#well she was told to be north african and latina

[1v31182m5]

idk and idc if this is known, but asha means wish in hindi

Oh my god really?? Thank you for telling!!

[razzle-dazzle-dandy]

Alright I’ll give it a shot 1)Asha is not Afro Latina, she’s Afro Hispanic. She does not live in Latin America so she isn’t a Latina. Her father is white spainard or at least vaguely described as from the Iberian peninsula, which would include Portugal. Her mother is Amazigh, which is a group of people that reside in different parts of North Africa. Which leads us to point 2)Box braids are not reflective of typical North African hairstyles. You can see some Amazigh people wear them, but not the way Asha has them. It’s super disappointing hearing how Disney apparently did the research on hair of Amazigh people, and they decided box braids were such a staple to the culture when they aren’t. That’s more of a West and South African hairstyle for groups that usually have the hair texture for box braids in the first place. You made that comment about why white people shouldn’t wear braids? Cultural appropriation aside, simply these hairstyles are made for certain hair textures in mind, hence why white people that wear African based braids find themselves crying over their bald patches. Africa has a wide range of diversed features thus different people have different garments and hairstyles to suit the environment. Asha’s design hardly tells us she’s Amazigh or Spanish which leads to point 3) Those are some ugly poorly designed box braids. I’ve had all sort of box braids styles and when I was told Asha was shocked, like where? Not to mention they didn’t bother giving the poor girl any hair accessories, some that can help reflect her Amazigh heritage, so it’s boring. Poorly animated too, which is weird because Disney can make entirely new programs to animate Rapunzel’s hair or Mirabel’s but not braids? Not something simple like braids? Then again, they did lay off a bunch of people, so that’s probably part of the reason they tried to apply straight hair animation logic onto braids, which is another issue people tend to have with her braids. Like did animators truly give her braids to reflect the culture(it didn’t) or because they thought it was easier to animate than afro hair which is still a frustratingly stupid argument in animation. It comes across as nonblack people did not ask Black people for guidance on how to design Black hair. Yknow how everyone uses the Killmonger haircut and the one ugly afro in games because they don’t want to explore different looks? It’s giving ‘that’.Now I do side eye people that make Asha’s hair just straight, like dang not even the concept art did that. But I would some people are drawn into Asha’s concept art that seems better designed for her character. Because honestly, if the point is Asha is a character that constantly needs to be on the move, and is clumsy, and forgetful, she’s not going to have long flowing braided hair like that. And you can still blame Disney as a corporation for poor animation and poor character design, we are seeing more and more people that worked on Wish come out to say how rushed and underdeveloped made this movie. Sorry for long message but something like a character designed to have braids does need to a lot of thought put into it, and unfortunately Asha with braids tells me nothing about the character vs what I’m shown

Thank you for your reply, genuinely!

I used Afro-Latina because I'd heard someone else use that term, so I appreciate that correction and clarification.

I made the comment about white people and braids because I was frustrated about people's response to Asha's hairstyle, not because I think they should go out and get braids. I do agree that those styles were developed for certain hair types and that they can cause damage when worn improperly, not to mention the cultural aspects which I'm well aware of.

Again, I mean this genuinely, where was it said that Sakina is based on the Amazigh people specifically? I've definitely seen North African, which would include that group among many others. Is it from the art book?

The braids honestly look fine to me (minus the point about decorations, that's definitely a missed opportunity)? That might come down to preference so I won't argue it too much. Braids definitely don't move in the wind that way, but I can understand that at some points they're trying to invoke the look and feel of classic Disney movies. Whether or not that's part of it, that's up to the animation team to answer. It's possible that the newer animation style may not have worked well with their current hair tools, a problem that may have been solved with more time/manpower.

When it comes to wonky animations, lay offs, and crunch, that's what I mean when I say genuine criticism. I can admit that I worded the last part poorly. You can absolutely critique animation and design, especially when they're affected by poor corporate practices. I'm more upset that people seemingly just want to be mad about anything Disney makes right now than anything else. Even if it strays from the initial concept, isn't the idea of a Disney princess or hero with cornrows and box braids kinda cool? We know that people move to Rosas from around the world, wouldn't it be fun to think of it as a melting pot the same way New York or other large cities are? I'm not saying Disney as a corporation is worth defending, it is not, but we can acknowledge the good with the bad. We should make pushes for improvement, and Disney should be better, but I think it's okay if a team just takes inspiration from something and decides to make something new with it.

[i-did]

A guide for proper terminology for Nicky Hemmick:

Written by me, a Mexican-American.

Latin American: someone from Latin America, this includes Mexico but not Spain. Latin America is multi ethnic, and not just Spanish speaking, the non Spanish speaking countries of Latin America are Brazil, Belize, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, and the Falkland Islands.

Latino: decent from Latin America, similar to saying Latin American, but can include people born in America of Latin American decent. People don't really say "Latin American American," they say Latino American. (Latina = woman, and Latine = neutral but not commonly used, often typed Latin@s online for shorthand to include both). Latin American countries are very diverse, some are dominantly black/Afro-Latino.

Afro-Latino: Afro-Latin Americans are dominantly from African decent, some Latin American countries are majorly black/Afro-Latino. when used outside of Latin America it can mean someone who’s mixed black and Latino. 

Latinx: "gender neutral" term for Latino, but probably made by white people because .... Spanish words don't end in x, and x isn't pronounced that way in Spanish, for example the name Xitlali (sometimes spelled Zitlali and other variations, but pronounced like an S). Honestly say Latino/Latinos or Latin@s, and in online queer spaces Latine/Latines.

Chicano: Latin American decent but born in America.

Hispanic: related to Spain, colonized by Spain, so this includes Spain but not Brazil, which is a Latin American country.

Mexican: a person from Mexico living in America, for example Nicky's mom, but often also casually used to mean Mexican Americans (or Latino/Chicanos in general).

Mexican American: Latin American decent born into America. Unlike chicano, it is associated more with the idea of assimilation into white America, but not always.

