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Different People to form a Team against Oppression

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Different People to form a Team against Oppression

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I am a fat-bodied Black woman. I literally take up space. My Blackness, gender, and the intersection of the two take up space that is often denied to me in physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual spaces. The White supremacist, patriarchal society that I and other Black women exist within expects us to take up as little space as possible... but like I said, I take up space 😉

I am a doctoral candidate in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. I have awesome faculty, a caring partner, supportive colleagues, a ride or die boss, legit mentors, and kinfolk and faith networks who lift me up. All of that acknowledged, I would be lost without the communities of Black graduate women at UGA. They have been strength when I have struggled, peace when hell was bountiful, joy when I felt sorrow, and intellectual and emotional laborers when processing needed to happen.

My dissertation used sista circle methodology (Shoutout to Dr. Latoya Johnson) to examine sense of belonging for Black women in doctoral programs at a historically, predominantly White institution. Community with other sista-scholars was a primary source of connection and affirmation for participants. I talked to another sista-scholar, Marvette Lacy, who also used sista circle methodology for her dissertation about how to support Black graduate women on our own campus. We decided that we would start sista circles on our campus as a way to help Black women in graduate and professional programs build and strengthen relationships with other sista-scholars. We both loved pictures, as evidenced by our own photo shoots, and decided that we would host a photo shoot for Black graduate women as a sista circle event.

Marvette and I had a couple of purposes when we decided to host a photo shoot for Black graduate women at UGA.

We wanted to expand the networks within communities of Black women in graduate and professional programs at the university. Depending on which program a sista-scholar was a part of, she may be the only one or one of two or a few in the program or department. Marvette and I are in the College Student Affairs Administration PhD program where we are two of about 12 Black women in our program. Our larger department has several more Black women between master and doctoral level programs.

We wanted sista-scholars to see that they were not alone on that campus when we have community with one another. As noted in Point 1, depending the academic program, a sista-scholar could be the only BW (or Black person) in their program or department, but through relationships with other Black women scholars, they would not be alone in community with other Black women. We wanted sista-scholars to have a physical representation of the communities of Black women scholars on campus to remind them that they're not ever alone when in community with other sista-scholars.

We wanted to take up space on a campus that denied/denies us space as African people. The University of Georgia (and the State of Georgia) fought ferociously to maintain its racial exclusion policy until it was ordered to admit Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton E. Holmes in 1961. The legacy of racial exclusion, White supremacy, and tokenism of people of color remain today on the campus. Because of those legacies and history, we thought it important to purposefully and boldly take up space on our campus.

Y'all, we took up ALL THE SPACE! We had a blast that Sunday on north campus. We laughed. We slayed. We played. We loved. We existed. We celebrated ourselves, our brilliance, and our creativity. I posted the finished photos to my social media profile and sista-scholars reposted the images with their own captions. The following caption accompanied the photos' release on my profile:

"May our presence in this space remind other Black graduate women and ourselves that we are not alone here. We are each others' strength, comfort, joy, peace, encourager, and sister. May this physical representation of us be a testament to our collective and individual strength, courage, and agency to care for ourselves and one another. To the Black graduate women of UGA, our sista-scholars, who joined with Marvette Lacy and I to make this magic happen, thank you We invite viewers to post empowering quotes from Black women under photos (bell hooks, Andre Lorde, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Michelle Obama, Cynthia Dillard, Bettina Love, auntie, mama, sista-girl, etc.) When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. ~Audre Lorde# BlackFeministPraxis # BlackGirlMagic # CiteASista # SistaCircle "

Below are photos from the experience. Photos are captioned by sista-scholars' own expressions for why they wanted to be a part of the experience or quotes they offered for the project.

In the tradition of Toni Morrison who "wrote what she needed to read", we took the pictures that we needed to see (Thank you Daisy Hernandez for that reminder). Black women, take up your space. Take up/continue community building. Commit to fellowship. Commit to love. We are not alone when we have each other. #WeGotUs

In solidarity,

Joan Nicole (on behalf of Joan and Marvette)

Dedication

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the first African American woman to attend the University of Georgia.

Mary Frances Early, a graduate student and the first African American to graduate from the University of Georgia.

