Updates/ Recap

Hello everyone,

It’s been two months since my last adventure in Bethlehem, PA. The downtown area now shines with twinkling lights and glossy red lanterns this holiday season. Here’s a picture I took near Hotel Bethlehem and the Moravian Bookstore.

Shops bustled with visitors on that day. I remember browsing the Moravian Bookstore which happened to be in the middle of repairs and reorganization. I like walking into places that are not store-ready perfect. Between the construction workers standing on ladders and the bookstore clerks recalling which books moved where…I was fascinated.

The store windows in other shops were decorated with snowflake, candy cane, and sale sign decals. Everything morphed into the holiday season! I have changes of my own to share with you.

Recently, I opened my art store on Redbubble. Now you can peruse everything from stickers to throw pillows. I’m still working on how to sell the original wooden pieces –some of you saw on Instagram. There are still many things ahead and I look forward in sharing them with you.

I hope you all have a restful and peaceful season. May the next year be filled with more positive memories for you and yours.

P.s. Did you notice the name change?

Follow my business Instagram for additional updates!

A.G.

Finding the Historic Charm in Downtown Bethlehem

On a cloudy day, my mother and I walk through downtown Bethlehem, PA. We visit my favorite consignment store, the Attic. It’s decor mirrors a retro boutique catering to college kids, trendy adults, and downtown tourists. Luckily, my mother and I couple pass as all three combined.

Departing from the store, we meet a group of people entering a nearby building a block away. This isn’t our first time to the area, but we notice the group that appears to be a tour. The cluster of men dressed in formal business wear proceed up the building’s side steps. Instead of the American suit and tie, they wear slacks and multicolored tops with geometric prints. The white lanyard strings stand against their clothing. Most of the men are bald. Their ebony heads gleam despite the overcast sky.

“There must be a tour,” I say turning to my mother.

“I wonder if we can join too?” She asks. Her question leads to an exploration rather than a conversation between the two of us. We are going in and joining the group. Or at least we will attempt to with my mother’s help.

She moves near the stairs where the rest of the group congregates. However, I linger by the street side easel looking for answers.

Photo by Fancycrave.com on Pexels.com

We are here on a Friday afternoon. Luckily, my mother has a gap between her work schedule allowing us this excursion. We have gained entry to this tour – joining a host of “people from all over [the world].” Our gracious, polo-wearing tour guides welcome us into the museum and inquire about our stay in Bethlehem.

Walking up the dark wooden stairs, we are lead into multiple offshoot rooms. My mother and I hurry to meet up with the rest of the group. Awkwardly, we search for our cellphones to silence them. I am a twenty-four years old, and my phone never leaves the vibrate setting. Yet, I struggle with my phone too before entering the room.

Inside the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, we learn that much of Bethlehem’s Moravian roots date back to the early to late 1800’s. Approximately, two hundred people bustled around this area. This Christian community conducted chapel and fellowship in English and German. Our tour guide explains that a special service was held in English for Martha Washington during her visit. Alas! English prevailed as a dominant language because as our tour guide explains, “speaking German wasn’t seen as hip during World War I.”

Our guide rolls her wrists and hands as she searches for the appropriate word – “hip.” Soft chuckles from the group embrace her to continue the lecture with more historical facts. Earlier on the tour, she told us to watch our heads since those using the space at the time were not as tall as the men present today.

Within various rooms, we learn that public meetings, school classes, and living quarters for a Count existed here. I am filled with awe that we joined a tour last minute that I catch only pieces of the tour guide’s words.

However, I am brought back to the present adventure as my mother inquires for me to take a picture here and there. One small room holds a series of instruments – trumpets, a cello, and other horns. My mother and I try to guess on some of their names. Her words holding more weight since she played in her high school band.

The other people in the group snap pictures also. One man encourages the group’s photographer to capture him next to a student schedule. This gesture raises a few chuckles and doubts on whether the kids at home will follow such a routine. The black chalkboard details that students should rise at 5:30 am and begin their studies closer to 7 am. I would love to know what age group of children followed this schedule. Can you imagine the uproar in today’s time?

