During this week’s readings, I kind of get a better understanding of what identity politics is when Garza first had pointed when she says, “identity politics is the radical notion that your worldview is shaped by your experiences and history and that those experiences will vary in relationship to the power a group or an individual has in the economy, society, or democracy.” It made me think of the other author’s experience in Too Latina to be black, too black to be Latina. Where she experienced this crisis she had. I agree with what she says about learning to embrace every aspect of your identity and not let any other people put you in that position where you can’t embrace your identity. There was a part she mentioned how when she got into high school a classmate told her “ You’re the most Mexican black girl I’ve ever met!” and then she thought to herself saying “I could remember thinking “is that a compliment because my family is from Honduras”. I can’t be sure if my own experience is like what she went through because I remember when I was in high school people would ask me where I was from or would ask me what my name and I would tell them and they end up telling me “oh you don’t look Mexican” it’s like what is that suppose to mean. Like yeah, I am Mexican-American but what are tryna say is that I don’t look, Mexican. Like I do embrace my identity and where my family is from that makes me part of them.

I loved reading both articles this week as I feel like I see examples of these things all the time. It is incredibly difficult to be mixed, and people will constantly invalidate you. It is sad that people would gatekeep you from your culture in such a way. In a sense, if these people were right and you aren’t really a member of the ethnicity you’re mixed with, then you belong nowhere. It’s sad and doesn’t make any sense to me, but that’s how mixed people are treated. You cannot be a true member, but you can still experience all the racism.

The article covering identity politics reminded me of all the times I’ve heard people talk about race in the sense that if you bring it up, you’re part of the problem. It’s an awful way to feel, especially coming from a white person who doesn’t have the same experience and benefits from a lot of their ancestor’s actions toward people of color. It’s essential to talk about and recognize these things if we want to make anything better. If you claim to not see a person’s race or do not want to see their race, you’re not seeing them for who they are if they identify with that.

I love this book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, I am so happy to be reading more from it. The author, Alicia Garza, is very good at breaking down these concepts. All of these concepts are complicated, definitely a spider web of time, which is also why it is sop complicated to break.

She reviewed the concept of power to help re-paint the picture of the hierarchy of white privilege and power. It seems this has to be done every time a new topic is addressed, which reminds me of how talking about gender and race is in real time. There is such a lie held up to create this system of power and control, that we deny and defend it even when it does nothing for us. It takes constant work and reminders to break it down.

As a white woman I can sadly relate to the response that the “blonde woman” gives. I too was raised in a world that is so scewed in order to keep it this way, it’s hard to even see the truth through the lies, even when you think you are doing the right thing and having a progressive stance. A world that is built around white privilege and power has to have a lot of systems in place to also keep the white people blind to it. To everyone that isn’t white they ofcourse can’t imagine how we could ever be so blind, but when they say a person is sheltered, it’s really the truth. Sheltered is covered and protected, protected from the truth. In my case it was these stories of progressive ideals, equality, we’re all one, “don’t see color”. No one ever talked about seeing color, seeing the truths of other’s experiences, and seeing the truth of what it is to be privileged.

So, I am very grateful for authors like Garza, who will take the time to break down these concepts. In order to see outside the box sometimes it takes multiple explanations to start to learn a new way of thinking and seeing (like a language) that has been disguised by lies for your whole life. Although all of the injustices are different, learning about the cross over can be helpful. For example, I am not a person of color, I am a cisgender white woman, but I have been denied health insurance due to preexisting conditions. By relating through experience one can then build a metaphor, that helps translate. Which helps put yourself into another’s shoes, so to speak. The things I relate to and have experienced myself do not help me know what it is like to be a black woman, but it does start to open my mind to the fact that maybe my mind was closed. Maybe there is something I don’t understand, maybe I am wrong and what I’ve been taught is wrong or a lie.

It is not easy to open people’s minds and undo lie and denial. So, I recognize the importance of writers like this.

In the reading “Too Latina To Be Black” by Aleichia Williams shares her first encounter in a “race crisis” as being a black Latina. Williams states, “Growing up in New York City, she did not realize it was abnormal to be black or Latina or both. Williams does speak Spanish and after her first “race crisis” encounter realized she was different. She did not want to identify as just black or just Latina. Williams discusses also how she noticed her race in different situations during her life. Williams feels that people should be not be set to one specific race or identity. I believe the author’s message was we shouldn’t assume that since someone is of another race that they do certain things because of that, for example, don’t assume Asians just eat rice. Everyone is different and we can’t assume that just because someone is Latina that they speak fluent Spanish or that since someone is black that they love fried chicken. Let’s stop being judgmental and get to know one another.

This weeks reading was amazing a really enjoyed reading the chapter in “The power of Identity politics”. I was not surprised to know that white cis men have always been in power. They have used everyone to their advantage to move forward with some of the most vicious attacks on humanity. American has always been a transactional country. The way they use immgrants for commerce to get ahead with little pay to those who have built America of their backs. The white man is always in fear of losing power. Why do they think like that? In my opinion is the poor little white male fragility. Black women and men are important innovators and history has proven that. America was built on white washing everything with religion especially and also putting people who are not white into these boxes no one asked for.

