Questions of Idenity: Minority Women & Feminism

July 23, 2009

by Monica Jean Alaniz

While I was lecturing in a course on cultural and linguistic diversity required of individuals seeking their teaching degrees I inevitably got the a question about why a teacher couldn’t just see all her students as being the same and ignore their ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.  The simple (and sometimes not so simple) answer is that by ignoring these things you are ignoring a fundamental part of who the students in the classrooms are and devaluing the knowledge and background they bring into the classroom.

We also have to take care when it comes to making the feminist movement diversified and more inclusive of minority women and younger women. 

One of the major problems with minority women entering the feminist movements of the past arose because many people within the movement wanted them to forget that they were African-American, Chicana, etc. This was impossible for them to do and many chose not to participate in various feminist organizations and groups due to this.

 

During the Chicano movement of the 60s and 70s women were relegated to being “organizers,” which in many cases meant supporting men by cooking, setting up chairs at meetings, etc. They were not the visible faces of the movement for the most part. (And, even when they were central to the movement the public face was usually that of a male, case in point, Dolores Huerta who gets very little credit for being a co-founder of the United Farm Workers along with Cesar Chavez).  While they tried to rise up in the ranks, they were usually told that they had “their place.” Many of them tried to turn to the feminist movement, and in the process they were harassed by their male counterparts for not putting the Chicano movement first. Similarly, there were instances in which those in the feminist movement criticized them for not putting gender issues at the forefront.

 

It was a no win situation.

 

I don’t want to feel as if I’m in a no win situation. I want to be able to discuss issues that I find critical to my culture as well as my gender without feeling that I will be dismissed or belittled for it. And, though I know that that might not be the intent, when I am told to just consider myself an “American woman” that is how I feel. I cannot forget my cultural background; it is as integral a part of who I am as being a woman is. I am just as concerned with cultural issues as I am women’s issues. I can’t help it.

 

I live and grew up in one of the poorest counties in the nation (it’s always ranked one or two, swapping places with the neighboring county now and again). I have seen how women have suffered because of the combination of their gender and ethnic/racial background. I see discrimination by the Border Patrol and other law enforcement officials. I can stand on the sidewalk outside my house and see the Border Wall going up. Because I am a Chicana who resides on the border with Mexico I know about the feminicide that is occurring just up the river in Juarez. These are all issues that I am concerned with as a Chicana, a woman, and a human being!

 

When I watched the video that was put up recentlythat showed a compilation of attacks on Judge Sotomayor I couldn’t help but notice that they were not only aimed at her because of her gender, they were also aimed at the fact that she is a Latina. (A prime example of that is the political cartoon showing her as a piñata.)

 

Many times Latina women have been placed into two categories by mainstream American culture: the maid or the sex pot. I have even had a friend studying acting told that she should expect to fall into the category of maid (she was “not sexy enough” for the “sex pot” roles) and that she shouldn’t expect too many parts if she decided to try and “make it” in the world of acting. Those are things that affect me to my core because one cannot help their ethnicity,

race, or gender.

 

I can go into many personal instances of how this issue has also affected me, but I won’t. Needless to say, by diversifying and recognizing what women that come from a different background can bring to the feminist movement only makes what we do stronger.  By asking women to ignore who they are, whether they are African-American, Chicana, Latina, Asian, or part of some other minority group you are doing them, as well as yourselves, a disservice.

You read this article and more concerning women's issues on The New Agenda site http://thenewagenda.net/.

Very interesting opinion.  I find myself at the opposite end of the spectrum because I consider myself a human being first and not last.  I do consider being a woman second and I don't really consider my race or ethnicity last as she considers hers first because I'm a multi-racial so it's hard to give preference to the black, Cherokee, Comanche, Mexican or Scottish,even though I embrace the black Cherokee more.  I think of myself as a culmination of all so I don't see what's necessary for one of the races in me over the others except I have lived black even though I wasn't raised black, I was raised to see no color just people.  I see the cutural problems, but if we look close as women we all have some of the same problems just a different racial tint to it. 

I think what is missing here is the fact that in about 20 years + women will be the majority in the US and the world, they will be senior women 60 + and we need to stop focusing so much on color and start looking at how we can help each other as a whole.  The last thing we need are millions of senior women all having to do for themselves or just their race when we'll need each and every one of us just to make ends meet and not because of color but just to survive.

Vanessa