Near the end of the tour, I learn that the upstairs chapel will serve as a wedding venue that same day. One of the guides busies himself in the back with any preparations. He opens the door leading to the outside and adjusts the ‘please be seated’ sign. I wait for him to duck into a storage closet before taking a picture. The upholstered red pews, organ pipes, and outside greenery make this space feel eternal.

It is closer to 3 pm and now my mother and I must venture back home. However, I smile thinking of the one woman visitor who asked the question “where do the sisters enter.” Her inquiry about the chapel makes me reflect on how my mother and I will enter into another adventure.

Have you ever gone on a spontaneous adventure? If so, tell me about in the comments. Until next time!

A.G.

The ‘Tea’ in Intimacy

Sharing a cup of tea with an acquaintance or making tea for someone you love remains an intimate act.

My father makes his black tea with ginger, sugar, and milk. He leaves a thermos pitcher on the kitchen’s counter top. After a few minutes, he will let my mother and I know that the tea is ready. As if emerging from a hobbit hole, I emerge from my bedroom and pull my favorite cat mug from the cabinet. The mug actually embodies a deep soup bowl with a singular handle on the side.

However, I continued to reach for this particular mug when visiting from college whenever tea was made. As a graduate back-at-home, I still look forward to dad’s Kenyan tea as I grapple with life.

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Tea transcends the monotony in life – I’m sure of it. During meditation training, my Buddhist in America class enjoyed a good cup of tea after our silent meal. The purpose of silence correlates to Zen Buddhist practices. We were led by a Buddhist nun — who my professor regarded as grandmotherly and deeply empathetic. Before and after our quiet lunch, we observed gratitude for the food and drink available to us. Gratitude and mindfulness appear often in research about Japanese tea ceremonies.

According to Japan magazine, the cultural custom of drinking tea in Japan derived from China. Tea ceremonies, called Sadou or Chadou, are presented through various art works, cultural observances, and in Zen-oriented lifestyles. The monthly web magazine provides a fuller portrait of the history behind tea sharing. It also shows where tourists to the area can experience this custom.

(Source: JPmatcha)

A former boss brought back green tea packets from her visit to Japan. She keeps the slim, to-go powdered teas in a drawer next to her office desk. During work hours, myself and other student workers congregated in the adjacent kitchen space making cups of tea. Lucky for us, my boss stocked a healthy selection of teas from oolong to rooibos. Multicolored boxes of each kind filled our restock cabinets during the fall and winter months.

This diversity and inclusion room was an ideal space during undergrad. It housed a refrigerator, microwave, stove, oven, and a connected lounge space. I hardly had a reason to leave after work, since the office space was a small, offshoot room. One could spend countless hours drinking tea and cramming papers at the same time.

My former boss sometimes pulled out one of her green tea packets and offered it to those of us on-the-clock (or if we hadn’t left after clocking out). Our compact office space brimmed with green tea. The scent hung on every surface – the bookshelf, the computers, the small circular table. I hugged my cup and held it near my chin. Savoring the long squeeze of honey, this cup of tea symbolized calmness simmering in the quiet moments.

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There’s a box of ginger tea packets in my kitchen’s cabinet. While I don’t have any honey, I might make a good cup of tea on this cloudy day. What’s your favorite kind of tea? How do you like to fix a good cup?

Post your comments below.

Unlearning Fear Post-Grad

I realized how indecisiveness and circumstances affect post-grad life. My newly-acquired degree arrived in the mail only weeks ago, and my self-esteem arrived at the scrolling log of Instagram. With two different options, I’ve placed myself in a bind that repeats toxic messages while looking for pathways on how I will start my career.

By now, parental and authoritative figures would interject how I shouldn’t stay at this confusing intersection. I might hear an accompaniment of pep talks, motherly advice, and overly-optimistic-possibility speeches. But — none of that matters right now. I’m here to juggle my developments in personhood and autonomy gained in college while reconciling with the past.

