I thought about the application I had filled out for a job with the Colorado state. But, I don't want to be White, I have never considered myself to belong to that race, I am obviously not white in colour, so, according to the Manchiean dialectic, I would then be black. Alright, so I'm now black. And, it is through the theorizing of issues surrounding race, gender, sexuality and the points of intersection for these issues within hegemonic constructions, that I become most vocal. You must become one or the other.
Difference is, then, recapitulated as a binary system, the Manichaean worldview.
Somebody asked me recently if being an Indian or being a woman is more crucial to my existence, and which did I think was the greater obstacle in my life. Reflecting on my early years in the United States, I can recall incidents which subsequently forced me to perceive the world in a very essentialized and dichotomized manner. My first experience of this binary system occurred when I started school in the ghetto of West Philadelphia. I was waiting for the water fountain and there was a black boy in front of me and a black girl behind me in line. They proceeded to argue the point, each speaking for me, while I stood there, fascinated, horrified, but most importantly, mute.