Mexicano: what Mexicans call themselves in Mexico (feminine is Mexicana).

TexMex: people who were living in Mexico, and then America bought/stole the land and said "this is also America now, you can leave or stay" and they stayed. They became Americans, Texas Mexican American culture is different than for example SoCal Mexican American culture because of this, (but still more in common with each other than not).

Anglo: someone who is non Latino, usually in reference to someone who lives in the America's that were colonized by British people and English is the standard spoken language, ex/ North Americans and Canadians who aren't Latino. Usually in reference to white people but not always. If someone is Asian American and constantly purposefully mispronounces my name, instead of being like "🙄white people" I can be like "🙄 Anglos" (or I could say gringo, which is not as nice of a term for anglo). I honestly don’t know if I can call a spaniard anglo, but I assume not, since they're not Anglo-Saxon, which is where the term comes from.

despite what the media represents, not all Latino’s are Mexican! although the two terms are often used interchangeably when they’re really not. there are 32 other countries besides Mexico in Latin America.

Mexican is technically a nationality, but because of colonialism it’s not that simple. Race dynamics work differently in different countries. Most Mexicanos are not connected with their mixed indigenous ancestors, while some still are, like the Maya. It is something that has been taken from us and has evolved into its own thing. Some Mexicanos are lighter than others, sometimes by being more related to the Spanish than the indigenous. Mexico has a huge problem with colorism and class divide as well as overall racial tension.

Mexico is also not only "white/more Spanish" "more brown" and "fully indigenous, culturally and ethnically", there are afro-latinos (like mentioned before), and also Asian latinos, specifically a large amount of Chinese immigrants from when China became communist, middle eastern latinos, etc. Latin America has immigrants too! 

I have a friend who is fully Korean but grew up in Guatemala, I have another friend from Brazil who is 100% of polish and Ashkenazi decent, her grandparents having escaped to Brazil during WWII, but she and her parents grew up and spent their whole lives in Brazil, they are Latin Americans. 

List of things Nicky's mom Maria is:

Mexican, Mexicana, Latina, Latin American, 'Hispanic' but like.... outdated term and usually when people use this they just mean Latin@.

List of things Nicky is:

Mexican-American, Latino, "Mexican" in the broad sense of the word.

Describing Nicky or his mother as "looking hispanic" doesn't really make sense because he takes after his mother who is described as very dark and therefore less Spanish decent and more indigenous decent, she's from a Spanish speaking country so... its not technically wrong, but Nicky is from and English speaking one and doesn't speak Spanish, so it doesn't really make sense.

He isn't Chicano and neither is she, she wasn't born in America and Nicky doesn't identify as Chicano or in general much with his mothers culture beyond visible features. He is never mentioned to make Mexican food, listen to Latin American music, or other aspects of Latino culture in general. He chose to go to Germany instead of Spain or Latin America, and he talked Aaron out of taking Spanish in exchange for German so Nicky could help him with his homework, (meaning he doesn't know Spanish, which many Mexican Americans don't know).

saying Nicky “looked Mexican” or “looked brown” isn’t a bad thing, Neil in the books says he’s two shades too dark to be considered tan, so... stop tip-toeing around it and call him brown instead of tan. It’s not a bad thing to be brown, and It’s not a bad thing to be Mexican. maybe I’m just from somewhere with a lot of Mexican-Americans, but when I look at people I can tell they’re not Anglos, or I think to myself “oh another Mexican” or at least “brown person” vs when I see a white person I think “white person.” I’m not face blind, I know that different races exist and look different and can see such trends in real people in the same way that when I look at a little girl I go “oh a little girl” not “what sex is this weird hairless animal, what is this alien”.

these concepts are a lot more complicated in practice, I get told often I don’t “look Mexican” but so does one of my cousins who’s afro latino and plays professional basketball in Mexico. Gender is fake but the majority of people we see are still falling into two categories on sight, it’s how we’re socially trained. 

I'm also not an encyclopedia, if you think I made a mistake let me know and I'll check it out. A lot of this was just off the top of my head and words I just learned from.... existing, I didn't exactly look them all up in the dictionary.

Also if you’re writing Nicky, don’t be afraid to get a sensitivity reader, @sensitivityreaders is a good resource for this, and so is @writingwithcolor

[yourreddancer]

from a FB post

I made my 11-year old daughter cry yesterday.We were driving to the beach, and we passed the Portland Expo Center. It’s not the usual way we go, but the traffic was bad and this would let us avoid downtown. I asked her if she knew anything about World War 2, and she knew a little… she remembered, for instance, that in that war the US was fighting against Germany and Japan.

 So I pointed out the Expo building to her, and I told her, “During the war the US government was afraid that Americans with Japanese heritage might be spies or might side with Japan, so they gathered them all up in that building. It was a livestock building. They moved all the cattle out and moved all the people in, and they kept them there for almost a year.”“Did they kill them?” she asked. “No,” I said. “But they all lost their jobs. Many of them lost their businesses, their houses, and most of their possessions.”

She didn’t say anything after that, but she’s a sensitive kid and I looked over to see that she was softly crying, wiping the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. Why would I do that to my kid?Well it’s not because of “CRT” or because I hate white people, or because I want her to. It’s not because I’m cruel or overly fixated on race. It’s not because of political correctness or politics. It’s because things like this still happen today and they’ll happen again in the future and when that day comes I don't want her to stick her head in the sand and say, “Well that could never happen in the Land of the Free” but instead be one of the people standing up to say, “Not this again, this is wrong, how dare you.”

 It’s because she has Asian American friends, and when they are in danger or the victims of Anti-Asian racism or violence I don’t want her to be confused or surprised, I want her to be able to stand in the gap to protect, support, and comfort her friends. It’s because she has Latina friends who have been deported. It’s because she has Asian-American friends who have family members who have been spit on or harassed. And just because she’s 11 and white doesn’t mean she should be shielded from that… her friends of color aren’t. She’s old enough to know that the world her friends live in is the same world she’s in.

