5 Assignment 09

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.

Throughout the history of the world there have been various societies present across the globe. These societies have consisted of numerous working parts. After reading Aberrations in Black by Roderick A. Ferguson, I will be discussing the relationships between property, capital, and prostitution. Property is an object, piece of land, or in barbaric cases people that a person owns. Capital is a means of wealth used by citizens in many societies to purchase both necessities and desires. Prostitution is the action of an individual using their sexual practices to obtain wealth.

Roderick A. Ferguson does a great job of explaining how property, capital, and prostitution relate to each other. We the citizens are property. When we work, we become property to the various institutions that we work for. Not only are we property to our employers but we are property to the very thing we are trying to obtain from our work which is capital (Ferguson, 2003). We citizens become a form of property so that we can obtain capital. Many people in the world are driven by their desire to accumulate a large amount of wealth and this desire sometimes influences people to engage in “immoral” acts. We the citizens are then prostitutes. We become prostitutes by selling ourselves and our work to obtain capital. Citizens are like prostitutes because we must sell our services to receive capital and to survive (Ferguson, 2003).

In Ferguson’s piece Aberrations in Black he speaks extensively about “queer of color” and its relevance to the relationship between property, capital, and prostitution. I believe that “queer of color” is slightly like prostitution because they are both believed to be an enemy to heteropatriarchy. Both prostitution and homosexuality are viewed as vices that aim to destroy the integrity of heterosexual males. Also, prostitution was deemed as a cause of gender and sexual confusions and I believe that “queer of color” brings up these same confusions (Ferguson, 2003). Lastly, property, capital, and prostitution are believed to be factors that have negatively impacted the practice of heteronormativity in America. Similarly, “queer of color” can be seen to do the same things because it goes against the natural roles that the state has institutionalized among its citizens. Just like the three factors listed above “queer of color” can be seen as a threat to a society and as a vice that aims to taint the idea of a “normal” American.

Ferguson, R. A. (2003). Aberrations in Black. University of Minnesota Press.

Ferguson relates property to the description of the heteronormative patriarchal family that anyone alive in America can identify with as the social standard, one that you are expected to assimilate to or a the very least you are trying to achieve. The family or tribe has a presumed division of labor, working husband, wifely housework, and children providing gender specific maintenance such as lawn mowing or sibling child care.

Capital is illustrated as the person as a commodity, primarily as an unskilled wage slave. The hierarchy of capital is skilled workers, unskilled workers, women and then children, with success measured as finding a way to profit using the least skill at the lowest price point. Capital also behaves differently in relation to involvement from the state, if the state is involved then capital will appease the state by perpetuating heteronormative roles. However, capital only has interest in profit so when the state is not a factor race and gender have no influence over cheap labor for profit.

The relationship between property and capital becomes most interesting when Ferguson adds prostitution, in part due to the dehumanizing effect and literal collaboration of property and capital, but also because it is entirely queered by the disassociation from gender and race. Prostitution is an obvious branch of capital because the value of it is outside of the heteronormative boundaries and threatens the nature of the boundaries. This disruption is especially threatening because it provides a mobility for a class of people that are not deemed worthy of mobility, a side note that could provide insight to why Western society protects the john and not the prostitute.

When “queer of color” is considered as part of the analysis the representation of disempowerment becomes clear and Marx’s critiques of capital and property relations as universal ideals evolves into an emblem of the separation of order and refinement from poverty and degradation. The racialization of heteronormative capitalism has normalized this as universal and desirable. Queer of color analysis also attempts to explain the emergence of drag queen prostitutes and their place in the working class struggle as surplus laborers. Additionally, queer of color becomes most important in historical terms when color and/or queer sociologists were excluded from contributing their work, acknowledging this work separately is necessary to highlight the previously exclusionary practices of an imperfect discipline.

Due Monday, April 17th, by midnight. Word count: 300 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. Absolutely no quotes should be used. If you paraphrase from the text (from Ferguson’s work or anywhere else), you must be sure to include the proper citation (either MLA or APA).

Drawing on examples from his text, how does Roderick Ferguson characterize the relationship between property, capital, and prostitution in his book, Aberrations? What bearing does this relationship have on his “queer of color” analysis?