You see — I believe many young adults continue to hold conversations with their parents, guardians, significant others, and friends on “who they are” and “what they want to do in life.” My conversations are short-circuited. They fringe on fear (which leads to distant interactions). They gain traction because I overcompensate for the fact I believe I am not doing enough for myself (especially in comparison to others). Remember how I talked about Instagram? I realized I am happy for the mobility of others but itching for a chance to travel the world.

I am giving myself space to not know. I don’t know where I’ll live in five years. I don’t know what place I’ll work at first. I have an outline for the next six months but it changes constantly. I am giving myself permission to fail and do it miserably (without the pressure of graceful aspirations). I am giving myself this rut to raze the ground and tunnel so far into my roots that I can come back up stronger.

During my journey, I received these messages that I can avoid failure if I follow the invisible rulebook. A rulebook labeled as expectations I assume my friends and family have of me. I internalized the fear and let it permeate throughout high school, college, and now the slate I call – adulthood.

For all intents and purposes, I am sending this post as a negativity purge. For the indecisive answers, I am unlearning the parts of me beholden to authority’s (parental figures included) approval. I am unlearning the culture thriving on neediness and perfection. I am unlearning the internal copying mechanism which urges me to not create my own life.

I am here – fresh from graduation – unlearning what will not give me the space to grow. I am here – mature from the struggle – looking for my blade to sculpt my own version of womanhood.

A.G.

Finding the self in community

Before I began my undergrad, I pictured myself interacting with a plethora of people who looked like me. I aspired to meet like-minded folks, challenging folks, and lastly the people who would authenticate my identity. I hungered for the places where the word “minority” didn’t equal the number of people of color in one area. Needless to say, I’m still looking for my placement in the world and I’m not sure where it exists.

As I listen to podcasts like Therapy for Black Girls and AFFIRM, I realize how much I lack confirmation in my identity as a woman of color – a young black woman in college to be specific. I lack the space where my blackness doesn’t define my entirety, but I lack the space where I appreciate its uniqueness.

(Source: Clipart Library)

From predominantly white schools to minimal-diverse institutions, I had my share of feeling alienated. I became hyper-aware of the dynamics of my friend group, and I narrowed in on my need to identify with others of my race and ethnicity. Yet, at times I find that I’m at a loss at the intersection. Where can I assert my selfhood far as sexuality and religion, without succumbing to minimize one or all of those aspects of me?

For example, I find often that when I am alone, I can jump from hip-hop to classic rock, conservative mindsets to liberal alternatives, curiously childlike to affirmative and strong. Here’s what I’m trying to say. When I am alone, I don’t feel as if I can’t encompass more than one side of myself. In the larger society, I feel that I must submit to a two-dimensional version of myself without being labeled as “two-faced.”

(Source: Clipart Library)

My persisting struggles include classic questions: What does it mean to be black? Do I have to address every microaggression? Am I allowed to present multiple versions of me without feeling as though I am not in my community? Where can I feel as desirable, romantically-involved, and personality strong amongst my peers?

The takeaways I came away with growing up included my need to fit in. Beginning in high school, I produced this rhetoric that I had validity as the “nice girl.” Consistently, I presented sugar-frosted, theme-oriented cookies to my first-period class each holiday. Looking back, I realize the amount of detriment this had in my self-esteem (it was not the only case). I took every person’s comment of me as the final clause of who I was as a person as the years progressed. I trained myself to believe I needed the validation. It didn’t help that the high school I went to barely had any black people in it.

Even so, I am still faced with the idea of how I know black people at my places of work and/or institutions just not on an intimate level. I’m not obsessed with race. Yet – I am vigilant on the whiteness contained in my life. I am self-aware of the “performance” in my personality and how it is coded in being deserving or not deserving of my opportunities.

