Diverse Feminism

During the years in the women’s studies department I have realized that the majority of my conversations have been about Black women vs. White women in the feminist community. I really appreciate Anna NietoGomez’s article “Chicana Feminism” and Mitsuye Yamada’s article “Asian Pacific American Women and Feminism” because they opened my eyes to different racial groups experiences throughout the feminist movements. Asian women’s expected behavior as “charming and entertaining” is just as oppressive as Chicana women’s expectation as “barefoot, pregnant and tied to the stove”. It is interesting to see how women, in different communities, are expected to maintain certain stereotypical behavior. Much like Black women are expected to be strong and White women are expected to be non-controversial homemakers. Realizing the uniqueness of the struggles women in different ethnic communities are faced with, it is important that the feminist movement battles universal issues as well as issues unique to different communities whether they are racial, sexual or socio economic. Yamada wrote, “It should not be too difficult, we feel, for them to see why being a feminist activist is more dangerous for women of color”. This sentence definitely got my attention because I noticed that my experiences, as a Black women, have really shaped my thoughts and opinions about feminism, almost too the point that I was wearing blinders. I could not see that Hispanic, Asian or Native American women could also be discriminated against or mistreated because of their racial background and their choice to be an activist. I have really enjoyed these readings because they have truly assisted in making me a more universal feminist and not just a Black feminist.