“What each of us needs to do about what we don’t know is to go look for it”

In the article entitled, “Asian Pacific American Women and Feminism” the author addresses many of the issues she sees within the Asian American Feminist movement which parallel the issues that I see with my own Black Women’s movement in the United States. What struck me most was the discussion of the concern of joining or working with the larger Anglo feminist movement. I believe we had a class discussion about whose responsibility we felt it was, the white women or the minority women, to take the first step to bridging the apparent gaps between the different feminist communities. My opinion had been that, as minorities who are the experts on our culture, we should be willing to educate those who are not knowledgeable about our plight and our concerns. I don’t think I truly believed that this was right at the time, it was just easily expressed and I think that is how contemporary society operates. I think that society at large does not truly care and their excuse for not knowing is that, “well nobody told me so…”
However, Yamada was able to articulate why it is that it is the Anglo women of the larger feminist movement that should reach out to women of color. The quote that sums it all up is the title of my blog: “What each of us needs to do about what we don’t know is to go look for it.” This idea is not so foreign. We, as young adults, as students, are expected to take an active role in our education. So why should not the same principle apply to feminist scholars? If they acknowledge that women of color have a place within the larger feminist movement, then they should also acknowledge that in order for feminism to address all women’s issues, all women should be involved; all of their varying societal struggles addressed. In order for the major movement to move forward, the majority must invite the minorities to a seat at the table by validating Black, Asian and Chicana women’s concerns and taking them on as their own.