Photographer: Ronald Latimer, IG @cityboylife215

#CiteASista Co-founder. Religion and Spirituality contributor. Sista-Scholar. A friend who shows herself friendly. Your favorite Southern Black woman's favorite Southern Black woman. View all posts by Joan Nicole

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Taking Up Space: A Black Graduate Women's Photo Shoot as Black Feminist Praxis

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I am a fat-bodied Black woman. I literally take up space. My Blackness, gender, and the intersection of the two take up space that is often denied to me in physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual spaces. The White supremacist, patriarchal society that I and other Black women exist within expects us to take up as...

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I have been woman

for a long time

beware my smile

I am treacherous with old magic

and the noon's new fury

with all your wide futures

promised

I am

woman

and not white.

~ Audre Lorde "A Woman Speaks," The Black Unicorn

The words in this poem have been my guiding force for many years as Audre Lorde's poetry helped me to make sense of my life in profound ways. Her collection The Black Unicorn remains my torch and inspiration to be and become more. Yes, my voice matters, my survival matters, and I have a right to define and redefine myself. Audre Lorde has been my spirit/poet/intellectual guide and through studying her work, I have carved a place for myself in spaces never meant for me: "so it is better to speak / knowing we were never meant to survive" ("Litany for Survival," The Black Unicorn). And so I am here in the light and dark of her magic and fury, as Black queer woman writer-artist-teacher-scholar-activist-poet - daring to imagine a world where people of color can be human and free; dreaming revolution as sexual and spiritual freedom, gender and economic equality, and radical social change. I discovered the depths of Audre Lorde's work in college and since then she has been pivotal in my writing, teaching, and community work. Her writing exemplifies the complexity of feminist praxis and continues to be relevant and incredibly useful for feminist praxis and pedagogy.

Lorde's essays and speeches (from the late 1970s into the early 1980s published in Sister Outsider) remain seminal in terms of defining feminism and intersectionality, while also affirming Black female diasporic subjectivity. Lorde's theoretical work also provides important definitions of racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, classism, and other forms of oppression. In "Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Woman and Loving," she discusses these as "forms of human blindness" and "an inability to recognize the notion of difference as a dynamic human force, one which is enriching rather than threatening to the defined self, when there are shared goals" ( Sister Outsider, 45). Lorde goes on in this essay (and others) to challenge both the racism in feminist movement and the sexism in Black communities and the heterosexism and homophobia in both. In a number of her essays/speeches (including "Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface"; "Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House"; and "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference"), Lorde exposes the fears and silences that lead to what she calls "patterns of oppression." She describes these forces as inseparable.

These interlocking systems of oppression are defined and illustrated throughout Lorde's essays, and represented in her biomythography Zami and her poetry collections. I often teach Zami and The Black Unicorn along with her essays "Poetry is not a Luxury" and "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action." I bring these texts together in order to show students the importance of poetry for women of color, and at the same time, give them a framework in which to discuss the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. In one of my courses titled "Black Female Travel," I use "Uses of the Erotic" and "Grenada Revisited" as critical tools of analysis for literary texts. We read "Uses of the Erotic" alongside Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. Students make important connections between Black female subjectivity and sexual independence in both of these novels through the critical lens of Lorde's notion of the erotic. They see the sexual awakening in Celie and her same-sex desire as radical; they understand Shug's fiercely independent nature; and they talk about Lucy as a young woman taking charge of her sexuality in the context of her migration story. Lorde's essay transforms their understandings of these novels. We also read Zami and the political essay "Grenada Revisited," which complicates students' understanding of the place/space of Grenada and Carriacou that Lorde describes in Zami. Further, since we discuss Lorde's notion of the erotic, students are able to engage in the description of her emerging sexuality and same sex desire. In my introductory women's studies course, I use Lorde's work throughout the semester (her essays as well as Zami) to give students a foundation to discuss "intersecting identities" and to conceptualize "intersectionality." Lorde's work proves to be significant for a number of reasons: in terms of defining oppression; revealing the historical tensions in feminist movement; her theories of difference and the erotic; and the myriad ways she offers tangible and practical ways to speak out and create change.

