å Tuesday, April 18th, 2017

In the book Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, Roderick Ferguson described the characteristics of connection between property, capital, and prostitution within the idea of society of capitalism. Roderick Ferguson described this with the term called “queer of color” analysis. He described this as nascent and emergent formation that pass over gender and sexual idea of racialized boundary.  When he talked about the history of America, it showed how hierarchy of the society started to build based upon the background of industrialization, and social status and labor division. In addition, there was exclusion of African American in United States so that it led to lack of human rights and they treated as slaves. This discrimination and racism showed the lack of right in economic and racial status. In the beginning, Roderick Ferguson explained the pictures that describe the discrimination and racism during this period. And then he connected to the sexual status, which shows patriarchy of man over women and children. In the introduction, he focused his analysis on Marlon Rigg’s “Tongues United, which described drag queen prostitute who is black. This way of earning income made them lesser than the normal way of earning money so that it made prostitute against the social norm of property, capital and prostitution. Prostitution considered as illegal in most of the countries. However, the fact that both black and prostitute made more connection to the Roderick Ferguson’s queer of color anaylsis, because both black and prostitute was considered as lower status compared to norm. therefore, if there was a prostitute who is black, this would make them face more problematic situation than the other prostitute. since it showed the combination of black and prostitute, which are both inferior things, they were in position where people won’t accept them in society as same as other, and this represent the queer of color.

In his “Aberrations in Black Toward a queer of color critique” Roderick Ferguson critiques the capitalist economy as the cause for the class segregated economy and inequality that is imposed on people of color. According to Roderick Ferguson, this capitalist economy serves the white patriarchal family model which divides the labor based on gender, race, age, etc. This hierarchy of labor ranks men on top and leaves women and children at its low. Ferguson also provides an intersection where property, capital, and prostitution cross or associate with one another. While property is defined as land, or something in which someone has ownership of, one can attribute humans as property in cases of slavery. However, in general it is better to think of property as a commodity or a product that humans buy and sell. Capital on the other hand, refers to human labor, which Ferguson believes that it turns into property that belongs to the institutions or employers that people work under. Furthermore, the relationship between capital and property turns people into properties that have been bought for their labor. Money then becomes the most important resource for survival so people start to get exploited and exploit themselves (prostitution) to make a living. According to Ferguson, prostitution is seen as a threat to the heteronormative state because people gain access to money in different ways than what the capitalist system has set and thus queers break the institutionalized heteronormativity. This is what Ferguson talks about in his “queer of color” analysis, their potential to break away from the patriarchal system. Queers portray a threat to the heteronormative ideals because they deviate from the oppressive system by ways that go against it socially, legally, and economically. Queers gain money that goes uncontrolled by the oppressive system and therefore gives them more power over the system’s oppressive ideals.

In his critical analysis of how factors like disproportionate economic possession, deviation from the classic “American nuclear family” model, and disparate historical backgrounds all play significant roles within the race relations of America in his book Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, author Roderick Ferguson offers a theory as to another factor that lies at the intersection of race relations in America, and this is sexual orientation. Ferguson utilizes political and economic theory commonly discussed by Marx and Marxism concepts to critique the capitalist structure and its inherent facilitation of racial/sexual inequality. These critiques highlight a common thread that connects the inherent notion of property and capital and how it creates a culturally common dislike of lifestyle choices that deviate outside the norm, like prostitution. This dislike is accentuated when considering the lifestyle choices queer men and women of color, especially since these demographics are already considered “outside the norm” by some in American society.

Ferguson offers a brief overview of marxist history and political theory to provide the reader a better understanding of the concept of property in the United States. He then uses this definition to argue that notions of nation and property are the primary factor for racial exclusion in this country. (Aberrations 3) Ferguson also points out that the acquisition of property is viewed as a virtue, and so people who chose lifestyles that deviate from this pursuit in exchange for conventional social taboos such as sexual liberation, or the profiting from it, are viewed with disdain. This applies much more so to queer people of color, who are already much more liable to be scrutinized for their actions simply because of their existence as a racial and sexual minority within the country. Using the African American queer prostitute from the introductory paragraph, Ferguson accurately represents the many individuals that find themselves ostracized from their culture due to the heterogeneity present within their natures.

