Category: DB 5

According to the film, women had a lot of problems in the society. They are unprotected, weak, they are under the press and duress. There are some problems but I will take one and I will try to speak about it. Women are oppressed by men. Men used to violence on the women. For example, the woman who was walking, become victim of two men. They attacked to the women. The women get trauma not only morality but also psychology. She was victim. I can say that she was lucky because there were other woman with bicycles that was a specific movement for women. They used to try helped women but we can imagine how many woman was alone in the same situation. I can say that this kind of problem is actual today too.

The next issue what I have seen is gender. The women is doing everything, she clean home, work, rise up babies, take care on husband and etc. There is a terrible situation. Woman does not have a rights. They are not equal of men. Unfortunately, women think that it is norm. They do not have any kind of protest or they are just downtrodden by men. The problem comes from childhood and rising methods. Problem is in people. Women and men are equal in god’s eyes but people do not think so. They even can not find same kind of job. For instance, women can not work in building company. Fortunately, everyone does not think similarly. There are a group people who try to protest, protect and wake up people and women. Rome was not built in a day. There is still same problem but we have progress. Extremely, Asian countries have a terrible problem of this issue, because religion have a huge role.

In the reading, ,,When you leave, take your picture with you” I got some information about black people. They have problems. ,, We are not as happy as we look on”. Black people’s life style and white sisters life is different. They spend a good time with white radical sisters but after all of this time they become sad and oppressed. They like relationship with white sisters; they did not cast ashore black friends and because of this they estimate this fact.

These engaging and illuminating readings speak to racism in the feminist movement, false claims of sisterhood, and different types of oppression needing different examinations and solutions; which is not to fragment the greater movements against all human rights violations and forms of oppression but to acknowledge the complex hierarchy that even those oppressed individuals face within larger systems of oppression.

In How We Get Free, the Combahee River Collective raises problems of exclusion in second wave feminism, “both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself have served to obscure our participation”. These movements were focused not just on the liberation of women from sexism, but moreover from economic oppression under capitalism as well, but also call for a further consideration of the theories of Karl Marx to be expanded to include these multi-faceted issues of oppression. The voices and intersecting concerns of black, working-class, and third-world feminists were not included in the second-wave feminist movement, and this reading delves into this exclusion.

They speak to the very specific characterization directed specifically to black women, and how this dehumanization requires an independent movement to specifically combat these stereotypes. They describe how the ways black women experience sex, class, race oppression is all used simultaneously against black women, and thus the response to this racism must be equally specific and multifaceted. They go on to describe this is not an attempt to divide themselves from their shared struggles with black men and white women, but to specify and combat the issues that are specific to them. It is incredibly important that we can acknowledge the differences as well as the similarities different groups face under the larger umbrella of issues of sex oppression, race oppression, economic oppression, or of oppression altogether.

They make clear that the patriarchy does not stem in their view from the biological differences of the sexes, but comes from our gendered social conditioning, which is to say it is not an excuse man can make that their natural state is that of a dominant, oppressive figure, and the roles men are taught can be unlearned just as the roles women are given for their gender can be examined and reversed.

The poem by Jo Carrillo beautifully and powerfully expresses these ideas of a falsely claimed sisterhood we read about in Module 2, where white radical feminists are responsible for adding additional hurt to the burdens feminist women of color already bear. White women tokenize women of color, and worse, treat these women that they claim to fight alongside as two-dimensional, failing to see the difference and advocate for true equality, white feminists add insult to injury by showing their “sisters” as smiling through their oppression, whistling while they work. They falsely claim sisterhood while parading the cultural garments and smiles and children of these women whose backs they stand upon, and call them their sisters in struggle while leaving a mess for them to clean up both literally and figuratively, while continuing to put their own needs in the movement first and behave according to the very hierarchies they claim to want to fight against. This hypocrisy is visualized in the poem when Jo speaks to white women being displeased to experience the full range of emotions and anger that women of color actually feel, in stark contrast to the objectified smiling photos they might hang to show “solidarity” with these women that they do not actually try to understand and empathize with and hear fully.

Then, Gloria Anzaldua takes us from present to future struggles, struggles of identity that come with the mixing of cultures as people of different races and cultures encourage our continued evolution. Anzaldua speaks to envisioning what it will look like to create new culture, not just combat oppressive cultures or fight inwardly with being pulled culturally in multiple directions. This is difficult work, both personal and “of the soul” and larger, within entire cultures. It requires an attitude of tolerance for contradictions and ambiguity. It spoke not the immense pain, much like that of Plato’s Cave, which one experiences as one becomes enlightened and breaks down barriers.