And yes, she needs to know that these things happened in living memory. That right now there’s a kind older woman who volunteers at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon who will tell you the story of when her family packed their bags and met at the Expo Center. She’ll tell you about how they stayed in a cattle stall with a sheet for a door, and how the flypaper hung over her, heavy with flies, while her family tried to figure out what was going to happen to them all, what their own government was going to do to them (the answer being, send them to a camp in California and then transfer them to a camp in Idaho where they would live one family to a room, sleeping on cots, the guards outside the camp with their rifles, barbed wire on the fences. The answer being that some of their fathers and brothers got out early if they volunteered to fight, but the families remained in the camps, imprisoned by their own government, not “innocent until proven guilty” but “presumed guilty because of their ethnicity.”).

She needs to know that if every story she ever hears about the USA is “we are the good guys” that she’s listening to liars. We have done some incredible, beautiful things in the world (and still are), and we have done some horrific, evil things in the world (and still are). Because we’re not raising her to be a good American, we’re raising her to be a good person. And because when we’re driving through the streets of our cities, the history matters. We should be able to point out, “This church belonged to Black people until the city decided it was time to revitalize downtown and they forced all the African Americans north, out of downtown.” We should be able to say, “This is Fort Vancouver” and also know that the coming of that fort meant that in a span of barely thirty years entire cultures of Native people were nearly wiped out by smallpox and other diseases… and many of the remaining peoples were forced onto the worst pieces of land at the threat of death so that the great American empire could continue to expand.

I tell my daughter all of this not because of some political agenda. I tell her because it’s true. I tell her this because if she’s going to be a good citizen she needs to know what to fight against. She needs to know who we’ve been to recognize who we are. I tell her this because I love America and I want us to be better.

I tell her this because I love her and I don’t want her to grow up closing her eyes to injustice

.I tell her this because she needs to know that when we talk about camps built for racist reasons in World War 2 we call them “concentration camps” in Germany and we call them “internment camps” in California or Idaho. She needs to know that we try to hide it, to soften it, to make it somehow something understandable rather than something evil.

I tell her this because once upon a time on May 2nd 1942, three thousand six hundred and seventy-six Japanese Americans showed up at the Expo center carrying their bags – they could only bring what they could carry -- or carrying their infants and toddlers, and were moved in to cattle stalls. They lived there, in our city, for five months until we could get our camps built, get the barbed wire installed, get the guard posts filled, get the trains ready to pack with our own citizens. I tell her because their story – OUR story – matters. 

She needs to know. I tell her all this because if she’s never cried about something America has done, she doesn’t know America.

[cloudwomensquarterly]

Two Poems by Cathy Arellano -Fugitive Slave Act and Immigration, a found poem based on “The Long Struggle for America’s Soul” by Andrew Delbanco* and Alfie, What’s It All About?

Art is copyright ©2017 Hedy Treviño. Mixed media, acrylic base, collage on gold foil. All rights reserved.

Fugitive Slave Act and Immigration, a found poem based on “The Long Struggle for America’s Soul” by Andrew Delbanco*

southern border separation children parents president’s denigration nonwhite migrants denying birthright citizenship pledge federal troops caravan frantic refugees

not first time president threatened   return them to horrors fled African-Americans not human property no different cattle sheep

South Carolina “Act to Prevent Runaways” 1683 hundred years later Georgia nightly slave patrol

Philadelphia 1787 problem new nation slaves running                                                                      freedom

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 Constitution founding fathers stop them

“right to recover our slaves” stating easier than carrying out just as “Build the Wall!” easier than building

obliged to return runaways

obliged to return stray livestock stolen cash

but boundary slavery                                                                                freedom porous

slave owners cut off shoes collected at night runaways resisting killed with impunity only witness killer himself

most fugitives never far tendons cut faces branded   kept on trying

just as in our time immigrants keep coming 1840s fugitive slave problem gravest of all questions calls for secession congress tried to solve August 1850   Fugitive Slave Act

president signed law law without mercy denied most basic right habeas corpus right to challenge detention forbade        own defense trial by jury disallowed exonerating evidence criminalized sheltering fugitive required local authorities assist recovering lost human                                                           property

free Black people in North even never been enslaved lives infused with terror of being deported

in South deepened despair already desperate

1851 free Black people organize resistance

Norfolk, Va. slave catchers seized young man Shadrach with his waiter’s apron still on Black crowd gathered Court Square rushed courtroom hustled whisked from Boston to Cambridge to Canada

Lancaster County, Pa. slave owner tried force return shot killed by Black man

Syracuse biracial crowd attacked police station clubs axes battering ram Canada

Milwaukee Joshua Glover escaped held until twenty men large timber bumb bumb bumb down door out Glover

1850 more than three million Black people legally enslaved within country’s borders

politicians racist

chief justice United States Blacks have no rights White man bound to respect

Boston New Bedford Syracuse Cincinnati Rochester “sanctuary cities”

Black people feared law enforcement

congress courts collapsed

fugitive slaves 19th century undocumented immigrants today non-persons

Who  is       isn’t   human?

Declaration of Independence “all men created equal “unalienable rights” “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”

1854 Abraham Lincoln readopt the Declaration

postwar constitutional amendments guarantee citizenship right to vote

former slaves naturalized immigrants

The New Deal tried The Civil Rights Movement tried dismantle Jim Crow

age of trump rights constricted   rescinded

self-evident truth

all people life liberty pursuit of happiness long way from settled

Note: I have adjusted some capitalization, removed most punctuation, changed Delbanco’s “illegal” and replaced with “undocumented” before “immigrant(s)”. Words are in same order as article.

