I really learned a lot from this article about feminism. I didn’t say black feminism because apart from race, the article brings about idea that is bigger than that, it’s helpful for just feminism. The author’s idea of an “organic pheminism” really interests me. The passage he explained it particularly drew my attention. “To answer the questions I posted earlier…and grow within and out of us.”
The first thing that comes to my mind when I saw this, was that this was a new vocabulary that I’d never encounter before, I’d better remember it. Then as a read on, I understand the author’s intention to distinguish this concept from the traditional feminism as a definition of the same root but different conditions—the concept we learn from women around us and can be perceived and understood by anyone, not only limited to women, and at the same time as opposed to the academic debate concept or “the pointless perspectives of prideful pontification.”(I couldn’t find better ways to put it, so I quote the original phrase) Too often, there are feminists who use this term as an unnecessary reason of pride to justify themselves because of the inequality that still exits after hundreds of years of endeavor that hurt them too deep. (And I found out myself to be one of them because of my situation too). But the author manage to bring about this new concept that build on facts and true experiences of women around us and look at the issue in a more objective way actually addresses the problem in a more powerful way.
About one aspect of the topic of the article, “colored women” or to make my point clearer, “colored people”, really strike me that merely defining people that are not “white” as colored are offensive enough because this only proves people’s, and I mean everybody who agrees to this term, subconsciously narrow understanding of only the “white” people are the right skin color of mankind and other’s are not so that they are called “colored” is absurd enough. To put it another way, what if the “black” or “yellow” skin color is the dominant racial color in the society and is considered the supposed color of human being? Then we will have no choice but to call the “white” people and the other group left colored. Nobody is the pure color of any color; nobody is the supposed “right” color of human being, so nobody else should be called “colored”. The name-calling is simply prejudiced enough in my opinion. I could be wrong, so I really welcome anyone who wants to discuss it with me. This whole conversation of color is still fresh to me since I just moved to the states this year, so please don’t feel offended because of my naive and superficial interpretation because that is never my intention. Thank you very much for your time!
I agree that the term “colored people” is problematic because it originated from positioning non-Whites as “the Other.” Even the term “non-White” implies Otherness. One of the reasons black “pheminism” came into being is because White women assumed that their experience of being a woman was THE experience. Because of terms like “colored people,” White situates itself as the “default race,” so White women (and men) often do not recognize their own Whiteness. Thus, they rarely consider the nuances of the White experience versus the experiences of other races–hence, the birth of “pheminism.” This is unfortunate because the feminist movement could be stronger if we united for the same cause instead of segregating based on our own racial needs and unique experiences.
When I talk to students in the classroom about race, we often discuss these terms, and I make sure to speak about my own Whiteness when relevant so students see it as another race and not “the default.”