“this step is a conscious rupture with all oppressive traditions of all culture and religion”.

This requires so much work, of examining who we are and why we are and what has been shaped (everything) by our environments and upbringings and cultures. The more you ask the more you learn, and the more pain you experience, seeing these harmful systems, recognizing yourself as an oppressor, as oppressed, reconciling both roles, constantly failing at being a more perfect version of yourself, constantly growing and feeling the growing pains.

Anzualdua speaks of the exhaustion white women subjugate Chicana women to as oppressors themselves, that many Chicanas and women of color are justly sick and tired of the emotional labor white women place in forcing women they otherize to then explain themselves, explain back to the white women their own role as oppressors. Although white women are oppressors, they are often also victims to the whitewashed history they are taught, but this does not excuse them from accountability for their role as oppressors, nor for the additional burden places on women of color to explain how inclusivity works. Indeed, there is still need for inclusivity, but as it stands it is on white women to do work to bridge these gaps, instead of walking on the backs of our sisters and then stealing the fruits of their labor, and only after we do this work can we reach true sisterhood.

Andualda speaks to the importance of knowing one’s history, to see the individual oppression a group faces, but then to tie them together in their commonalities to see that all oppressed people share some characteristics of shame and vulnerability, and then speaks to overcoming this shame and accepting vulnerability as a strength that binds and lifts, that vices voice to expressing those hurts and wrongs so that they might be corrected. She describes “the Chicana way”; “here we are weaponless with open arms, with only our magic”, here to reclaim essential identity, sense of purpose, and even greater, one’s spiritual identity.

Based on this weeks readings, it’s all about the injustices women have faced in our society due to gender and racial discrimination. Many women aren’t given the respect they should have, they are always treated as if they were inferior to others . For example in the reading “And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You” by Carillo she wrote about the racism in the women’s movement. When she says “White sisters radical friends love to own pictures of us” what she’s trying to say is that white women try to portray colored women as if they were happy, when in reality they suffer on a daily basis. Those women would probably look happy, but at the end of the poem Carrilo says “We’re not as happy as we look on the wall”. If white women were to see their reality their perspective would change because their lives are not the way it looks on a picture.

Also, in “A Black Feminist Statement” written by the Combahee River Collection, a Black feminist lesbian socialist group, it’s about the role that women hold in society. Women’s are constantly struggling through many discriminations based on who they are. As I said before many times women are treated more inferior compared to men. Even until this day, men has gotten so much power into thinking just because of their gender women shouldn’t be treated the same way they are. Not only that, but Black women are probably the ones that suffer from most discrimination even until this day.

Throughout the second wave of feminism many different political and social stances were taken. Their was also a divergence in the Women’s Rights Movement. There were white women feminist who felt at the time, enough has been done and women made there mark on the patriarchal sexist society. Then there were women who knew there was still work to be done, most of the time it was the disadvantaged women of color whom saw this need for change. There was a clear division in the Women’s Right Movement.

While watching the movie, “Born in Flames” there were a few themes attributed with the movie. One of them being the lack of understanding of the Women’s Army and their objective. As well as, the division of women. During my analysis of the movie I noticed one thing in particular and that was the perception of the Women’s Army. In one scene of the movie there were two black women speaking in regards to the Women’s Army. One women talked about how The Women’s Army came to the aid of a rape victim on bicycles while blowing whistles. Her perception of the Women’s Army was that they were childish, or shouldn’t be taken seriously, she then said they “weren’t mature enough” for her. While the other woman wanted to educate her friend about the Women’s Army and their attempts to unify women, help the community and help raise jobs. Both of these perceptions of the Women’s Army are valid because they both come from the individuals perspective of the Army. However, this exemplifies the clear division between women, some thought the women’s movement still had some internal work to do with the organization. Other believed if women were to unify they would be an unstoppable force, but how can women unify when their goals are drastically different.

Another theme I came across while watching the movie and reading the articles was the goal of the Women’s Rights Movement. Initially, I believed the goals of white women to be different of that than black women however, this couldn’t be further from the truth. There were many white and black women fighting the same battles, for women to be more present within society and the liberation of women. It is seen in the movie that women were laid off from their jobs based on sexist ideologies that women were taking jobs from men or did not belong in the workforce. Then there were political steps taken to disadvantage women, mostly minority women. Cut backs in daycare, ending free abortions, forced sterilization of minority women and firing single women who were head of household. It seemed to be a political war against the liberation of women.

