This week we read an article by Aleichia Williams titled “Too Latina to Be Black, Too Black to be Latina” She wrote about how people’s perception of her stems from purely how she looks, rather than how she identifies and projects herself. People could not believe she spoke Spanish because of her skin tone and considered her to only have one identity. As a white woman this is an experience I have never encountered and never will. White people are considered the norm in our society while everyone else is highly critiqued. Black and Latin people are often described by the color of their skin first while white people are more often described by their personality and more specific things about them. This fact is something that when talked about with a white audience, usually turns into a banter and they become very defensive.

In Alicia Garza’s chapter “The Power of Identity” she wrote about this defensiveness from white people when spoken to about “race issues” and said how they fall under the impression that “naming it somehow perpetuates the dynamic of underrepresentation”. I think that even beyond this white people are ashamed and therefore can not hold these conversations with a listening ear for fear of then having to take responsibility. For most white people it is not a total lack of understanding that people have, it really is a sense of shame and not wanting to be held accountable for a number of reasons like losing power in the way Garza spoke about.

The Politics of Housework by Pat Mainardi really struck me. While women are not expected to housewives in the same way they were in 50’s and 60’s we are still expected to do the house chores just the same on top of everything else. Men are simply not taught from an early age how to do the cleaning and the cooking. Women are still, even if not said out loud, seen as natural caretakers and judged if we don’t want children or want to settle down and marry.

I find, even in my own relationship some of the same things said in that essay, said today. My boyfriend has definitely said to me the points of “but we just have different standards”, etc – when it comes to how the household is kept. I even have that womanly shame if someone comes over and the house is not tidy. I think back to when I was a little girl and my mom wouldn’t allow anybody over unless the apartment was spotless. I couldn’t understand it then, but my mom was fearful of people judging how she keeps her place. It’s feelings like this that a man could never begin to understand and I really hope that our newer generations raise our children learning to clean and cook the same as each other.

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is a perfect description of how women’s purpose in life is really treated like it is only in the “fulfillment of their own femininity”. Gender roles in America are very political and they really are a foundation of how capitalism, the work force, education has run in this country. We each have our roles, as either breadmakers or babymakers and besides that it is clear in how society treats us that anything else is less than.

I learned about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in middle school, I believe. I remember the fire happening in Bangladesh when I was in middle school as well, and learning that many of the women who died were my age. I remember feeling so enraged and wanting to never buy from corporations like Gap again. I told my mom this and she agreed that it was horrific. During that time my mom didn’t buy many clothes, I mostly had hand-me-downs as my mom is a single mom and at the time she was struggling to make ends meet. However, when she did buy new school clothes for me it was usually at a place like Gap. She was not unaware of the horrible things Gap endorsed, she just did not have the money to shop at a more sustainable, or ethical clothing shop because they are typically more expensive.

Now that I’m older and I buy my own clothes I try to buy from thrift stores or save to buy from more ethical stores. I just also remind myself that this is a privilege to have the time to thrift, as well as the energy to save for more sustainable clothing. I’ve read articles, and heard first-hand from people who try to shame people for buying from companies that have sweatshops overseas, without caring to realize that people simply do not have any other option because it is all they can afford.

I believe that those who have the money should make an effort to buy from more ethical stores, but the pressure should really be on big companies to change how they operate their business. It is not enough for a small drop of the population to not endorse these companies. People rely on the clothing stores, like Gap, to buy their children uniforms for school and their attire for work. Capitalism has made it difficult for people to not support these big businesses, because unfortunately we live in a cycle where even if morally we hate them, we rely on them heavily to survive.

I don’t have all of the answers but it’s important to educate ourselves in these topics as well as staying open about all of the moving parts. For myself, I know I need to learn more about fair trade laws and foreign goods. The fact that sweatshop and underage conditions are not allowed in the U.S.A, but yet most of what we wear comes from these conditions just shows how much is swept under the rug. Just now I was looking up the Dhaka fire in 2012 and found another one that happened in a factory this July, 2021. Obviously, we need more change and many more protections for workers. I also think, living in America, where our government supports our isolation from other country – we do not know a lot about what is going on in other countries which means we have a very uneducated and naive point of view of the world.

I hope that this country continues to support ethical and sustainable clothing, especially considering workers conditions as well as in terms of climate change.