Alfie, What’s It All About?

every Saturday during our walk up and down the coolest street in town we stopped at the American Music Store (they changed their name to Música Latina when us Latinos finally reached a critical and commercial mass)

this was Mom’s spot she only bought one LP or a couple 45s each time but “each time” times “every Saturday” equals stacks and stacks of Stax fingers ready to snap on yellow background Motown road maps guiding the way with its red star

and the rest of our housemates Capitol, Atlantic, RCA, Buddha Tamla, Scepter, Capitol, Philips crashing in the Livingroom behind to the left of right of in front of her stereo

one Saturday when we were 6 and 7 years old Mom made a payment on our inheritance her magic her balm her joy

You girls, pick a record my older sister and I knew this was a moment like when someone else’s Mom teaches them to bake cookies Mom was offering us something precious

it was sweet not like later when Mom let my sister smoke in front of her when she was 15

it wasn’t mine or my sister’s birthday I hadn’t ever dreamed this moment would arrive but I was ready we both were

My sister turned around ran to the back of the store dug in a white bin flipped through grabbed her catch clutched it in her arms ran back to us at the counter showed us her treasure

The Three Little Pigs

I couldn’t read very well but I recognized the pigs and wolf on the cover behind the counter Enrique turned to me for my order I didn’t run just said

Alfie

he looked at Mom then back at me by Dionne Warwick?

huh?

Yes, that one Mom told him

we returned the next Saturday and the next and the next Mom bought us many more 45s not as many as she bought herself but enough to begin our own stacks

my sister started buying classic Oldies “Angel Baby” and “Sitting in the Park” I bought Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” for the until then unheard of price of $4.99 and later AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”

when she died in 1984 after a month in the hospital when we were 18 and 19 Mom had amassed so many records and we had to move so fast and were so lost in the chaos we threw them away

I wish I had all her records back I’d play them for my partner our son

no, I’d trade hers, mine, my sister’s, all the 45s, LPs, and CDs in the world for one more moment with her

The broken-hearted lesbian love poems in Cathy Arellano’s I LOVE MY WOMEN, SOMETIMES THEY LOVE ME are suitable for anyone who has loved, been loved, or been left. I LOVE MY WOMEN was released in Fall 2017 from Kórima Press. In 2016, Kórima published SALVATION ON MISSION STREET, Arellano’s family memoir in poems and stories set in San Francisco from the 1960s to the 2000s. SALVATION won the 2017 Golden Crown Literary Society’s Debut Author Award.

[124globalsociology]

Intersectional Feminism

By Alexis Williams, Anna Oh and Graham George

Jerilyn Hassell Pool / papersashay.com Custom Printed Protest Posters 

There was, and continues to be, a racial divide in feminist perspectives between white and POC feminists. This divide dates back to first-wave feminism during the 19th and early 20th centuries and follows through to the second wave of the 1960s to the early 1990s and continues to today. Much of the feminist world felt that feminism predominantly focused on “Caucasian, able-bodied, usually heterosexual women from the economic North, who were often middle class, although sometimes working class,” (Intersectional Analysis A Contribution of Feminism to Sociology). In a push for a more equal and inclusive feminism, all sides came together to create “intersectional feminism” a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Kimberlé Crenshaw is an American lawyer, and civil rights advocate. She is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School. Crenshaw is known for the introduction and development of intersectionality.

According to The intersectional turn in feminist theory: A response to Carbin and Edenheim (2013) by Gemma McKibbin, Rachael Duncan, Bridget Hamilton, Cathy Humphreys, Connie Kellett,  “…intersectionality is a common feminist voice which claims to simultaneously acknowledge diversity and recognize that gender is not the only dimension critical to identity and oppression.” They state how intersectionality allows social researchers as well as policy makers to be able to understand the various experiences of disadvantages in the diverse group of women that involved in feminism. It is important to recognize the intersectionality in feminism to be able to conceptualize the system of oppression through multiple identities, hierarchies of power and privilege. 

Mrs. James Rector, Mary Dubrow, and Alice Paul (left to right) hold center banner that reads: “No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex.

Intersectional feminism is exceedingly important. It has the potential to allow for more progressive feminist debates as it is more encapsulating of a wide variety of struggles and assures that the feminist movement gives equal voice to marginalized women. It is a tool which will “enable collective solidarity and for progressing feminist theory and practice…” (McKibbin, Gemma, et al). Furthermore, “An intersectionality-type lens can thus be deployed to emphasize that we are all differently and differentially implicated in the conditions that structure and uphold a matrix of domination,” (Sharma, Nandita Rani, and Cynthia Pfaff Wright). For example, in Concerned, Meet Terrified: Intersectional Feminism and the Women’s March, Sierra Brewer and Lauren Dundes express the concern on priorities of the community of white women had during The Women’s March on January 21,2017. There were reports questioning “the genuineness of white women’s commitment to feminism as noted by Ijeoma Oluo (editor at large of feminist website The Establishment). He said, “seeing these women ‘so excited — buying plane tickets, knitting hats [the pussy hats], doing all of these things, getting ready to get out and march in the street, and you’re wondering, where was that need to get out and say something when we were being shot?’” (Richardson). 

The “Vessels of Genealogies” exhibit by Firelei Baez features drawings of dark women with cascades of hair, the ghostly descendants of African, Latina and Caribbean great-great-grandmothers and goddesses. (Gallery Wendy Norris photo)

Furthermore, many white feminists are unable to see their status as “both oppressed and oppressor.” This so called “class and race unconsciousness” among some white feminists (Roth, 1999, p. 99) resulted in a feminist treatment of sexism as the ultimate barrier without considering how it intersects with class, race and other hetero-normative-based oppression, “an insensitivity with lasting repercussions for a more racially united feminist movement.” It’s a call for need to take into account the impact of race; however, American author, professor, feminist, and social activist Bell Hooks suspects that racial hierarchy will remain because of historical reasons: “Prior to slavery, patriarchal law decreed white women were lowly inferior beings, the subordinate group in society. The subjugation of black people allowed them to vacate their despised position and assume the role of a superior,”  (Brewer, Dundes).

