RP2: Thoughts on Manalansan, Ramirez and Omi and Winant; Revised

This is a revision of my original thoughts on quotidian struggles, racial projects and cultural productions. Last week I did not dedicate enough time to fully understand and elaborate on each theory. First, quotidian struggles according to Manalansan are the struggles when “everyday life intersects and engages with the intimate, the private, and the search for home in modern life” (Queer Migrations, 148). Quotidian struggles can be effected by space, time, selfhood, linguistics, drama, race, class, gender, sexuality and nationality, all of which are addressed as daily issues throughout Manalansan’s work. It is important to note that these quotidian struggles take place alongside racial projects and cultural projects, which are two very differing terms, but are two terms that very much work together in order to dismantle or reinforce notions and formations of race. Next, Omi and Winant describe racial projects as the ways in history in which “human bodies and social structures are represented and organized” which attributes to the overall racial formation that society continually creates, inhabits, transforms and later destroys (Racial Formation in the United States, 55-56). Lastly, we are left with Ramirez’s work on cultural productions, which represent contestations symbolically and provide a literal means to intervene in the issue and discuss it. Instead of creating racial formation, cultural productions are interventions to dissect the racial formation that occurs due to racial projects. Each term itself is unique; quotidian struggles are placed on the individual, racial projects can affect individual thought but can only be created from groups over time, and cultural productions are able to exist because atmospheres are necessary to discuss both. Although they are unique, I argue that without their coexistence, these theories would not be presented. Quotidian struggles are formed in a large part by racial projects, which only exists by groups of individuals with quotidian struggles expressing their tribulations, ultimately leading to the creation of cultural productions which exist to represent the two. Each term is separate but can be discussed in context with the others. Each term is its own sphere, yet they overlap because they need to in order to be present. Which points out a major flaw of my first attempt at explaining these theories. I used the visualization of living inside of a ball and being affected by coming into contact with different balls. However, balls only bounce off of one another and are not able to overlap. Spheres on the other hand, like a ven diagram, allow theories to be separate when necessary yet allow them to extend into others. Lastly, I apologize for original spelling of quotidian as “quotidienne;” that darned French always sneaking up on me.