It is through her prose mostly that I find Lorde to be an incredible resource in my teaching - her straightforward yet complex engagement with systems of oppression and difference offer students a language in which to talk about these issues - even when they "believe" wholeheartedly in this so-called "post-race" and "post-feminist" moment. Her literary work (poetry especially) can at times be harder for students to fully engage with, but I have found through teaching Zami in three different contexts and courses that students are challenged to think about identity, gender, sexuality, race, class, migration, social processes, and politics in radically different ways. Her essays and speeches give students a specific and needed 1970-80s context for understanding feminism and feminist debates at the time, while also providing clear definitions of Black feminist thought and transnational feminism before the term was used. I call her theorizing and literary work queer postcolonial resistance: an affirmation of subjectivity and sexuality that is decolonized and works to resist new forms of imperialism. I consider the work of Lorde in this light because of her defiant critique and call for resistance against U.S. hegemony and imperialism (when living in St. Croix particularly), while tracing their historical roots within the lingering effects of colonialism and slavery.

As I re-read, study, and teach the breadth of Audre Lorde, I am in awe of how much her work resonates - even as so many build on her work and new developments in feminist theories and practices evolve, Lorde's visionary praxis carries current force. I believe her work is still relevant because racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and heterosexism still structure the social and political fabric of our lives. She provides a language in which to define and understand how these systems work on a political and personal level. Her work remains a constant beacon for us to continue the pursuit towards racial, gender, sexual, and economic equality, particularly given the current backlash against women's rights and reproductive health and the challenges for queer people, trans people, and women of color. I see clearly that despite all the brilliant and powerful work of transnational and women of color feminist activists and scholars, we are still struggling for liberation in all (different) kinds of ways.

The revolutionary energy of Lorde's work not only exemplifies intersectionality for teaching and pedagogy but also offers a pragmatic framework in which to reflect on current issues and organize around difference. I have also used her work and words as inspiration in a variety of other settings: facilitating community events, leading workshops and seminars, and to offer public reflections about difficult issues on my blog. Her insights around violence were ideal for my International Women's Day reflection on 8th March 2009 focused on domestic violence and sexual abuse against women and children, I wrote about how different forms of violence are connected - domestic violence, hate crimes, sexual abuse, and homophobic violence. I thought about how much violence is enacted by men because of what they perceive as a threat to their masculinity, sexuality, or authority. I took time and space to remember how much domestic violence I saw growing up; how much we accept violence as normal; and how some can ask "what did she do" in cases of domestic violence. And I turned to Lorde's "Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface," because she called for an open dialogue between Black men and Black women about sexism, one that confronts sexism and racism in order to abolish violence in our communities. Published in 1979, this essay by Lorde is still very significant, particularly in her analysis of the connections between different forms of violence:

But the Black male consciousness must be raised to the realization that sexism and woman-hating are critically dysfunctional to his liberation as a Black man because they arise out of the same constellation that engenders racism and homophobia. Until that consciousness is developed, Black men will view sexism and the destruction of Black women as tangential to Black liberation rather than as central to that struggle. So long as this occurs, we will never be able to embark upon that dialogue between Black women and Black men that is so essential to our survival as a people. The continued blindness between us can only serve the oppressive system within which we live. ( Sister Outsider, 64).

While her context for this essay is the United States, her analysis is useful for other communities of color and postcolonial societies. In other words, her words ring true for me as I think of the Caribbean context and the Bahamas in particular. While things have changed since I was growing up, we still have a huge problem with domestic violence and sexual abuse across the Caribbean. Certainly, this is not only a problem in the Caribbean or among communities of color in the United States; in fact, we know that domestic violence crosses racial and class lines. But what I am pointing out here is exactly what Lorde argued almost 30 years ago: to discuss violence and the abuses that Black women experience must include a dialogue about racism, sexism, and homophobia within the larger context of white capitalist patriarchy. We still experience what Lorde describes as "the systematic devaluation of Black women within this society" ( Sister Outsider, 65); and I would include other societies and communities as well, in which Black women and other women of color remain marginalized (economically, politically, and socially). Lorde suggests that in order to stop the abuse, we must begin the dialogue. And we cannot accept some forms of violence and condemn others. In other words, we can't fight against domestic violence and sexual abuse and do nothing about homophobia.

Lorde's solution to the fears and silences which lead to / exacerbate various forms of oppression and marginalization is a real examination and recognition of difference and developing new definitions of power. At the root of this work, Lorde insists there must be self definition. In "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," she argues that members of marginalized groups must create new patterns of understanding difference in order to build coalitions and fight against all patterns of oppression - racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, elitism, and classism. Since Black people are also threatened by difference, Lorde says we must be wary of ignoring and misnaming difference; thus, within the struggle for revolutionary change and liberation, we must define ourselves outside oppressive structures ( Sister Outsider, 114-123). Her 1980 essay still resounds deeply today, particularly in the era of multiculturalism and post-race/post-feminist politics.

