue. The fact that Ferguson’s example character is both Black and a drag queen in addition to being a prostitute makes them even more connected to Ferguson’s Queer of Color analysis. Because the character is Black and a drag queen it becomes more problematic than what a typical prostitute would have to face. This type of person deviates so far from social norms that if they were to get into legal trouble their chance of proving themselves innocent would be far harder than any regular person. By having the combination of perceived inferior traits: being Black, a drag queen, and a prostitute; they are in a position where it would be near impossible to accept them as deserving as others, thus perfectly representing Ferguson’s Queer of Color.

I think queer of color mentioned by Roderick Ferguson is a group of people that are outcast/misfits and the analysis behind it is that these group of people has their own identification (culture, ideas, beliefs, etc…) that may or may not be a reflection of other people (Marxism, liberalism, nationalism, etc…). Instead these queer of color debunk the ideas and beliefs of those other people ideologies and create a sense of something similar to group work. And the connection that this has to property, capital, and prostitution create those ideologies (norm in society). The capital (government) create the policies/laws that become the norm that societies follows and the people in those societies become the property of the capital. So when time begins to change (the economy and the revolution like the industrial revolution begins people are affected differently. Prostitution in particular may dehumanize a person and make them treated as a lust object which can affect people around them. Things that were never possible (expensive things like clothes, etc…) soon became possible for prostitution to get (even though they were poor) and creates a potential threat to gender stability where people could now be forced to do something they don’t want to do (e.g. human traffic). These people (the prostitution-er) like everyone else is apart of the capital property where they work for money (job), but are treated differently due to this not being a norm and how dehumanizing it is for that specific gender (reason for why feminism exist and an example is if a girl/women does something in the adult industry they are called slut). Also capital in Ferguson article is formed when the discourses of race, gender, and sexuality comes together. How this affects the formation prostitution is due to those social norm as mentioned above. By setting the discourses as a norm for society, it becomes harder to understand the morals of certain people, but once we come to an understanding of those certain people we will know how they feel.

In his book “Aberrations,” Roderick Ferguson articulates that racial issues stem from a difference in gender and sexuality. He begins his novel by referencing Marlon Rigg’s documentary, “Tongue’s Untied.” The documentary shows a black drag-queen prostitute. Ferguson mentions that living such a life will have other people questioning if she is really happy or not. He uses this scene to help bring about the corrupt effect of urban capitalism and how that has an effect on the black community especially. The drag-queen embodies a larger community that has been judged by their race, gender, sexuality, and social class. To others, these qualities of an individual are interwoven into one and therefore, can be confused and misinterpreted.
This rigid structure of what is considered normal to the government and economy is carried over during the increase of immigration in the United States. Ferguson brings about how capitalism goes against the core of citizenship. When the number of immigrants entering the United States peaked, different cultures began to mix and the definition of what was considered normal was challenged. As a result, the government decided to take measures into their own hands by regulating certain practices and patterns once these new citizens joined the workforce. For example, Americanization programs prepared Mexican mothers to enter the workforce by making sure they could perform domestic duties efficiently so that American women would feel comfortable allowing them in their homes. These programs also attempted to conceal and prevent the spread of provocative tendencies from Asian American communities to American neighborhoods. This was taken a step further by regulating these tendencies within the workforce as well amongst African Americans and Asian Americans.
These examples support Ferguson’s the “queer of color” analysis and how gender and sexuality brings about racial separation. He argues that in order to progress and move forward, we must look at these issues as a whole and as a starting point in learning new information to gain a new perspective.

In Roderick Ferguson’s “Aberrations,” he suggests an idea of how property, capital, prostitution are related. He starts the article with stories that clearly show the intersection of poverty, race, gender and economic discrimination. First, racial exclusion in social occupation is emphasized as he shows a picture of colored men waiting room and colored men restroom. Also, an example of black drag queen is introduced. Drag queen prostitute is shown as one of the features of urban capitalism, and showed how sexual difference became reasons for discrimination and poverty. Them, in particular, represented economic and social alienations. They were even being excluded from mainstream queers, and African-American communities. Ferguson asserts that racialized gender is one of the capitalist modes of production. According to the article, Marxism and liberal pluralism share the idea that the nation and property are outcomes of racial and class exclusions. Also, the idea relates with historical materialism. Emerged from racialized discourse, normative heterosexuality is justified. In capitalist theme, Marx argued universalism of heteropatriarchy, as symbolization of labor done by heterosexuals. Marx also asserted that the symbol of dehumanization is largely shown through prostitution. He focused prostitution as a specific representation of generalized “labor prostitution.” According to the article, it states that being castrated from all the means of production, the worker has only that labor resides in his body to sell. (Ferguson 8) Therefore, Marx relates prostitution as property of communal lust, that is an outcome of capitalist alienation.

On the other hand, Ferguson starts the interpretation from “Queer of Color” analysis. According to him, nation and capital is outcome of intersections that contradict the idea of liberal nation-state and capital as sites of resolution, perfection, progress, and confirmation. (Ferguson 3) Therefore, queer of color analysis justifies the intersectionality of race, gender and class and proves that the contrasting idea of capitalism is mistaken. Furturemore, queer of color analysis extends its idea to women of color feminism, by investigating intersections.