我的雅致的 padlet by Yuting Liu

A Visit to a Not so Diverse Malibu Beach

yliu939_ — 2023-11-27 21:48:51 UTC

Last weekend, I took an opportunity to visit the Malibu Beach and thought I could inculcate my experience of visiting one of the famous and very expensive beaches of California into a Photo Essay for the project of Gender and Sexuality. I am Chinese and Asian. I have come to California for higher studies. After coming to California, I realized how much different American culture and societies are to Chinese culture. In the UCR, I met many Asian students and felt how diversity brings different people together. But at the beach, I felt differently. I realized that in America, diversity is not uniform and at some places, one can observe the difference in the numbers of white and other races clearly.

Poverty in Malibu hurts mostly white men

yliu939_ — 2023-11-27 21:49:48 UTC

The White (non-Hispanic) population in Malibu is 72.9% highest among other races. The second race living in Malibu is multiracial (non-Hispanic) with the figure of 6. 44%, which is if compared with the figure of Whites only population than asserts that this part of California shows less diversity. A very tiny fraction of 0.64% consists of Afro-American Blacks in Malibu One of the last lessons That I learnt in Gender and Sexuality class was about intersectionality of the concepts of gender and sexuality. The class included an essay “the Perils of People of Color” written by E. Tammy Kim, a Korean-American. Through this essay, I understood the idea of racial identities impacting overall the socio-economic, cultural, historical and political spheres of races in America. For instance, the “Black Lives Matter” movement includes only the color “Black” which alienates other minority races in America thus making it difficult for other minority races to voice their concerns at higher level with a smaller number of activists.

Expensive Residences for Rich Class

yliu939_ — 2023-11-27 21:50:49 UTC

I have posted this image to draw a comparison between the living standard of White (majority) race and other races (minority) in Malibu. Malibu is an expensive state, according to a website, the social strata that inhabits Malibu is one of the richest strata in California. Thus, they enjoy good health care and education facilities. The schools in Malibu are also top rated amongst the highest standard schools of California. On top of that, many celebrities live in California for the facts that they can afford and own residences in Malibu and also enjoy the serene beauty of the Malibu beach. The median property value in Malibu is $2 million. Audre Lord writes in one of his lessons, “Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.” (Lesson: Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference). In the case of Malibu, I deem this statement partially true. As Malibu is consisted of highest number of its population on White Rich class, so naturally they are at advantage in terms of resource allocation as compared to other minorities in Malibu.

Pink: Is It the color of Feminine!

yliu939_ — 2023-11-27 21:51:51 UTC

I enjoyed being there at the beach and tried to make connections between the real and imaginary worlds. I thought of looking at the beach without being influenced by the concepts of Gender and Sexuality, to put myself at calm and be with nature for the moment. Then this picture that I took out of curiosity made me think that pink, after all, is a color enjoyed by feminism. In the class of Gender and Sexuality, I loved learning about the ideas and concepts of feminism. It is a movement that strives to end the discrimination brought by misogyny against women. It is a movement that is inclusive to all genders and races, despite all these differences, it brings every gender and race together. I felt light-hearted after looking at this beach shop as I found it interesting and thought that it presents somehow feminist urge.

Dinning Experience at the Beach

yliu939_ — 2023-11-27 21:52:45 UTC

The dinning experience at the beach was fun but it did not stop me from noticing that the staff at the restaurant was all white and multiracial. Interestingly, I did not find anything on the menu from Chinese cuisine. I would not say that this image somehow represents any concept from the class of Gender and sexuality. But as I mentioned earlier, the class who lives in Malibu is consist of rich White class and as they are the majority of the population in the city so they have more privileges and benefits as compared to other races in the city. I found that the poverty rate of Malibu is not as bad as in other parts of the states and USA. Hence, only 942 out of 10.9k people in Malibu live under the poverty line. Ironically, the highest number of persons that were living below poverty line were from the race of White (non-Hispanic) and male.

我的雅致 的 padlet by Yuting Liu

A Visit to a Not so Diverse Malibu Beach

Poverty in Malibu hurts mostly white men

Expensive Residences for Rich Class

Pink: Is It the color of Feminine!

Dinning Experience at the Beach

我的雅致的 padlet by Yuting Liu