Recently in Women of Color Category

Like many politicized and not so "political" women of color I've had my qualms identifying as a feminist. As addressed before the Internet blew up, traditional western feminist discourse connotes white, middle class, straight women and many of the issues fought center this group; that has been covered extensively Online, in print, and on Feministing by folks like Samhita. Zoom back to me, as a 27 year-old daughter of working-class Mexican immigrants and a single urban mama , my lifestyle and at times worldview does not seem to be grasped by western feminism.  Like I've said before in my other blog and in real life conversations, my mama, grandmama (resting in peace now) aunties, mentors and closest friends do not identify as feminists and are some of the staunchest, strongest, hard working, autonomous independent thinkers, and just people that I know. All without identifying with feminism, and as complicated as that is, I respect that and even admire it. Honoring the women in my blood and non blood family  relating to them, has made it easy for me to question and at moments reject dominant feminism.

I live in L.A. where there is a huge Latin-American and Latino immigrant population.  Forgive me if this has been the topic many times before, if so, I missed it.  I can pass for Latina (especially to "white"people) but, know very little of their expression in the feminist movement.  Is there a Latina Bell Hooks?

I consider some of the women in the public eye, like Sanda Cisnero & Selma Hayek, celebrated for acting and writing as feminists, but haven't heard them actually claim feminism.

Where are the Latinas ?

At my school (within the US), there is a minority association for under-represented minorities. I feel the purpose of this is to create a forum where these minorities feel they can discuss potential barriers and issues that impede their success as well as provide support to each other. However, by being an organization for under-represented minorites, they distinctly (although not explicitly) disallow the attendance of so called "over-represented minorities".

My problem with this, as a Asian-American female, is how narrow their definition of minority status is. Many people look at the asian population in the US and create a stereotypical picture of of one of the "richest" minority groups. It has been shown many times that Asians, specifically Indian-Americans, have a higher median income than the average american. However, they fail to realize that this population, like EVERY other population, is incredibly diverse. As an Indian-American women, the women who influence my life consistely earn significantly less than men and are less likely to receive education, even more so than other ethnic communities in the US (1).

My frustration is in the lack of acknowledgement of the significant areas of poverty within the community, and the lack of public support for their needs. The poor and underserved Indian-Americans are overshadowed but their rich counterparts, and do not receive the attention, support and encouragement they deserve. The stereotype of a successful Asian American (who is invariably a doctor), prevents people from understanding that there are poor people in this community that not only lack the opportunities to succeed, but also are assumed to be "innately" predestined for success, and therefore deserve no assistance.

Why does the term "under-represented" minority exist? I understand there are significant disparities within the Black, Latino and American Indian population within the US, and this group is targeted to address those needs. And obviously these races are under-represented as far as the percentage of these races in my school are less than the percentage of these races are in the general population in the US.  But why disallow people who are under-represented minorities in other manners?

I am trying to make myself believe that there is simply a lack of understanding on what minority status is. They don't think "Asian" is a minority since they have a higher average wealth within the United States. But part of me, the part of me that has been judged for my race, my caste, and my class, and for the little differences in skin tone that most Americans wouldn't even see, believes this is deliberate. That it makes a group feel better to be insular and reject someone who doesn't fit their specific reality. I understand this is a bias that I bring from my past experiences, and is not necessarily accurate. But it still exists.

A few months ago, we highlighted  on WVFC the achievements of Annette Gordon-Reed ,  professor, attorney and historian, whose new book The Hemingses of Monticello comes four years after DNA evidence finally quieted most critics that had claimed that Thomas Jefferson couldn't possibly be the father of the children of the enslaved Sally Hemings.  (Click the first link for video of her conversation with Charlie Rose.)

Last week, Gordon-Reed talked to WVFC editor Chris Lombardi about sexual power, how working at Rikers Island prepared her for controversy, and how it felt to raise a 15-year-old daughter while writing about a teenager who became pregnant by a President.

The first thing I heard anyone say about Michelle Obama following her husband’s historic election on November 4th were these three words: “What was that?” And no, they weren’t talking about a radical speech that this Princeton- and Harvard-educated woman had made. People on the streets, buses and subways decried Michelle Obama’s election-night fashion choice on the morning of November 5th.

The stir that Michelle Obama’s fashion “faux pas” caused may look like usual tabloid fodder, but the attention paid by the mainstream media to our future first lady’s sense of style starts sounding a little more dubious when we view it through the multiple lenses of racism, classism and sexism. During Barack Obama’s campaign, conservative news outlets circulated analyses of Michelle Obama’s unwomanly ‘anger’ (these accusations brought on, might I add, by the understandable statement that, as a black woman, she hadn’t always been proud of her country). The title of her Princeton thesis, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community” concerned nervous voters. Shallowly beneath the surface lay the real problem: A whole lot of Americans felt pretty uncomfortable that this highly educated black woman was actually discussing racism, instead of pretending that it didn’t exist.

With this short campaign history in mind, the debate around Michelle Obama’s election-night dress is revealed for what it truly was: A shoddily constructed effort to avoid the reality that a strong, smart, fiercely capable black woman will soon live in the White House. As much as the tabloid news might want to dumb her down as another fashion icon or victim, Michelle Obama is much more than either of those things. She’s someone who might confront us with some tough issues. Whether or not you voted for Obama, that sounds like just what we need right now. 

I just finished watching a 20/20 special entitled "Babyland," a one-hour show about infant mortality in Tennessee.

The special focused primarily on teenage mothers in Memphis, located in a county where one baby dies every 43 hours. The vast majority are African Americans.

They documented the journey of a young woman named Precious Simpson, who lives in a Memphis neighborhood burdened by poverty and crime.