Finally, a theme that held significance while reading, ” How we get free” was that black women were forgotten about when being liberated or valueless. One quote that stood out to me was, ” but it is apparent that no other ostensibly
progressive movement has ever considered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g., mammy, matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bulldagger), let alone cataloguing the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives
during four centuries of bondage in the Western Hemisphere.” The author felt as though during the first and second wave of feminism, and during the Civil Right Movement, black women were forgotten about. No one consistently put the effort into liberating black women who contributed to many different movements at the time. I believe the message she was trying to convey was if we don’t step into ourselves there will be no justice for us. Another difference in women at the time can be seen in, “Born in Flames” when a woman talks about her mothers experience raising children. Her mother had to work a job to provide for her 8 children, but there weren’t any daycare services for single mothers at the time, especially in low income areas. Her mother also did not have an option for an abortion similarly to what many of the women during that time have faced.

Pick 2-3 of the major themes from this week’s readings (and film) and write about them. You can use the questions that I wrote for each reading as a guide to the themes.

Using quotes from the readings (or scenes from the film), write about the critiques, analysis, and vision that women of color feminists from this time period were engaging. What are your thoughts about their writing? Do you see these issues as resonant today, or do you feel as though they are no longer relevant? Be specific.

The theme of the readings include the duality of culturally complex women and the obstacles that women faces because of racism.

In the reading by Anzaldúa “La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness” Anzaldúa expresses the duality that being from multiple cultures it allows more exposure to ideas. It starts off explains that it is a good form to understand many cultures and what they mean. As well Anzaldua includes the term mestizo/a which is inclusivity showcasing the high level of intellect to connect both cultures and analyze both very critically and still be submerged in those cultures. 

“The new mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity. She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be a Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She learns to juggle cultures. She has a plural personality, she operates in a pluralistic model nothing is thrust out, the good the bad and the ugly, nothing rejected, nothing abandoned.” 

In my point of view it is beautiful the way that people have more than one culture. There is more of an acceptance of the culture now however that does not get rid of the colonizer history that underlies. 

Being a Chicano and a mestiza meant you were to be familiarized with the cultures of the United States and the Hispanic  with indigenous culture.  Not only society was different for every single culture but the individual needs to fit in. In order to feel comfortable in their atmosphere the individual must know the “rules” and the customs of each culture.

In another way I’m not shown much Indio culture from my Mexican parents from Oaxaca, and I would love to go to Mexico and other Hispanic/Latinos country. There is so much culture. It is oozing out from everywhere and it is beautiful but it also has its ugly side, the machismo for instance.

• 

In the poem by Carillo, “And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You” the theme is the against women of color. The poem simplistically says white women like to have women of color as a keepsake. The image of them, the idea of them. Women of color are used as fetish and when the white women has to finally interact with a women of color they are dissatisfied with the outcome.

“And when our white sisters radical friends see us in the flesh not as a picture they own. They are not quite as sure if they like us as much. We’re not as happy as we look on their wall.”

• 

Two major themes from this week’s readings is gender and racial equality .In the poem, “And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You” by Carillo, it states “Our white sisters radical friends love to own pictures of us walking to the fields in hot sun with straw hat on head if brown bandana…” This line goes to show that due to these women skin color, their “white sisters” loved to see them at their lowest and struggling. In the reading “ The Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement” (1977)” a statement that caught my attention was “we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression…” this expresses womens lack of freedom, struggle, their limitation in society, and being silenced in a way. I see these issues resonant today in jobs that do not pay fair wages to women as they would to men like plumbing and engineering, when it comes to racial profiling there is still a lot of that happening in this world and there has been a black lives matter movement. Things may not be as intense as before but it still is very much still occurring.

Throughout the history, women were being discriminated against by ignoring or not paying much attention to them when it comes to dealing with political issues. Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist lesbian socialist group talks about how their life was during the period. How they realize that they were different from boys and they were treated differently. Make them less distasteful in the eyes of white people. When they grow up older they were threatened with physical and sexual abuse by men. They are coping with the consequences of race and sophistication in addition to sex. Taylor speaks about ” they might not only lose valuable and hardworking allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing black women” this quote shows that the women suffered from discrimination.

“Borderlands la Frontera” mestiza life was very difficult and she has suffered her entire tradition stocks a collective trauma. She talks about a lot of issues such as identity, language, and gender.  Mestiza states that ” as a mestiza, I have no country, no homeland cast me out; yet all countries are mine because I am every woman’s sister or potential lover: this quote shows that even though she didn’t have an identity she still work for feminism. Still, I see these issues in our community women are getting sexual harassment in the workplace and fighting for equal rights. 