Lorde's theory of the erotic helps us to see how we can relate across difference, define ourselves outside dominant ideologies, and challenge systems of oppression. She defines the erotic as "a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings"; it is the assertion of the life force of women,* creative energy empowered and knowledge of our selves ("Uses of the Erotic," Sister Outsider, 54-55). And she argues that "recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world," (59); the erotic is fundamental then not only for women (as Lorde says) but also for those of us who experience oppression because of sexual desire, gender performance, and sexuality. As Lorde suggests, embracing the erotic is ultimately about creation and affirmation, and she genders this female: "For not only do we touch our most profoundly creative source, but we do that which is female and self-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society (59)." Perhaps calling for all of us (all genders and sexes) to embrace our inner feminine and love female energy. These formulations of the erotic are powerful and remain valuable for feminist criticism, scholarship, and activism. In fact, Lorde's articulations of the erotic can be thought of as a critical lens with which to inspire and challenge feminist and womanist praxis into the 21 st century.

Teaching Audre Lorde and continuing to study and write about her work has been incredibly sustaining and useful for my own feminist praxis and pedagogy. As my ancestral guide, Lorde sustains me and gives me the courage to create change in all that I do. I know change must begin on the ground, and that we must all take responsibility for creating and sustaining movements. But we also need to hold leaders and governments accountable. And we must hold those who do work in the name of "public service" accountable. We need to expect something better from those who engage in public discourse, especially the mainstream news. We need to break down the divides among what is deemed "intellectual" and "academic" and what is deemed "public" and "community" - these divisions only reinforce the hierarchies that already exist. We need public language and new (our) voices to talk about issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, and other aspects of difference. We need honesty and real dirty talk. We need people to be able to express their anger in useful ways and channel these energies into change.

Lorde talks about the issue of anger and racism in her 1981 essay titled "The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism" - her keynote address to the National Women's Studies Association Conference. Her theories about the uses of anger in an early 1980s moment in which Black feminist scholars and organizers were calling out white women about their racism can be useful for us now - given the lack of public discourse on race, class, gender, and sexuality. Lorde explains why her response to racism is anger, how it should make us all angry, and how we can use this anger:

My response to racism is anger. I have lived with that anger, ignoring it, feeding upon it, learning to use it before it laid my visions to waste, for most of my life. Once I did it in silence, afraid of the weight. My fear of anger taught me nothing. Your fear of that anger will teach you nothing, also. Women responding to racism means women responding to anger; the anger of exclusion, of unquestioned privilege, of racial distortions, of silence, ill-use, stereotyping, defensiveness, misnaming, betrayal, and co-optation. ... Anger expressed and translated into action in the service of our vision and our future is a liberating and strengthening act of clarification, for it is in the painful process of this translation that we identify who are our allies with whom we have grave differences, and who are our genuine enemies. Anger is loaded with information and energy ( Sister Outsider, 124 & 127).

My feminist praxis and pedagogy is loaded with anger transformed into language and action as I use and remix the brilliance of Audre Lorde. I make my space - my classroom, my courses, my community activism and grassroots work, and my poetry - sites of resistance. I dance in the magic and fury of Audre Lorde, laughing with her and walking with spirit. Giving thanks. I am here. I have survived. Blessed with the guidance of ancestors. Creating, Teaching, Writing, Speaking, Doing. Remembering always "I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is any one of you" ( Sister Outsider, 132-33).
References
Lorde, Audre. "A Litany for Survival," The Black Unicorn (New York: Norton, 1995)

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider (Berkeley: Crossing Press, 1984)

* Since Lorde wrote her essay "Uses of the Erotic," we have certainly embraced various ways of defining and understanding the category "woman" acknowledging its instability and the ways gender performance and variance complicate fundamental notions of both sex and gender. And so while it is clear in her essay that she is referring to "women," I believe we can also expand her use of the erotic to include multiple genders and sex. Hence, I insist (and have argued elsewhere) that we can use Lorde's notion of the erotic to further discussion of desire among male sexual minorities for example. My theorizing and rethinking of the uses of the erotic here is culled from my essay "Searching for the Erotic: Boundaries of Male Same-Sex Desire in Caribbean Film" - appearing soon in a collection on Sexuality and Eroticism in Black Film, Cinema and Video.