According to his text, “Aberrations in Black” Roderick Ferguson characterized the relationship between property, capital, and prostitution with the “queer of color” analysis. Under the background of the society of industrialization and capitalism, the social status were seems more clearly, especially between different races and gender.

Property was a commodity and social standard for people. The property can be consider as a land or slaves. The owner provides land for labors to producing foods, but the labors should pay or giving their foods for owner as a interests. Slaves can also be treat as an owner’s property, the owner had right to sell them.

Within capital, there was a social class or hierarchy between the workers, depends on the ability they have. The working wages were also pay within different social class. Women and children were consider the lowest class, they got the lowest pay but working for highest amount of works.

Under the society of capitalism, women were consider in lower class, low pay and lack of working chance make their lives become more difficult. The prostitution treated women with no respect, they were being treated and consider as a product that could be selling and exchanging in the market.

According to the text, Roderick defined the “Queer of Color” analysis as ‘the interrogates social formations as the intersections or race, gender, sexuality, and class, with particular interest in how the formations correspond with and diverge from nationalist ideals.’ In other words, queer of color was as a kind of social reconstruction which involved the idea of Marxism and capitalism, also interacted with different race, gender, and social class.

In his novel Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, Roderick Ferguson discusses how property, capital, and prostitution have historically become intertwined within our capitalist societal ideals. He basically implies that one does not exist without the other and explains how capitalism leads to social movements and change (or rather, transgressions, as these changes are often referred). Borrowing Marx’s ideas, Ferguson says that a prostitute is deemed the “property of communal lust” and a laborer is deemed the “property of capital” (Aberrations 8). To explain this concept, Ferguson talks about Britain in the nineteenth-century when prostitution was a popular form of sexual deviancy. As working mill girls earned wages they were able to purchase material goods and clothing, an act that was scrutinized by the middle-class. They turned the working-class’s desire for commodities into a desire for sex, which went against social and sexual norms. Needing someone to blame for the rise in sexually active young women and out-of-wedlock pregnancies, the bourgeois class looked at the working-class as the perpetrators of sexual and social chaos. In this sense, prostitutes represent how capital affects social organization and norms.

Roderick Ferguson characterizes the relationship between property, capital, and prostitution. Starting off by explaining, prostitutes race, gender, and class status go hand in hand, and they tend to be excluded by the “American people”. In this case culture is associated with liberal capitalist, social and economic formations, and how gender and sexual varieties relating to African Americans is part of the capitalist production.African Americans are placed outside of the “norm” as well as prostitutes because they are looked down upon due to the way they form their income. This idea of “queers of color” which is associate with people of color are rejected because of their race, gender, and sexuality all together and this affects what makes up the liberal capitalism. Due to their label this causes the discrimination and poverty against them, and it gives a distinct example on the specific group of people affected.Liberal capitalist restrain the diversity of of state and capitalist developments and queer of color analysis encourages unexpected relationships “queer of color analysis presumes that liberal ideology occludes the intersecting salience of race, gender, sexuality, and class in forming social practices” ( Ferguson,4). So, this queer of color analysis has to negate the ideas that race, class, gender, and sexuality are individual organizations, it has to challenge detachment with the idea that racial and national organizations are actually disconnected in African American culture. Capital has a say so in whats considered normal and what isn’t, and societies follow these ideas because this theory draws attention to social reforms and the author uses the idea of the “Black drag queen prostitute” to show a community who is constantly judged by their race, sex, as well as gender and these issues stem from the detachment which feeds into affected the workforce as well, the author wants to make it clear that we have to really analyze these issues to get a better understanding of why these issues take place.