But regardless of the racial differences among feminists, it would be wrong to dismiss the efforts of white women in general, either historically or contemporarily. In other words, despite conflicting positions on the meaning of feminism, the wish to creative positive change and to work through differences allows for progress towards unity, even in the presence of divisions by class, race, and sexuality (Valk, 2010). 

Intersectional feminism applies to class for many reasons. First and foremost, it’s a global issue, meaning it affects everyone, from all across the globe. Colonialism spread the patriarchy and even established it in some places. For example, indigenous women had equal roles in their societies, but, “Colonial policies and practices tried to end Indigenous beliefs, customs, language and culture. These attempts had dramatic and mostly negative effects on Indigenous women’s role in society,” (FemNorthNet). The lasting effects of western colonial patriarchy never wore off and women are consistently subject to harsh inequalities. Some women were given a louder platform to speak out against these inequalities whereas others were told to be quiet. Intersectional feminism combats not only the colonial patriarchy, but also the racist traditional feminism. It is an effort to give marginalized women an equal voice. Intersectional feminism has and continues to face backlash, such as individuals deeming it ineffective and nonsensical; nevertheless, it persists and will continue to do so. 

Important intersectional feminists:

Chrystos

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Laverne Cox

Lizzo

Bell Hooks

Audre Lorde

Frederick Douglass

Gloria Anzaldúa

Other types of feminism: 

Liberal Feminism: An individualistic form of feminist theory, which focuses on women’s ability to maintain their equality through their own actions and choices.

Radical Feminism: a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts.

Marxist and Socialist Feminism: Socialist feminism is a two-pronged theory that broadens Marxist feminism’s argument for the role of capitalism in the oppression of women and radical feminism’s theory of the role of gender and the patriarchy. 

Cultural Feminism: Cultural feminism is a variety of feminism which emphasizes essential differences between men and women, based on biological differences in reproductive capacity.

EcoFeminism:  A branch of feminism that sees environmentalism, and the relationship between women and the earth, as foundational to its analysis and practice.

Further readings: 

What does intersectional feminism actually mean? | IWDAhttps://iwda.org.au › what-does-intersectional-feminism-actually-mean

What is “Intersectional Feminism”? | Women’s & Gender Studieshttps://denison.edu › Academics › Women’s & Gender Studies

PreviewPreview12:30Intersectional feminism | Living In Colour

Bibliography 

Brewer, Sierra, and Lauren Dundes. “Concerned, Meet Terrified: Intersectional Feminism and the Women’s March.” Women’s Studies International Forum, Pergamon, 30 Apr. 2018, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539517301449.

Denis, Ann. “Review Essay: Intersectional Analysis: A Contribution of Feminism to Sociology - Ann Denis, 2008.” SAGE Journals, Sept. 2008, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0268580908094468.

McKibbin, Gemma, et al. “The Intersectional Turn in Feminist Theory: A Response to Carbin and Edenheim (2013) - Gemma McKibbin, Rachael Duncan, Bridget Hamilton, Cathy Humphreys, Connie Kellett, 2015.” SAGE Journals, 2 Feb. 2015, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1350506814539445.

Sharma, Nandita Rani, and Cynthia Pfaff Wright. “A Feminist Approach to Decolonizing Anti-Racism : Rethinking Transnationalism , Intersectionality , and Settler Colonialism” Semantic Scholar 20-15  www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Feminist-Approach-to-Decolonizing-Anti-Racism-:-,-Sharma-Wright/05657ee11a8bd1cdf19e74ef8864b1d81445a1c9.

[girlonarock]

Safe or Respectable?

Edited to add: To be honest, this was a processing post, which meant that I wrote it too soon after the event to be thorough enough about the actual writing. There was little enough editing and no revision -- it’s basically just word vomit + gifs. I know I needed that as a part of understanding the experience, but a side effect of this is that it’s unclear in places, and doesn’t get everything fully across. This post may end up private, and I might post something more polished that incorporates different questions and feedback I’ve gotten about it from people who’ve read it.

The support I’ve gotten from friends has been amazing. But also some clarity would probably be useful. So as I go, I’ll be adding bits and pieces and then putting up a final revision after hiding this one from view.    

So here’s a thing that happened to me this weekend. But let me give you some background. My mother is Latina, my father is North African, which I’ve mentioned before. I’m mostly white-passing -- usually only other PoC know right off the bat that I’m Latina. In the summer, this isn’t quite as true because I love the beach and the sun and I get noticeably browner than I am in the winter months. Style matters, too: for example, yesterday, I was wearing big, gold hoops, my 3c curls were piled up on top of my head and I tied it around with a bandanna. Example, except picture big gold hoops instead of the earrings in the picture, and my skin a few shades darker from the sun:

So in this state, I’m more perceptibly Latin to most people. Also perceptibly Latin: my accent when I’m drinking. So a friend of mine and I go to a bar in the West Village that I’ve been to a few times. The crowd is usually a little bit older, broadly white, gay men. It’s a chill vibe -- there’s a piano, and as things get later and there are more people, there are often show tunes and singalongs. It’s pretty delightful -- I really like it there. I don’t hang out there a lot because it’s in Manhattan and I live in Brooklyn, but I’ve always felt comfortable there and had a good time. Yesterday, we were hanging out during the day, and showed up there probably around two. We were the first ones there, but we didn’t care because there were $5 frozen margaritas and we were just there to cackle and catch up and enjoy each other’s company, which we did. As time passed and drinks were drunk and we were getting louder and the crowd was getting bigger. The music was dope and everything was great. There were only three other women in the bar at this point, and they were all women of color. I’m feeling super comfortable and I’d thought a good time was being had by all.  Then, one of the women comes up to me and says, “Girl, I know you doin’ your Spanish thing, but you got to take it down a notch.” 

I was shocked. Like, speechless -- a very unusual state for me. My friend (a white, gay man) was immediately like "Um, this is her safe space -- are you LGBTQ?"

The woman said that she was bisexual, but then it came out that she was there with her daughter, and that she didn’t even believe in bisexuality.