When I listened to racially and culturally diverse podcasts, speakers, and writers; I am intuned to my internal yearning. Without the proper autonomy in past self, I’m looking for the community that centers me. I am desiring that sense of community where I could destroy these boundaries I created for myself to perform whiteness. I am looking for the place where my voice exudes outside of me and not just on a page. I am looking for the part of myself I took for granted in middle school – where all black people called one another cousins. This is the same place where I was calibrated to the accomplishments and humanness of people who looked like me.

I’m out here looking for myself, even afraid of facing the young woman in the mirror who’s been trying to speak for years.

A.G.

Mission: Protect the Earth

(Source: donnelly/colt)

“What we’re trying to do is find ways not to just talk about how climate change is happening in communities, but work with communities to help define what solutions are without giving them prepackaged ideas.” – Eriel Deranger, First Nations

In an interview with The Riveter, an online magazine, Eriel Deranger declares that Indigenous women lead the climate change initiative. With the continuance of fracking on native land, Deranger’s words remind me of the abuse Indigenous pipeline protesters faced at  the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Across the map, Indigenous communities fight for the protection of the earth. Construction for new fracking facilities arose in Tacoma, Washington threatening the very environment where the Puyallup tribe lives.

Climate Change Talks

(Source: Indigenous Environmental Network)

On the heels of the Climate Talks in Bonn, Germany, indigenous people received some recognition for their efforts in climate change. With over 370 million Indigenous people in the world, native knowledge should be at the forefront. Eriel Deranger, First Nations  activist, explains how her efforts include movements led by women.

One of these efforts includes Deranger’s start-up – the Indigenous Climate Action. The coalitions’ goals will “fill the gaps between lived experiences of Indigenous peoples and the policies being developed to address climate change,” Deranger told The Riveter. On the coalition’s official site the following values include:

• Increase of community capacity
• Initiate climate change literacy
• Develop actions respecting rights and culture

However, The Guardian and The New York Times note that native communities should be at the table as policy makers. For Indigenous folks in the United States, this may take more difficult strides. President Trump plans an official withdrawal in 2020 from the Paris Accord. This comes as a hitting blow for conservationists who had a glimmer of hope based on the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

The 2015 agreement advocated that 196 collaborating nations would adopt: usage of environmental-friendly energy sources, decrease emissions, and limit increasing the global temperature

(Source: Pinterest)

According to Vox, four critical tasks will help the environment.

1. Nations utilizing resources to keep the global average temperature from rising two degrees Celsius.
2. The Paris Climate Agreement is voluntary – meaning the world needs responsible nations to follow through with environmental promises.
3. Richer countries need to reduce greater emissions, and assist poorer countries with financial aid. This
4. Efforts put forth will thrive despite President Trump’s withdrawal.

However, Indigenous groups and world leaders assert more needs to be done. Greenhouse gases and carbon emissions continue rising at dangerous levels. The next steps will take time and need thorough planning.

“The lessons aren’t necessarily about, ‘Here are the ingredients and this is the result you get,’ it is more about how to conduct ourselves in relation to each other and the planet. It’s about reciprocity, respect, and reverence. When you have these things you realize that it’s not about extracting resources, the way we’ve been doing.” – Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic. 

What’s going to happen next? Name your environmental-friendly steps or techniques below in the comment box.

Exchanging Fears Instead of Wedding Vows

Content warning: rape mention

(Source: Unite Virginia)

Around the world, the approval for same-sex marriage can cause LGBTQ+ couples abundant happiness. However, there are complications for South Asian Brits  looking for the same bliss. Some face struggles in welding family and personal life together.Many lack the necessary safety in “coming out” and/or pursuing a same-sex marriage openly with their families. Let’s look at a few of these pressures in the United Kingdom and England.

In my post, I will often use the acronym GSD (Gender and Sexuality Diverse) to refer to the LGBTQ+ community.

Past and Present: Attitudes on Marriage

1983 – People indicated an overall 15 percent approval for same-sex marriages, according to the British Social Attitudes study.

2004/2005 – Civil partnerships became legal in the United Kingdom.

2014 – Same-sex marriage became legal in England, Wales, and Scotland.

2016 – With a significant increase, the British Social Attitudes study reported an approval rating of 60% in the general British population.