_________________________________________________________________

Angelique V. Nixon is an Afro-Caribbean writer, artist, teacher, scholar, activist, and poet - born and raised in The Bahamas. Her work as a scholar, cultural critic, and poet has been published widely in academic and literary journals, namely Anthurium, Black Renaissance Noire, Journal of Caribbean Literatures, MaComere, ProudFlesh, small axe salon, and WomanSpeak. Also, her writing has been featured in the book collection The Caribbean Women Writer as Scholar, the anthology Caribbean Erotic, and also on the blogs of ARC Magazine and Groundation Grenada. She is author of the poetry and art collection Saltwater Healing - A Myth Memoir and Poems published by Caribbean small fine press, Poinciana Paper Press, in a letterpress cover, hand-bound, limited edition.

Angelique holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida, where she specialized in postcolonial studies and Caribbean literature, as well as women studies and gender research. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Africana Studies at New York University, where she engaged in advanced research on migration and immigrations. She teaches and writes about Caribbean and postcolonial studies, African diaspora literatures and cultures, feminist and postcolonial theories, and gender and sexuality studies. Deeply invested in grassroots activism and community organizing, Angelique works with a number of organizations, including Critical Resistance and the grassroots healing collective Ayiti Resurrect (as a core organizer of their 2012 and 2014 delegations to Leogane, Haiti). Also, she is co-chair of the Caribbean IRN (International Resource Network), which connects community-based activists, researchers, and artists who do work on diverse genders and sexualities. She is co-editor of the Caribbean IRN's online multi-media collection Theorizing Homophobias in the Caribbean: Complexities of Place, Desire and Belonging. Angelique works through her art, writing, and community work to disrupt silences, challenge systems of oppression, and carve spaces for resistance and desire.

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The Magic and Fury of Audre Lorde: Feminist Praxis and Pedagogy - The Feminist Wire

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I have been woman for a long time beware my smile I am treacherous with old magic and the noon's new fury with all your wide futures promised I am woman and not white.

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"Intersectional feminism" is much more than the latest feminist buzzword. It is a decades-old term many feminists use to explain how the feminist movement can be more diverse and inclusive.

If feminism is advocating for women's rights and equality between the sexes, intersectional feminism is the understanding of how women's overlapping identities - including race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation - impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination.

A white woman is penalized by her gender but has the advantage of race. A black woman is disadvantaged by her gender and her race. A Latina lesbian experiences discrimination because of her ethnicity, her gender and her sexual orientation.

Intersectionality has received increased attention in part due to how the Women's March on Washington came together. The rally, which began organically on Facebook, was initially criticized for failing to include any women of color as organizers. Now its leaders include Tamika Mallory, an African-American civil rights activist and former director of the National Action Network; Linda Sarsour, a Muslim who heads the Arab American Association of New York; and Carmen Perez, a Latina activist who directs Harry Belafonte's Gathering for Justice. The march's policy platform is called "Unity Principles," which include the belief that "gender justice is racial justice is economic justice."
At 2.6 million strong, Women's Marches crush expectations
"This has been a conversation about feminism for years, but what we're witnessing now is a literacy, newer generations are coming to feminism and starting to understand how intersectionality fits within their feminism and how it can widen their view in a sense of how we think about advocating and shaping policy," said Syreeta McFadden, professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City and a writer on racial discrimination and African-American culture.

The concept was given a name in 1989, when Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor at UCLA and Columbia and a leading thinker on race theory, wrote a seminal paper on the topic.

Today, the term makes some people uncomfortable in part because it suggests that white women recognize their privilege and examine the ways in which that privilege can make other women invisible within the feminist movement.
Watch live: Women's March on Washington
"White women do not want to jeopardize their power or their interests, so now they need to ask what they will do differently to help other women," said Ruth Enid Zambrana, director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland and the interim director of the university's U.S. Latino Studies Initiative.

Intersectional feminism means not focusing solely on breaking the glass ceiling in corporate America, for instance, but in raising the minimum wage, as nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers in the U.S. are women, according to the National Women's Law Center.

"I'm a bit over how the mainstream narrative flattens the feminist movement to try to make it into the Sheryl Sandberg-identity of feminism," McFadden said. "Not to say that she didn't have ideas that were helpful and on point, but there is a class conversation that gets lost."