The two readings were both eye opening but the standout one for me would be the reading “Too Latina to be black , Too black to be Latina”. I think she captured some of the feeling that comes with not fitting into a specific ethnic space or what people perceive as the ideal characteristics of an ethnicity. I myself have been that person who has been mistaking or called out for not being this or that enough but I never let it bother me or define who I was . I understand that not many people have that kind of will power to just push through that. Most end up allowing themselves to be defined by the group they surround themselves with. Even worst they lose a sense of who they are to gain a place to fit in. In school they referred to those kind of people as “posers”. I also like that the question of what topic everyone would like to see was asked. I am eager to here everyone answers on that .

While reading “The Power of Identity Politics” by Alicia Garza, I felt like I’m having a therapy session with my own beliefs. They were challenged. This text unpacks the concept of identity politics. To start, the writer uses an image of a young woman that they overheard in the bar, who also happened to be white and blonde. The woman felt irritated by the frequency with which race was mentioned everywhere. She believed it was dividing people even more. As a young white blonde woman, I admit that I can relate to her a lot — I often have the inner monologue of “I wish we just didn’t have the concept of race at all.” That’s why I’m grateful for this piece of writing. Such a view of mine came from not understanding how my privilege functions. As Williams states, “power prefers to operate in obscurity.” That is to say, we are hesitant to acknowledge the differences between the quality of life of certain race groups because privilege exists when it is ignored. One part that helped me understand the whole dilemma is this: “If white people had not enacted a system of enslavement where Black people from the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America were stolen and forced into subjugation for generations, would we be having this conversation?” It’s like a trap or a loop that white people put themselves into long ago. And despite their desire to let go of history and just move on, we cannot and should not. As I read about why I couldn’t help but compare it to the struggles of my homeland. “The willful forgetting of traumatic experiences allows their harmful effects to continue.” There were two man-made famines in Ukraine, aimed for both humiliation, genocide, and profit. There were generally a lot of things happening to erase Ukrainian culture and history as if it never existed. It was so traumatic that many survivors of the famine have never spoken a word of it. They all pretended that it never happened. Because this and many other historic events that were forgotten until recently, an image of brother nations have established, leading to the further assimilation of Ukrainians. Apparently, the same thing is asked of Black people – to move on, forget, and expect that the historic oppression would never happen again. But as we see, it certainly can happen.

That’s why identity politics should not be suppressed – they raise awareness of diverse cultures that deserve to exist and to be different. We can observe it in the second reading by Aleichia Williams, who struggles to put herself in one category – she is both African-American and Latina. Her writing reminded me of myself — born in one country, speaking a language of the second country, and being moved to the third country as a teen. Who am I? I was influenced by 3 different cultures and they all found a way to coexist inside of me. I’m speaking not only for myself but for many other immigrants and/or people of mixed origins. Williams’s words echoed in my heart: “just because I don’t fit into one specific mold or the other doesn’t mean I’m any less of who I am.”

Personality this week readings were good I especially enjoyed “Too Latina to Be Black, Too Black to Be Latina” She spoken about her first “Race crisis.” It was very motivational especially since many go through this same problem. Williams emphasizes the struggle she had when she transfers from New York to North Carolina and had to struggle with identifying herself as Hispanic or Black. In the end she realizes that she “embraces every aspect of her identity” because identifying herself as what other people wanted her to only make her feel like she did not know herself. As for “The power of identity politics by Garza, the reading was interesting because it provided a lot of examples on how identity politics is viewed. As I went through the reading it gave me a better understanding on the struggle Black people face, also the problems rooted in those that do not want to acknowledge that there is a problem. It will be hard for those who have power to give it up and try to see the oppression Black people faced but at least it should be acknowledge

I was intrigued by the article “Too Latina to Be Black, Too Black to Be Latina.” It acknowledges how many mixed people feel as if they have to be one or the other. And how they sometimes realize they won’t be able to fit in with either side. I think this is definitely why we need identity politics, so people like Aleicha Willaims will have people who have the same experiences right alongside her fighting for justice. So they can have a voice. In Jamaica, I noticed that this occurs with so many different minorities. Like the Chinese and the Indians, a lot of them get treated poorly over there. even though most of these people have lived there their whole lives. They’re Jamaican, but they are still treated a certain way because they don’t look like everyone else. There are so many stereotypes that are said about them.  Slurs are also used against Indians. One in particular that I’ve heard my family use casually. I even started using the word until I found out a few years back that it was a slur used to describe Indian people. I believe it is simply ignorance and what we have learned from those around us. In the article, she describes how New York was different and paid no mind to her being different, but that in South Carolina, they saw you only as “Black, Mexican, or White.” Certain people in certain areas aren’t used to seeing people who look different, so they torture them for it instead of trying to learn more about them.