Spanning from 2005 – 2015 roughly 140,000 couples married or engaged in a civil union.

Gay, South Asian, and Living in the United Kingdom and in England

(Source: Queerty)

Pavan Amara critiques the hassles gay and lesbian South Asian young men and women face when seeking partnership. Here’s the truth. Some individuals seek “sham marriages” or “marriages of convenience” which enact a protective, illusionary-heterosexual disguise. In other words, individuals marry an opposite-sex partner with the intention this action will appease familial pressures.

While some celebrate the access to having a same-sex marriage or partnership openly, others fear the worst from their families, communities, or outside homophobes. Real threats include physical violence, murder, and corrective rape.

Careful Living

Survival mechanisms vary from person to person in these situations. Some noted they created a fictional environment in their homes, where parents and/ or others would assume a spouse lives with them. These arrangements are made through marriages of convenience or forced marriages.

One gay man shared how strewn items of his legal wife were dispersed through the house; although, his lesbian wife lived elsewhere with her partner. The man stated, “I don’t have a boyfriend at the moment, so I live alone. But if anyone turns up I call her, and she’s here.” (Source: The Independent)

Individuals have gone as far as fabricating medical documents and disclosing the tricky situation with doctors. The assumption for a couple includes that one day the two will have children. Procreation, a theme found in various religions all over the world, marries the idea that two families are interconnected.

For GSD South Asians, religious scrutiny influences a great deal of pressure. Marriage of Convenience websites such as; Mocmatch, Saathinight, and Al-Jannah connect a significant amount of British Muslims and Hindus seeking partnerships. Tremendous planning must be interchanged between potential couples on excuses for not having children, and/or the role of their spouse in the home.

Double-Life Ensures Family Bonds

The outsides pressures we discussed affect some South Asian individuals down to the core of their identity. Jasvinder Sanhera, the founder of a GSD support organization Karma Nirvana, states:

“They would be totally ostracized and disowned…or they may risk significant harm or even murder in some cases.”

For individuals, who emigrated to the United Kingdom and parts of England, their native countries enforce much stricter laws concerning homosexuality.

Bangladesh: Individuals engaged in homosexual activity can face up to 10 years in prison or for life.

Sri Lanka: The country regards all homosexual activity as illegal, and does not recognize a third gender.

Pakistan: Imprisonment includes a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of a life sentence. The country recognizes a third gender (read: transgender, gender non-conforming), and this identification is protected by the Supreme Court.

India: In 2009, a ban decriminalized homosexual activity. However, four years later the country reenacted a ban, which includes life imprisonment for individuals involved.

The way I see it – GSD folks are limited far as freedom of expression, freedom of choice, and freedom of belonging to a family unit. We could argue that people create their own families, and are not limited to the biological-formed ones. However, let’s be real.

Depending on how we’re raised, the issue of belonging weighs on each of us differently. A lot of themes carry from childhood to adulthood; feelings of shame, personal autonomy, and our vantage point for the wider world.

From the articles about “sham marriages” in the United Kingdom, the message remains that many GSD folks live in the closet or at least have to keep a few extra clothes there – in case of the expected worst situations.

Although I identify as someone in the GSD community, my fears have not piqued at the level some of these individuals are facing. Do you tell your parents and close community that you’re not straight? I suppose that depends on where you are, your support group, personal stance, and understanding of the safety in your environment.

Solutions Take a Village

(Source: Redbubble)

Thankfully – people rally for justice and share their support for those in difficult situations. If you or some you know are in need of resources in the United Kingdom, consider the following organizations.

Disclaimer: I do not have a personal affiliation with any of the organizations listed, and cannot vouch organizations are safe spaces for those in the South Asian GSD community. Extended research should help guide any immediate or future decisions.