Intersectionality also means broadening the conversation around reproductive rights.

"Some intersectional feminists have been critical of framing reproductive justice claims in terms of a feminist demand for 'choice,' since choice discourse presumes that all women have the economic means to afford an abortion if they so choose," said Juliet Williams, professor of gender studies at UCLA. "Moreover, privileging attention to abortion rights over other reproductive justice issues - such as forced sterilization - can be seen to elevate a middle-class white women' agenda over other issues that are equally if not more important to poor women and women of color."

In the current political climate, some say the time is right to embrace intersectionality.

"Intersectional feminism is especially important right now as we face a situation in which many women are confronting multiple forms of vulnerability," Williams said. "In times like this, there is a real danger that feminism itself can function in an exclusionary manner by marginalizing less powerful and less privileged women and allies - the very people who most need feminism today."

Here's how feminist scholars explain the meaning of intersectionality in their own words:
Juliet Williams, professor of gender studies at UCLA
"Intersectional feminism is a form of feminism that stands for the rights and empowerment of all women, taking seriously the fact of differences among women, including different identities based on radicalization, sexuality, economic status, nationality, religion, and language. Intersectional feminism attends to the ways in which claims made in the name of women as a class can function to silence or marginalize some women by universalizing the claims of relatively privileged women."
Nancy J. Hirschmann, director of the Alice Paul Center for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Pennsylvania
"Intersectional feminism is the idea that 'gender' or 'women' doesn't just refer to a single unified concept: all women have a race, whether white, black, Asian, Latina, etc. as well as a class, ethnicity, religion, etc., and their experiences as 'women' differ because of those other differences. The different aspects of our identity intersect - white women's experiences 'as women' is partly defined by their race, just like black women's experiences are, it's just that it's easier for white women to ignore their race. So if 'feminism' is supposed to represent 'women' it has to attend to those differences."
Ruth Enid Zambrana, director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland
"There isn't just one 'feminism. There are 'feminisims.'"

"Intersectionalism is crucial. How do we begin to disentangle 'women' from 'African American women' from 'Puerto Rican' women from 'Mexican American women' from 'international women'?"

"White women need to recognize that gender isn't a single category. There is a need to acknowledge underrepresented women and domestic groups that have different histories and are at a tremendous disadvantage."
Alia Dastagir writes about media and culture for USA TODAY. You can follow her on Twitter @alia_e.

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What is intersectional feminism? A look at the term you may be hearing a lot

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"Intersectional feminism" is much more than the latest feminist buzzword. It is a decades-old term many feminists use to explain how the feminist movement can be more diverse and inclusive. If feminism is advocating for women's rights and equality between the sexes, intersectional feminism is the understanding of how women's overlapping identities - including race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation - impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination.

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Intersectional Feminism: What is it? | FACTUAL FEMINIST

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If you have wondered why there are so many millennials on campus telling people to check their privilege, demanding trigger warnings, calling people out for micro aggressions, and retreating to safe spaces, the Factual Feminist has the answer: Intersectional feminism.

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Black People Natural Hair Not Professional

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Black People Natural Hair Not Professional

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In the aftermath of President Trump's Executive Order banning entry into the US from seven predominantly Muslim countries--Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya--his supporters have hailed his initiative as an important terrorist deterrent while detractors have attacked it as a recruitment tool for ISIS. While there may be some truth to both of these positions, the long-term fallout of other pronouncements may be more far-reaching--affecting US relations with the 1.7 billion Muslims in the years to come and also shaping conditions in Muslim countries.

Before elaborating on the future fallout of the new administration's initiatives, let's list its many pronouncements.

Candidate Trump has often made disparaging remarks about "Islamic terrorists." To many devout Muslims, this was and is an insult. Yes, there are terrorists who call themselves Muslims, but Islam is a religion that preaches the unity of humankind, freedom and justice. The candidate's then national security advisor, General Flynn, was even less circumspect when in 2016 he tweeted "fear of Muslims is rational."