I feel like if this week’s readings were a tree, La conciencia de la mestiza would be the Chicana branch, The Combahee River Collective statement would be the Afro-American branch, and Carrillo’s poem would form part of the root. These women are asking to be seen wholly and entirely for what they are and for the freedom that they as different groups need. The Black feminists understand that sexism and misogyny is what erodes the bridge that could exist between Black liberation and Black feminism. The Chicana understands that the Chicano’s machismo prevents him from seeing every other woman besides his mother as a being worthy of true respect, and therefore, true love. Both groups understand how they are brutalized because the men of their community fear what could happen if they were to become empowered and self-actualized. It’s two pages from the same book. These women of color are trying to understand how their race and culture play a part in their pursuit of liberation, and then they are letting the white feminist know that her feminism won’t do much if she is not conscious of her race, and therefore her privilege.

Which brings up another idea that I found interesting and quite liked from the Combahee River Collective statement; the concept of having consciousness-raising sessions. The word consciousness also shows up in the title both in English and Spanish in the Mestiza reading. I think there is something to be said about the fact that these women don’t regard this social, political, and intellectual evolution as acquiring knowledge or intelligence, but rather they see it as becoming more aware, as simply being conscious. Something about that feels much more spiritual and wholesome, like the affirmation of our value and our worthiness will do more than heal just these institutions that have been built on white supremacy; it will heal much more than that. It makes me wonder what a consciousness raising session in the Combahee River Collective must look like or have looked like, and what can be classified as one.

On a personal note, as a Nuyorican (member of the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York) I was able to draw so many parallels between the Chicana narrative and my own. When it is said that “this weight on her back – which is the luggage from her Indian mother, which is the baggage from the Spanish father, which is the baggage from the Anglo?” there is not a single difference between this person’s experience and my own. Being a mix of many things (and then a remix of that mix) allows for a lot of internal confusion and turmoil. In the same sense, it is extremely easy to be ambiguous. To belong to many places and none at all. Deconstructing and constructing is the most seamless of processes, and it’s due to the fact that that very process is engrained in our identity. Because of all these parts of the Chicana, and of me, that are both fragmentized and nuanced at the same time, it seems natural to “reinterpret history, and using new symbols, shape new myths.” There is no struggle in “adopting new perspectives towards the dark-skinned women and queers”, in strengthening our tolerance, our willingness to share. To make ourselves vulnerable to foreign ways of seeing and thinking, in surrendering all notions of safety, of the familiar. The Chicana, as well as the Nuyorican woman, as well as the Black woman, are able to do this; and I think that’s sisterhood.

As I was reading the paragraph from Combahee River Collectives called “Black Feministic Statement” She talks about her statement and how women are classified in society. It states, “The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression.” Well for me this states that certain individuals were just born to face conflict in relation to racial, sexual,
heterosexual, and class oppression in their lives which they never sign up for. Combahee River claims that black women’s position in society is the ones who encounter more discrimination. The role of socialism in their statement was that every individual sex determines the amount of power they will receive. The reason for that is men the myth they follow, men are superiors and women. And they’re also the head of the house, the one who makes the rules.

While reading the poetry from Carrillo the author who named the piece, “And when I Leave You” she describes her experience as being a slave. Racism operates in the women’s movement was a huge conflict which, cause disagreement amongst factions of white and Black women management. I believe that it is well written how the author expresses their feeling throughout the poetry which makes the reading picture in their mind what the writer has been through in their life as a slave.

In Anzaldúa paragraph she describes the border as being like a wall that separates individuals. And they will always be a conflict if that wall is still present. The only way to get rude of the problems is by breaking down the wall and let everyone unite as one community. She uses the concept of mestiza to characterize the privileged that different individuals receive. For Anzaldúa this means your privilege is decided the moment you were born.

“And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You” by Jo Carillo speaks to white feminists who perceive women of color as props in their own fight for equality. White feminists have spent almost the entirety of the women’s movement standing on the backs and achievements of feminists of color, in particular Black feminist leaders. They see Black women and other women of color as silent participants in their own struggle – because the plight of women is the same no matter who you are.

The line that struck me immediately in “How We Get Free” goes as follows: “The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives.” I think it is a particularly poignant way of describing intersectionality. In order to fully understand all women, feminists need to take into account these different oppressions: whether stemming from race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, or other cultural walls women are faced to climb. The conditions a Black woman living in a city faces do not align completely with the conditions of a white woman living in the suburbs. This week’s readings emphasize that disconnect, the ways in which we differ.

“Contemporary Black feminism is the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters.” – How We Get Free

Across the readings this week, the theme is clearly the persisting fight by feminists of color to be seen by white feminists – not as equals, but simply to be seen. Not all struggle needs to mirror that of our sisters, and rarely does.