Matrix of Domination

First introduced by the sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, the matrix of domination is a concept that draws attention to the inherent complexity of privilege as it operates in social systems and shapes people's lives. The basic idea is that various forms of privilege—such as those based on race, gender, class, ethnicity, or sexual orientation—do not exist independently of one another in the social world or people's experience of themselves. Instead, various forms of privilege are related to one another in ways that make it difficult, if not impossible, to understand one without paying attention to its connection to the others.

In the simplest sense, in our lives as individuals, there is no social situation in which people perceive and treat us in terms of a single characteristic such as being white or female or gay. For example, people are unlikely to experience me as simply a man or a white person but instead will form complex impressions based on a larger set of characteristics. Even if their attention is drawn to some particular aspect of my social identity—such as my gender—they will nonetheless experience me as a man of a certain race and class and sexual orientation, not as some kind of “generic” man who is at that moment neutral or invisible in relation to other characteristics related to privilege.

The complexity of social identity in relation to privilege makes it likely that people will belong to both privileged and subordinate categories at the same time. Some people—such as middle-class, straight, white Anglo men—may belong only to privileged groups, while others—such as lower-class lesbian women of color—may belong only to subordinate groups. But most people—such as workingclass white men or professional women of color—will fall somewhere in between, making for complex and sometimes confusing lives. Working-class white men, for example, may be acutely aware of their subordinate position in the class system but oblivious to their access to male privilege and white privilege. Not only that, but their acute awareness of class disadvantage may make them bristle at the idea that they have access to any form of privilege.

This combination of defensiveness and blindness to privilege is a frequent source of conflict and division as subordinate groups try to organize against their own oppression. The women's movement, for example, continues to struggle with the perception among women of color that their interests are routinely subordinated to those of white women, especially white women of the upper middle and upper classes.

The matrix of domination also points to the complexity of privilege on the level of social systems, where various forms of privilege intersect in complex and powerful ways. Many people believe, for example, that the origins of racism and white privilege are primarily a matter of race itself—going back as far as human awareness of racial differences—and are rooted in an inherent human tendency to fear those unlike themselves. The history of racism, however, shows that the origins of white privilege and whiteness as a social identity are fairly recent and cannot be separated from the development of capitalism and the social class system among whites in the United States during the nineteenth century. At the core of white privilege and racism was the institution of slavery, driven primarily by the desire among whites for rapid economic growth and by the development of technology such as the cotton gin that made the massive enslavement of Africans a lucrative enterprise.

...