She was black, and she told us she was fifty-five, and then proceeded to tell me about how I need to not be loud, that I was making people uncomfortable. The story I’d like to tell is how I clapped back, about how I told her to get her respectability politics the fuck out of this space where I’ve always felt comfortable. The story I’d like to tell is about how I schooled her on how representing myself as what people sort of expect from a Latina in a very white space, and then socializing, then meeting people, then making friends and enjoying them and having them enjoy me is actually sort of a small but important thing I like to do in very white places, especially queer white spaces, because actually experiencing different types of people as an individuals helps people be more open to diversity -- and diversity can be something of an issue in queer white spaces. But those stories wouldn’t be true. What happened is that I calmly, mostly patiently, tried to explain who I am, what I’m about, how I hadn’t meant to make anyone uncomfortable. What happened is that I apologized. I fucking apologized. For being me! My whole life people have thought I’m too much -- generally white folks, to be honest, and I’m very used to that. I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I come across, and if some wypipo are uncomfortable because they don’t understand other cultural norms, well, that’s sad for them, because I’m pretty great. But the fact that it was a woman of color -- an older woman of color, which is exactly the person to whom I will always be most deferential and most respectful -- completely disarmed me. My defenses were down, because if there’s a person in the room I’m going to trust and feel safe with, it’s a woman of color. And she struck me down, guys. She broke my heart. We went out for a cigarette, and she joined us -- and she was speaking to a white guy who was already out there, and he said that he agreed, I was too much. I was utterly shocked. I’m usually pretty good at reading a room, but it never occurred to me that I’d be rejected there of all places. The guy ended up complimenting me and saying I was beautiful and inviting me to come back to listen to him sing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” by the piano, but once everyone went back inside, we didn’t. We went across the street to a little park, I cried. My friend sat with me and said all the right things, supportive, understanding, totally got why I was so upset -- I had felt safe. LGBTQIA spaces have always felt safe to me, in all ways. And suddenly, that was gone. Everyone in that bar became suspect. How many people had been “uncomfortable?”  I’ve always been aware of race issues in the LGBTQIA community, but whereas outside of it, I’ve grown weary and wary and a little cynical about changing hearts and minds, I’ve always felt a sort of optimism among my queer folk that I’ve been able to maintain over the years. I’d experienced being tokenized, microaggressions, and other nonsense, but I also found people often willing to listen, or take hints, or understand at least a little about why those things weren’t cool. I also had always felt accepted for who I was -- I never had to be respectable, because queer spaces weren’t respectable, and cared nothing for respectability. I guess that’s changed. Or something. We went to Harlem, walked around, had (amazing) dinner. There was no side eye; someone complimented my curls. People were friendly and fun and I felt comfortable again. So that was good. I’m not sure what to make of all this, exactly. I’ve been thinking about it a lot today. Respectability politics are a problem. Diversity in LGBTQIA spaces is fraught -- there are queer PoC spaces and queer white spaces, and I never felt the need to pick one or the other. But this experience -- at the hands of a woman of color who was most likely straight, which really makes it weird -- I think it may have changed that. And there’s something in me that’s really sad about that, and really disappointed.  I don't have any intention of changing my behavior or anything about myself. I really like myself, and honestly would have no idea how else to be. If growing up with my very strict, very critical, very hardcore father didn’t bend me into a more quiet, demure, respectable shape, some rando lady at a bar certainly isn’t going to do much. But what has changed is the sense of safety I felt in LGBTQIA spaces and with women of color -- which for me is profound. LGBTQIA spaces have always been a sanctuary for me, and it's a really deep, fundamental disappointment to feel like I've lost that. I’m not sure where that leaves me, at the end of the day. 

[conniejoworld]