In December of 2016, President Elect Trump condemned the Obama Administration's abstention on a UN Resolution demanding that Israel cease Jewish settlement activities on Palestinian territory, which then resulted in the passage of the resolution. Yes, in the past the US had always vetoed such resolutions supported by nearly every country in the world, who view Israel's actions as illegal under international law. President Elect Trump also stated that he would support moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the very day of his inauguration. This move, apparently still under consideration, has allegedly not been carried out because of the possible fallout. But the damage is done. Muslims heard the administration's sympathies loud and clear. Furthermore, in support of Prime Minister Netanyahu, the new administration did not condemn the Israeli Parliament's passage of a law expropriating Palestinian land--this law represents a line that Israel had not before crossed and a line that even some right-wing Israeli politicians have seen as dangerous. President Elect Trump further alienated Muslims, and especially Arabs, when he nominated David Friedman, a vocal supporter of Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory, as the US Ambassador to Israel. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu is scheduled to meet President Trump. In the past, President Elect Trump made numerous pronouncements in favor of further strengthening US-Israeli ties. While Arabs and indeed all Muslims are watching, further US indifference as to Palestinian rights will only continue to alienate Arabs and most other Muslims.

There are other provocative initiatives that the new administration may be contemplating. One of these is the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Most Muslims would strongly disagree with such a designation and would find this to be another slap in their face, as the administration continues its support of oppressive rulers in Egypt and Saudi Arabia who back such a designation to quash all opposition to their rule.

While the travel ban on seven Muslim countries has received most of the attention, these numerous initiatives may do much more long-term damage to US-Muslim relations. Interestingly, on a number of occasions when the President has addressed the travel ban, he has made matters worse by casting the refugee problem, in part, as a persecution of Christians. Religious freedom is prohibited in Saudi Arabia (which is not on the President's dirty 7 list), ISIS has taunted Christians by its barbarous acts against non-Muslims to further divide the two religions, and Iran has persecuted Baha'is, but in terms of sheer numbers, it is Muslims who have been the principal victims of ISIS and other Muslim terror.

With all the attention on the seven-country-travel ban, the pundits have not taken up one critical fact: some of them allege the reason for these seven countries is that President Trump has no business interests in these places but has business in Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists, and in other Muslim countries not on the list; while this is true they miss the fact that the seven countries are not ruled by Muslim dictators who are supported by the US. This is important because the administration's anti-Islam initiatives, coupled with its support of oppressive Muslim dictators, will increasingly encourage Muslims to engage in protests against their oppressive rulers. The chickens will come home to roost the day America's dictator friends are overthrown.

What does all this portend for America's standing in the Muslim world?

A simple fact that we have said before: in all of the Middle East and North Africa, the US is most popular in Israel and Iran (see the results of Pew Surveys). Israel is understandable, but why Iran? Our hypothesis is that the US is not unduly distrusted in Iran because Washington has not supported Iran's oppressive rulers. Trump's rhetoric and travel bans against Muslims, his increased and overt support of Netanyahu's provocative initiatives and of oppressive Muslim rulers (who condemn and incarcerate peaceful opposition) will further alienate Muslims around the world. This alienation could be seen clearly when Iran's former President Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah were the region's two most popular Muslim leaders in the Middle East. Why? Because they spoke out against the United States and US-backed Arab rulers. But matters will not rest there. The broad citizenry in many Middle Eastern Muslim countries will increasingly protest against their oppressive rulers--rulers who are backed by the United States.

Sadly, the Trump Administration, instead of promoting reconciliation, may be unknowingly sowing the seeds of discord.

In the end, to be effective, US policies must appeal to the people of the region, not just to their rulers. There is one inescapable fact. Islam is the fastest growing religion. Today it has 1.7 billion adherents. The US has no choice but to forge better relations. Words matter, as do actions. Provocative rhetoric will only alienate. Blind support of Muslim dictators who do Washington's bidding will one day blow up in America's face. Blind support for Netanyahu's excesses will in the end hurt Israel as well as alienate Muslims.

The Trump Administration should set aside its perceived short-term national interests and do all it can to reconcile all people of the Middle East and North Africa.

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President Trump's Pronouncements -- A Wakeup Call for Muslims?

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In the aftermath of President Trump's Executive Order banning entry into the US from seven predominantly Muslim countries--Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya--his supporters have hailed his initiative as an important terrorist deterrent while detractors have attacked it as a recruitment tool for ISIS.

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north carolina transgender law: opposing views - cnn

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North Carolina transgender law: Is it discriminatory?

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When it comes to a controversial new transgender law that's turning national attention toward North Carolina, Paul Stam and Candis Cox don't see eye to eye.