[emailed to woc listserve after the conference]
Our conversations from the women of color conference prompted me to turn to THIS BRIDGE CALLED MY BACK: WRITINGS BY RADICAL WOMEN OF COLOR, the first anthology of it's kind at when it initially came out in 1981, a collection of poetry short stories and essays that remain relevant to us now, since it's 2001 re-release.
The following quote came from an essay by one of the co-editors, Cherrie Morage, a Chicana lesbian poet, playwright, writer, and activist:
"In this country, lesbianism is a poverty - as is being brown, as is being a woman, as is being just plain poor. The danger lies in ranking the oppressions. The dangers lies in failing to acknowledge the specificity of the oppression. The danger lies in attempting to deal with oppression purely from a theoretical base. Without an emotional, heartfelt grappling with the source of our own oppression, without naming the energy within ourselves and outside of us, no authentic, non-hierarchical connection among oppressed groups can take place...
"But one voice is not enough, nor two, although this is when dialogue begins. It is essential that radical feminism confronts their fear of and resistance to each other, because without this there will be no bread on the table. Simply, we will not survive. If we make this connection in our heart of hearts, that if we are serious about a revolution - better - if we seriously believe there should be joy in our lives (real joy, not just "good times" then we need one another. We women need each other. Because my/your solitary, self-asserting "go-for-the-throat-of-fear" power is not enough. The real power, as you and I well know, is collective. I can't afford to be afraid of you, nor you of me. If it takes head-on collisions, let's do it: this polite timidity is killing us...
"As Lorde suggests in the passage I cited earlier, it is in looking to the nightmare that the dream is found. There, the survivor emerges to insist on a future, a vision, yes, born out f what is dark and female. The feminist movement must be a movement of such survivors, a movement with a future (26)."
peace in struggle.
05.27.03
- cherrie moraga