ELECTIONS ’20 | U.S. SENATE Hegar beats West, will face Cornyn

‘Pack it up, buttercup,’ she tells GOP incumbent By ROBERT T. GARRETT and GROMER JEFFERS JR. Staff Writers MJ Hegar defeated Royce West late Tuesday in the runoff for the Democratic nomination for a Texas seat in the U.S. Senate. A little after 11:20 p.m., Hegar declared victory, and a few minutes after that, The Associated Press declared her the Democratic primary winner. “I am humbled by the support we have received from all across the state, and am confident we have a decisive victory,” Hegar said in an email. West gave her a scare, though. The veteran state senator ran strongly in his home base of Dallas County and did well enough in Harris County to offset some of Hegar’s strength in South and Central Texas, as well as many rural counties. With 79% of polling locations reporting, Hegar maintained a nearly 40,000-vote lead out of more than 930,000 cast. “While we may be celebrating tonight, we have to get right back down to work tomorrow,” she said shortly after 10 p.m. “That’s when the real work is going to start. We’re going to kick this career politician to the curb.” Hegar stopped short of declaring victory — but said the Democratic turnout was so large it was “going to cause John Cornyn to have a hard time sleeping tonight.” She then issued a message to Cornyn: “Pack it up, buttercup, because your time has ended and we’re coming back to take our seat back for Texas.” In only her second run for public office, Hegar hopes now to rally base Democrats and disaffected Republicans to an upset victory over three-term GOP Sen. John Cornyn in the fall. For West, it was a race of frustration. “Every time I turned on television, I saw MJ Hegar,” West said earlier, while refusing to concede the race because of unreported precincts in Dallas and Harris counties. “A lot of people in the [Rio Grande] Valley didn’t know who Royce West is.” West, first elected to the state Senate in 1993, struggled to raise money. His duties as a legislator after the coronavirus outbreak were another hurdle, he said. He cast himself as a battle-scarred warrior for women’s rights, gun control, public schools and foster children who could ride the nation’s new urgency about racial inequality and policing to defeat Cornyn. Hegar, a Purple Heart recipient, turns to the Nov. 3 matchup with Cornyn after selling herself as a political disrupter eager to stand apart from political parties and fight for working families — and capable of cutting into Texas Republicans’ margins in both rural areas and the suburbs. Cornyn, 68, is a team player and the former No. 2 official in the Senate Republican leadership. Democrats say he and others in the GOP’s Senate majority are chief enablers of President Donald Trump’s unconventional and divisive leadership. Cornyn has said he’ll stand against “socialism” and has successfully advanced the state’s interests, such as securing federal aid after Hurricane Harvey. While the state’s three decades of red leanings provide some comfort, Cornyn has been unable to break through 40% support in public polls. His fate may be tied to Trump’s. The GOP president’s popularity in Texas, which never reached levels Republicans have grown accustomed to, has sagged amid pushback over his handling of COVID-19 and protests. A Dallas Morning News /University of Texas at Tyler poll conducted June 29 through July 7 showed Cornyn with an 11-point lead over Hegar, 37% to 26%; and ahead of West by just a tad more, 37% to 25%. In both matchups, nearly one-third of registered voters were undecided — and an additional 6% named someone else. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.24 percentage points. While West, 67, a Black lawyer from southern Dallas, has greater backing among African Americans than Hegar, she was able in the poll’s hypothetical matchup with Cornyn to fight him essentially to a draw among independents. She had 24% to Cornyn’s 25%. In the West-Cornyn pairing, Cornyn took independents, 28% to 20%. Since leaving the Air Force, Hegar, 44, has worked as a manager for Seton Healthcare and Dell computers. She lives in Round Rock, where she made her first stab at elective office in 2018. She challenged GOP U.S. Rep. John Carter of Georgetown, losing by only 3 points. Hegar caught the eye of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and other Democratic strategists with a viral ad. It recounted how even though she survived a 2009 firefight with Taliban forces who shot down her medevac helicopter in Afghanistan, a few years later, after leaving the military, she couldn’t get into the offices of members of Congress to press the case for lifting a ban on women in ground combat. She wasn’t a campaign contributor, she explained. But as lead plaintiff in an American Civil Liberties Union suit against the Defense Department, Hegar ultimately succeeded in backing down the Pentagon. That feisty, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer mien is as central to Hegar’s persona as the cherry blossom tattoo on her shrapnel-pocked right arm and shoulder, or her love of Harley-Davidsons. “John Cornyn, I know that you’re watching,” Hegar said in a debate last month. “I’ve got bad news for you: This relationship is not working out, honey. Let me tell you, we’re just not that into you.” West, though, has dismissed Hegar’s schtick as one part real, three parts bravado. “I like MJ as a person; she’s a good person,” West told the Austin American-Statesman earlier this month. “And I applaud her service, I really do. But you know the reality comes down to, who is best qualified to lead?” West described himself as the experienced legislator, ready to shape consensus, pass bills and end Washington gridlock as soon as he lands on the Senate floor. As their runoff contest, constrained by coronavirus to virtual appearances, drew to a close, West hammered the contrast home. He called himself the “true Democrat” in the race and criticized Hegar for once giving a campaign donation to Cornyn and for voting in the 2016 GOP presidential primary. Hegar said she gave money to Cornyn because he only paid attention to donors. She described her vote in the 2016 GOP primary as an effort to stop Trump from getting his party’s presidential nomination. Then Hegar blasted West for being a “career politician” and for becoming rich while in public office. West countered that there’s nothing wrong with an experienced Black lawyer making money, suggesting that Hegar was being racially insensitive. On issues, neither Democrat actually veered as far to the left as Cornyn hoped back in February, when it looked as if the party’s presidential nominee could be Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Though Cornyn may gloss over the nuances, Hegar and West both stopped shy of endorsing Medicare for All or the Green New Deal. Like their party’s putative nominee for president, Joe Biden, they’re both for a “public option” to be added to a strengthened version of Obamacare, to serve as a check on private insurers. Hegar especially was leery of consumer price hikes that could be triggered by the Green New Deal, a progressive plan to end use of fossil fuels and ameliorate income inequality. Both Democrats endorsed legalization of marijuana and at least would consider removing funds from police departments if civil rights were violated. In the runoff, Hegar enjoyed a sizable spending advantage over West. It was augmented by last-minute TV ads on her behalf paid for by Schumer’s Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington and the national feminist group EMILY’s List. As the race turns to November, Cornyn has an overwhelming fundraising advantage. He has $14.5 million in his campaign fund. Days before the runoff, Hegar had $1.6 million in the bank, while West trailed badly with about $160,000. rtgarrett@dallasnews.com, gjeffers@dallasnews.com Twitter: @RobertTGarrett, @gromerjeffers

24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Valenzuela chosen to face Van Duyne

