The same production and distribution of consumer goods as a means of oppression is occurring right now in the city, with the push for digital transactions in many restaurants, shops, bodegas, and now trains. The MTA last year officially declared the end of the metro card era, shifting to their new partner OMNY, a part of a digital tap program. The rollout has happened over the course of 2023, and next year is expected to fully finish, marking the end of the MetroCard era. Although perceived to be an upgrade and freeing, the liberal push for tap technology fails to account for the 46% of commuters who make under 50,000, or the many families who can’t access digital technology or tap technology. Its function in the city stands as a hidden border to further distance social classes amongst one another, connecting back to Young’s point about the “conscious actions of many individuals daily contribute to maintaining and reproducing oppression”. 

This separation of identities despite facing a common ground reminded me of a YouTube video I had watched earlier in the year run by an account called Jubilee. The video was a discussion about the importance of race and gender (Identity) in America, having multiple contestants stand over the side of agree or disagree. The conversations held in the video reminded me of the conversation Lorde was trying to have with other attendees, about the fracturing that very identity can create in a system. Throughout the video, the topics and values held by the people who share are stemmed in their own beliefs, and through the progression of the conversation, the attendees realized the empathy they held for one another struggles, ultimately having the bigger conversation about what makes these identities categorized from one another. 

Following the damages of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans faced a great setback in infrastructure damage, prompting estate sellers and investors to consider where re-investment would occur to what parts of New Orleans. The study would show that areas highly invested into and rebuilt first were those congregated towards the central white population, rather than other parts of N.O. that had suffered worse damages than the central area. The government would greenlight this plan, and systematic redevelopment would occur, prompting these newly invested spots to become centralized capital hubs for the state, disregarding the mass community of African-American house owners who had to raise money for their communities  by themselves or through non-profit. In this matter, those centralized in that portion of New Orleans would receive systematic benefits, often those of middle class whites, without even realizing the juxtaposition in zoning improvements faced elsewhere.