A wealthy white woman named Terry, from a suburban Memphis neighborhood, mentored Precious throughout her pregnancy, providing guidance, friendship and financial assistance. She heard about the opportunity from a church bulletin.

She seemed very nice (even though she claims to have "helped Precious make the decision not to have an abortion").

Ok. I'm tired everywhere I go especially being around hispanics, they immediately think that being a woman (first), and being Mexican (second) I should biologically love to cook! My boyfriend's mom thinks it's wrong that I don't find enjoyment in cooking, so does my boyfriend. He tell's me that he would cook for me everyday, not because it is a role but because he loves me and wants to see me happy. I tell him that I would appreciate that but he doesn't have to because I wil love him wether he does that or not. Then he also says that I shouldn't let my feminist views control all my life, that I should learn how to cook because is needed, not because I'm a woman.

This December, I’ll be visiting my family in the Philippines for the first time in seven years. I’m hoping to view the country with new eyes.

I've always felt pretty aware of my prejudicial notions about Filipino culture, society, people — and only mildly guilty for entertaining them. Growing up, I learned to regard the Philippines with a kind of benign contempt, always cognizant of its shortcomings, and therefore ever appreciative of the opportunities afforded me by American society.  But even as I got older and began to question these notions, privately testing their validity, I only managed to exchange one set of prejudices for another.  When my parents told me as a child, for example, that Filipinos had no culture before the Spanish came, I accepted that as fact; as a precocious teenager struggling to be objective and politically correct, however, I rejected this idea in favor of one that seemed less harmful (but was certainly no less prejudicial): Of course the Philippines had a rich culture before the Spanish came; they just don’t anymore.

Similarly, as a child I somehow concluded that Filipina women wanted so desperately to be white and western because they were, themselves, inferior; as a teenager I exchanged that view for one which regarded Filipinas as helpless victims of colonization. While the latter was an improvement, I was still very much an unwitting ethnocentrist.

Years of college education and life experience helped me out a bit but even as lately as a few weeks ago, I persisted in regarded the Philippines as an unfortunate, post-colonial society with little to offer me – and I persisted in regarding myself as apart from that society where I was uniquely positioned to judge them as an objective bystander.

And then, in a last ditch attempt to learn a little something about Filipin@ culture before my trip, I went to the library and checked out everything I could carry on the Philippines. The volume on top: Melinda L. de Jesus’s book, Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory , a collection of essays written by Filipina-American (pinay) women on identity and Filipina feminism (peminism).

By Grace Lee, NAPAWF law intern

Deciding to become a vegetarian was not a difficult choice for me, after learning about the cruelty of slaughterhouses, farms, and animal testing. I found it fairly easy to alter my favorite recipes to be vegetarian. I receive negative reactions sometimes, but most people respect my decision. Something that I do struggle with as a vegetarian, though, is that I meet so few fellow vegetarians of color. The majority of the vegan/vegetarian community seems to be white and privileged.

I had the most difficult time as a vegetarian when I lived in Seoul, South Korea. Korean food actually features lots of vegetables and tofu, and there are Buddhist vegetarian restaurants in South Korea. The popular perception, though, is that Koreans are a barbequed meat-obsessed community. When I went out in Seoul, Korean BBQ was what the people I was with most wanted to eat and what was most popularly offered at restaurants. Trying to ask waiters about vegetarian options became a task I dreaded. Although I would ask for meat to be taken out of a dish, it would often still appear, and I would be told to just pick it out. Even my relatives would try to sneak meat into dishes that I ate. While in Seoul, I was also repeatedly asked to justify my decision to be a vegetarian and told that this choice was unhealthy. My aunt, for example, frequently let me know that I would have a difficult time finding a husband if I didn’t eat meat or if I wouldn’t cook meat for him. My mother has also said this to me at home.

These types of comments made by my aunt and mother angered me the most and made me begin to think of feminism and vegetarianism together, instead of as two distinct issues. I became more aware of the way the feminist and animal rights movements intersect. The violence in meat consumption echoes sexual violence against women. Both women and animals are also exploited as consumable objects by patriarchal culture. Just as women are oppressed, animals are exploited as a source of food, entertainment, or some scientific breakthrough at whatever cost to the animal. This overlap is clearly displayed in images of animals portrayed with “female” characteristics and as happy to be eaten:

(Image from Suicide Food )

Vegans/vegetarians of color are mobilizing together. There are many blogs online by vegan people of color, such as Vegans of Color . Although I still feel like I am one of few, hopefully this will change.

This post is really about women and communities of color in the United States with regards to Western feminism and misogyny within communities of color.  The phenomenon of honor killings will be used to frame this broad topic:

A Georgia father of Pakistani descent allegedly strangled his 25-year-old daughter because she wanted to get out of an arranged marriage to a man she had not seen in months, according to police in Clayton County, Ga. [link ]

What this man did to his daughter is despicable and should absolutely, unequivocally be condemned.  His twisted notions of "izzat" (meaning 'honor' in Hindi/Urdu) are no excuse for this horrific act.  The South Asian community needs to confront the issue of honor killings head-on, since they happen within our community disproportionately and broad cultural norms are used to justify murder and misogyny.

However, the way the dialogue on honor killings in the Western world is framed needs to change.  Although cultural context needs to be acknowledged in these cases, it does not give an excuse for Westerners, Western media, and Western feminists to condemn an entire culture because of certain bad practices within that culture.  Rather, the individual practice itself should be condemned.

Violence against women is rampant in Western countries; does that give non-Western feminists an excuse to dismiss Western cultures and concepts as 'misogynistic'? I doubt I'll see a day when I hear about how all of American culture should be condemned for its blatant misogyny because of high rates of violence against women, unhealthy images of women in American media, and racism against women & communities of color.