The cat calls from the construction workers on the street; the constant effort you put on to become invisible to a man gawking at you; male violence... all of these things were addressed and dissected so brilliantly by Gina Ulysse. She expertly weaves together race, class, and gender, and how it affects everyday life of not only for the ICI, bu also for people in general. 

Even though Ulysse's focus was on Jamaica, the things that she points out are relevant to the world,. Her stance on male violence was both enlightening and mind jarring. I say jarring because the male violence that we hear of all-too-often is yet another effect of a patriachal, paternalistic system. Ulysse says "violence is a gendered concept, an integral part of local defintion of masculinity in Jamaica" (Ulysse, 180).  In a society where physcial strength is masculine, masculinity is power, and things like money and the color of your skin are class symbols, lower class, black males have little to no power in this world. The only way to validate their masculinty is through brute force; thats the only way to keep their manhood in tact since money and skin color is not in their favor. 

Misogyny in the black male population is, again, the effect of this system. Black men are not born into high class, and are not white, so they immdiately are stripped of power. The one thing that is truly taught to them is how to be physcially strong (Sports, fighting, etc...); this is the way to be a man. Being that this a power driven society, men were stripped of this upon birth, and now, the only way to have the slightest power is to physically dominate one another, and black women.

So, where is the black woman in all of this? She is the "property"  (Ulysse, 180) of power hungry men. She has to maintain her "toughness" (183); her hard shield of protection that she began to build at a young age. This emotional wall is the black woman's way of accepting the position in which society has placed her , and coping with repeated abuses from their male counterparts. Toughness is a class symbol (183). Higher class, lighter skin women do not possess this characteristic. The interesting thing is that this "toughness" that black women possess is seen as natural. No, it is a response to a society that has placed her at the bottom of humanity. Black women live in multiple identities: One to survive the streets, one to take care of her family, and one to be a loving wife. She is simply trying to deal with the cards that have been dealt her; but, do not assume that black women are born to be "tough." Black women are made to be tough, and abandon the pain, shame, and ridicule that attacks her on a day-to-day basis.  

This is how America is America, and basically how the world operates; Some are the stepping stones to others upward mobililty. In this "democratic," patriarchal, paternalistic, misogynisitc system that we live by, there would be no success, no "high class" if it was not for the convenient leverage provided from the lower-class; and this is the crux of our societies' problem.