Fall race likely to be explosive as Dems try to flip Marchant seat By NIC GARCIA Staff Writer nic.garcia@dallasnews.com Democrats in Dallas’ suburbs selected Candace Valenzuela to be their nominee in one of the most hotly contested national races this year — putting her on a trajectory to be Congress’ first Afro-Latina member if she wins in the fall. Valenzuela beat retired Air Force Col. Kim Olson on Tuesday in the Democratic runoff in Texas’ 24th Congressional District, which spans Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties. As of 10 p.m., Valenzuela led in each county, a devastating blow for Olson, who invested heavily in Tarrant County and promised to deliver a slate of Democratic victories in the statehouse. Olson had not conceded the race late Tuesday. “I’m proud to announce tonight our grassroots coalition has won,” Valenzuela told supporters via Zoom before acknowledging her family. “We’ve made a commitment as this family to fight for this district, to fight for this state, to fight for this country.” Valenzuela, a former Carrollton-Farmers Branch school board member, will now face former Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne, a Republican. The fall matchup is sure to be explosive with the issues of identity and progressive policies at the center of it. Van Duyne wasted no time going on the attack. “Candace has actively sought and received support from many extremist elected officials and organizations who believe in dismantling American security, fundamental rights, and crushing North Texans under socialized medicine and higher taxes on middle-class families,” she said in a statement. National Democrats have singled out the suburban seat as key to their strategy of keeping the U.S. House of Representatives. As demographics in the district have shifted, the seat has become more competitive. Republican Rep. Kenny Marchant easily won his seat nearly two decades ago. However, he narrowly held on in 2018, beating his Democratic opponent by just three points. Marchant, a Coppell resident, is one of six Republicans retiring from Congress at the end of the year. Valenzuela was already the favorite of progressive Democrats in Washington, garnering endorsements from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon. National support for Valenzuela is likely to intensify given the renewed attention on race issues. Valenzuela, 36, made her identity as an Afro-Latina central to her candidacy: She looks more like the constituents of the district, which is now majority non-white. She also argued that she was better suited to craft economic and social justice policies based on her experience growing up poor and homeless. Olson and Valenzuela were the top two vote-getters in a crowded Democratic March primary. A runoff was triggered because neither woman earned more than 50% of the vote. Days after the primary, the coronavirus pandemic led to stay-at-home orders that limited campaigning and ultimately delayed the runoff, which was originally scheduled for May. Both campaigns were forced to take their message online. Each hosted rounds of town halls on Zoom and Facebook. Olson invested heavily in early voting applications while Valenzuela went big on digital messaging such as text messages. The race between Olson and Valenzuela largely focused on Olson’s resume and Valenzuela’s biography. Olson was one of the nation’s first female military pilots. Following her time in the Air Force, which included a tour in Iraq, she worked in both the public and nonprofit sectors. She raised her profile substantially in 2018 when she ran to be the state’s agriculture commissioner. The race, which intensified in recent weeks, was punctuated by hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside spending. Groups supporting both women filled the airwaves, mailboxes and social media to promote each candidate. Valenzuela’s supporters went negative, attacking Olson’s record as the former human resources director at the Dallas Independent School District

Hate Van Duyne- was our mayor for a while, then Donny-boy hired her away for what-ever- coldest bitch you will ever meet

[clarkcountynv]

12 Nevada women to know for Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month and here in Clark County we have many milestones to celebrate! Did you know that the Clark County Commission is the only local women-majority governmental body in the Las Vegas Valley?  And this is not the first time in the county’s history that has been true!

Here are some other local and state historical facts for Women’s History Month:

On Nov 3, 1914, Nevada became the 11th state to give women the right to vote – six years before the 19th amendment was ratified.

The Nevada State song, "Home Means Nevada" was written by Bertha Raffetto and was adopted by the Nevada Legislature on Feb 6, 1933.

The designer of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Betty Willis, was born May 20, 1923 in Overton, Nevada. The National Park Service added the iconic sign to the National Register of Historic Places on May 1, 2009 (during the County’s centennial)!

Known as the “First Lady of Rock and Roll,” Mary Kaye and her band, the Mary Kaye Trio, is credited as the first lounge act in Las Vegas – performing at the Last Frontier in 1953. (Elvis Presley was a fan.)

Five-term County Commissioner Thalia Dondero was the first woman elected to the commission. She died in 2016.

The 10,000th same-sex marriage license was issued in Vegas went to Jennifer Dickerson and Amanda Falzone from Colorado Springs!

First Lady Pat Nixon was born on March 16, 1912 in Ely, Nevada.

Olympian Tasha Schwikert was born in Las Vegas on Nov. 21, 1984. She won a bronze medal in gymnastics in the 2000 Olympics.

Commissioners appointed Yvanna Cancela to the Nevada State Senate on Dec. 6, 2016, to fill SD10 vacancy left when Ruben Kiheun was elected to Congress. Cancela is the first Latina member of the state senate.

We have a long history of trailblazing women. Here are more influential women in Southern Nevada:

Las Vegas pioneer Helen Stewart was born April 16, 1854. Shortly after moving to the valley, her husband died. Pregnant with their fifth child, she negotiated for rights over her husband’s estate and land holdings (960-acre ranch in Las Vegas and holdings in Pioche). She had the foresight to purchase 1800 more acres of land with water rights after news came that the railroad would be coming to Las Vegas. She sold the land to Sen. W. A. Clark in 1902 and that land would be auctioned off in 1905 to form Las Vegas. She donated the land for the first school building and would become the first woman on the Clark County School Board in November 1916. 

Clark County had its own version of Rosie the Riveters called Magnesium Maggie’s. When the largest deposit of magnesium was discovered near what is now Henderson, the U.S. government moved quickly to build the BMI (or Basic Magnesium, Inc.) plant in order to create the magnesium ingots necessary to build the lighter aircraft that would eventually turn the tide of World War II. During the war, the BMI plant mostly employed women and African Americans who moved to the county during the Great Migration.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Sky Haven Airport – now the North Las Vegas Airport – opened. The airport was founded by John and Florence Murphy, along with John “Bud” Barrett. Just as they were celebrating the grand opening, a pilot from the Las Vegas Army Air Field ran up and told them of the attack on Pearl Harbor – which grounded all aircraft. Nevada-born Florence Murphy, who was the first licensed female pilot in Nevada, later said that despite its inauspicious beginning, she was proud of what the airport would later become. Over the years, Sky Haven would serve as a training site for WWII pilots as well as an incubator for Howard Hughes in the late 1960s. (She and her husband sold the airport and became executives in Bonanza Air, which was based at Sky Haven. Florence would go on to become the vice president of the airline, becoming the first woman to serve as an executive of a national airline.) Today, the airport is owned and operated by Clark County and is home to Las Vegas Metro Search & Rescue. 

With 1500+ people, the Operation Life march, led by Ruby Duncan and other black mothers, was the largest march on The Strip (until 2006 May Day march). Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, and parenting guru Dr. Benjamin Spock participated in the peaceful event on March 6, 1971. The Flamingo chained its doors. Caesars Palace welcomed the women and children and invited them to stay as long as they liked. Children played in the fountains. The gaming floor was shut down for almost a full day. Traffic was stopped on the boulevard in both directions. 

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