Naz Asia:

This organization offers sexual health services and information catered towards to the South Asian population in the United Kingdom.

http://naz.org.uk/what-we-do-at-naz/naz-asia/

Stonewall Housing:

A compilation of resources that includes external links. This organization works in providing safe housing for GSD folks.

http://www.stonewallhousing.org/about-us.html

 

What are your thoughts? Would you enter a marriage of convenience and why? How can we better support our brothers, sisters, and siblings in the United Kingdom (and everywhere – really)?

 

 

 

 

Tongue-tied in Pronunciation

Every time I moved to the next grade in school, I dreaded hearing my own name. Will my teachers and peers say it right? Actually, until freshmen year of college, I didn’t even use my Swahili name. For people with “complicated” names, maybe you’ve been in my shoes. If you have or haven’t experienced this, pull up a chair.

I am an impostor – hardly. The only language I speak is English. I believe every language including my own contains interesting vowel sounds and tonal inflections. Yet, as a child, I learned somewhere along the way that if I live in America I should make my name easier for other people. The attendance roll call in grade school would have run smoothly. This way my name wouldn’t stick out in a sea of European names.

Standing out brings better success, though?

Names in the Workplace

In a 2016 research study, led by the University of Missouri, employers do not focus on the applicant’s name as often. This indicates a possible shift from Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan’s research published in 2004.

“Bertrand and Mullainathan sent nearly 5,000 resumes to 1,300 job ads they found in newspapers in Boston and Chicago from fictional applicants with “very white-sounding names” like Emily Walsh and Greg Baker and “very African-American sounding names” like Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones. The names were randomly assigned to higher-quality and lower-quality resumes and submitted for administrative support, clerical, customer service and sales openings.”

Over the years, I internalized that easier names brought better access in future endeavors. When I applied to my first job, I put my actual name on the resume but used a nickname on the sales floor.

Name Changes and New Places

This summer I interacted with international students from Spain, China, Taiwan, Egypt and Turkey on a travel-work initiative, . They worked at an amusement park near campus. I couldn’t help noticing how some people had different names on their green plastic name tags. I thought whether students received abbreviations and variations to their names once they landed on U.S. soil. Or did they pick a new name like I did in order to fit in? There’s power in a name.

Have you used a different name at work, school, or other places? Post why in the comment section below.

Click here to see actress Uzo Aduba’s story on her name.

A.G.

Ink-side Tattoo History

You can get a tattoo in someone’s basement, a local tattoo parlor, or on the mountainside of a remote village. Tattoos symbolize individual expression to an indigenous rite of passage. Styles include 50’s Rockabilly art to intricate patterns found in indigenous stick-and-poke.

(Source: L to R – Gurl and Looking for Stories)

Depending on where you research, the oldest tattooing practice may have begun in the 1700s. However, Tattoos – The Ancient and Mysterious History (Smithsonian) date this practice back to female Egyptian mummies around 2000 BC. There’s speculation whether the mummies belong to an elite class based on their proximity to Luxor, Egypt. Other historians speculate whether the Egyptian females were a royal class of concubines, and adorned themselves for decoration.

The ancient female mummies may not be the oldest tattooed. In fact, archaeologists discovered a 2,500-year-old Iceman near the Italian-Austrian border.  With these findings archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians may need to reconfigure who our firsts are.

What’s the significance in our culture compared to the past or those from across the globe?

Ancient Egyptians and Iroquois history state their tattoos possessed healing qualities. Historians have found that mummies and older burials tattooed on their joints (e.g. the knees).

When discussing the origins of tattoos, I came across an interesting interview on the significance of tattoos in certain cultures.

Below, I have listed a commentary from Maori chief in New Zealand about his view on the Ta Moko being used outside of its original culture.

George Tamihana Nuku, a Maori chief in the Northern Island of New Zealand, relays in an interview with National Geographic News what a Ta Moko is, and how serious the Maori believe in its form.

Ta Moko, a tattoo (or series of them) are typically found on the face of Maori people. My understanding of tattoos overall is that they signify a special bond to a person, a place, or an event. For New Zealand Maoris, that’s a limp explanation. The Ta Moko expresses ancestry, connecting individuals to parents, grandparents, and ancestors long ago.

