Duneier's Sidewalk is set on the streets of Manhattan, where every day a homeless black man sits on a sidewalk and asks passersby for change. He calls out to white women walking by saying, "Hey baby, come here!" hoping for an interaction. The women walk briskly past with their gaze fixed straight ahead and regardless of the lack of verbal reciprocity; keep calling after them. In the book Duneier highlights the problems of interaction but has difficulty explaining the reason behind the derogatory behavior. Using Patricia Hill Collins' matrix of domination we can realize that men's actions are the result of the difference between their gender, which leads to the desire to overpower and oppress women in so-called "entanglement" situations. The matrix of domination sheds light on the invisible hierarchy that intertwines both the homeless black man and the upper-middle-class white women in these situations. Collins' matrix includes separate levels of an individual's social superiority in terms of race, gender, and social status, and measures their level of oppression based on all of these factors, not each characteristic individually. In this social system, white is seen as superior to black, male superior to female, and rich superior to poor. Individuals exhibiting the least superior qualities are therefore the most oppressed, and individuals with the most superior qualities are the least oppressed. (Collins 228) In the situation of engagement with Mudrick, a homeless black man, and his middle-aged white female counterparts, both parties involved are susceptible to at least one form of oppression. This gender difference leaves room for even the wealthiest white women to be oppressed by any evil… middle of paper… Both Mudrick and her women reside in separate places in the matrix of domination, and outdo each other in the different social factors of the model, but do the existence of these differences justify the way Mudrick treats these complete strangers? The answer is no. Simply because an individual has power he or she does not also have the right to abuse it. Mudrick may have the ability to make derogatory comments towards women, but if the reaction he gets from them is not something he wants (which is rarely the case) there is no reason to continue the behavior unless it is for gain personal mental. The plot is complex and troubling, but by using the rubric of the matrix of domination and the rules of its hierarchy of superiority and inferiority, one can better understand how and why individuals like Mudrick interact with women the way they do..