This week’s reading touches base on identity politics and the race crisis. Identity politics continues to be complex. There is an issue with the power we hold and society’s power over you. In the chapter of Garza’s book “The Power of Identity Politics,” Garza expresses the “black feminist attempting to locate themselves in social movements that purported to fight for their freedom but were constrained by their replication of the very dynamics they sought to destroy.” The movement fought interlocking oppression because they were anti-racist, unlike their white counter partner, and anti-sexist, unlike their white and black counterparts. They wanted to fit in where there were just looked at as human beings. Their white counter partners looked out for themselves only. The thought was all women were fighting for all women’s rights, but that isn’t true. We see it time and time again.
In the reading ” Too Latina To Be Black, Too Black To Be Latina,” Aliechia Williams speaks to us about her times growing up in New York City. The diversity in the city allowed Aliechia to be accepted as a Latina but not identified as a black woman. When she moved to North Carolina, that wasn’t the case. Her peers identified her as a black woman that could not possibly speak Spanish. She wasn’t welcomed to a table that she thought would make her comfortable, but that wasn’t the outcome. They judged her by her skin color and not by who she was. There are moments when instead of getting to know you by sparking up a conversation that will lead to who you are, certain people want to choose who you are without allowing you to speak up. The assumption that you must be Mexican if you speak Spanish upset me because there is Central American and South America that also speak Spanish. I want to throw into the discussion that Spaniards look down on Mexican people because they supposedly don’t speak the Spanish language appropriately. First of all, we had our native language, which was Nahuatl. It was a language introduced by the Aztecs. The Spanish conquered Mexican and introduced the Spanish language.
I believe if we weren’t conquered, we would speak our native language. There is an intersection that happens in Mexico too. If you are too brown, you come from the ranch or farmlands and are considered poor. If you’re light-skinned or white, you are more nuanced and are most like middle class or wealthy. You are looked at because of your skin color, most likely anywhere. If you live in the state and go back to Mexico to visit, most people in Mexico expect you to be light. If not, it’s questionable. We should all be more focused on that we are all just human beings.