(Source: newzealand.com)

Non-natives who find the Ta Moko design intriguing and may want to adopt one themselves should pause with caution. Nuku states, “If you don’t live the things that go with it, then it is only a design. It’s not a moko.”

The Ta Moko tattoo unifies those who have one. Nuku continues, “The group owns you. You are the group and the group is you.”

I wonder if biker gangs in the United States would feel something similar – a group sense of belonging. Some could argue that Americans might initiate such groups or attain a tattoo for a sense of individual identity. Is this true?

Body modification in our Western culture might fuel tattoo lovers and artists to resound that expression solidifies (or influences) their identity. In a Harris 2015 study, 29 percent of Americans reported having tattoos.What’s the significance in our culture compared to the past or those from across the globe?

Tattoo Artists in the United States

(Source: Tattoospedia.com)

Friday Jones, a tattoo artist based in New Orleans and New York ,caters to a niche clientele – breast cancer survivors. Her shading techniques include nipple pigmentation and illustrative scar therapy. People have credited her for her ability to create a 3-D tattooed nipple. I would argue that her work focuses on healing individuals from within. She partners with the non-profit, Personal Ink, by connecting survivors with restorative artists who provide emotional empathy. This allows for a connection with a larger group of people.

Let’s unpack. Tattoos give people a greater sense of belonging or self-identification. This applies to commercialized tattooing as seen in parlors and establishing oneself in a culture.

 

What are the meaning of your tattoos (if you have them)? Post your comments below.

A.G.

Feminism, A Noun and A Verb

If we told stories generically, then how can we relate to one another? I enjoy finding rapport with the women around me. With feminism, a common ground takes time to find. More so, my feminism, your feminism, and ours blossom in many forms. We’re tilling the soil, but planting a wealth of various seeds.

(Source: Pinterest)

I am a black college woman who identifies as a part of the LGBTQ+ community. During my first year of college, I changed colleges and socioeconomic status. Whenever I enter inside spaces of women and people who experienced something similar, I feel a connection.

Yet, all these identities intersect. Under intersectional feminism, a term some feminists use, people need to understand how their identities weigh against others.

Kimberle Crenshaw, a UCLA law professor and race critical theorist, proposes how identity intersects. Although, intersectionality has existed long before a name was given to it, we will analyze its usage in Crenshaw’s 1989 seminal paper. As published in the 1991 Stanford Law Review, she expands on this in Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. 

She highlights how African-American and immigrant women faced discrimination in the early 80s and 90s with preventative programs protecting battered women. Interestingly enough, Crenshaw addresses how non-specific programs would not benefit women of color who also fit into lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

So what does this mean for women such as myself who tout Intersectional Feminism?

(Source: Artist Molly Crabapple)

For one, women are speaking their own truths on programs, measures, and actions that directly help their communities. For example, women of the LGBTQ+ community recognize how feminist movements may need more inclusiveness for transgender folks. Second, women of color may recognize how equal pay affects them differently when supporting themselves or their families (regardless whose head of household). Third, women may assert that financial support programs for education and housing need more say from the communities they affect.

All Talk with All Action

Eleanor Robertson, a columnist for The Guardian argues that the term “intersectional feminism” doesn’t enforce enough action. We can refer back to our earlier examples. However, she suggests that the mainstream culture; specifically liberal feminism, may pigeon-hole dialogue on our society’s misogyny of women. She addresses Crenshaw’s role in term “Intersectionality” today. “…Hers is not the last word, and her work has receded almost entirely into the background.” Crenshaw agrees that the term intersectionality took form in more ways outside of her original paper.

Intersectional feminism provides a necessary groundwork for feminists to build on; however, this creates complications. Within the structures of Intersectional Feminism, intersectional feminists strive for a similar goal creating equality for everyone’s identity. Yet, more stories are needed in the conversation. At best – this is not a single conversation but an ongoing one.

What are your thoughts: Do we need intersectional feminism? How would this type of feminism benefit (or not benefit) you personally? Post your comments below.

A.G.