Feminism, Multiracial

Feminism, Multiracial CHERESE D. CHILDERS-MCKEE and SILVIA C. BETTEZ University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA

Women of color have, for decades, challenged theories that separated discussions of race and gender and actively confronted mainstream (white, middle-class) feminists’ discomfort with discussions of racial power differences. Although women of color were engaged in activism during the first, second, and third “waves” of feminism, much of their scholarly work was dismissed and overlooked by mainstream feminists (Thompson 2002). Multiracial feminism, a movement started in the 1970s and led by US-based women of color, explicitly links equity for women with the need to understand how race operates as an interlocking power system with gender inequity and other forms of oppression (Zinn and Dill 1996). Multiracial feminism foregrounds a discussion of racism, colonialism, imperialism, and sexism, and problematizes the mainstream feminist idea of gender unity—the belief that all women have a common set of experiences. Instead, multiracial feminists centralize racial stratification in theories of gender oppression. Multiracial feminists, also known by some as third-world feminists, acknowledge the fluidity and constructedness of race, gender, and nation categories, therefore creating transnational, cultural, racial alliances based in a shared struggle against race, class, and gender oppression (Mohanty 1991). As early as the late 1960s, women of color in the United States confronted marginalization and racism in mainstream national

women’s organizations as well as sexism in mixed-gender organizations. While continuing to work within these organizations, women of color also formed separate coalitions of their own such as the Third World Women’s Alliance, Hijas de Cuauhtemoc, Asian Sisters, Women of All Red Nations, and Combahee River Collective (Thompson 2002). While some scholars locate the origins of multiracial feminism within the second and third waves of feminism, others contend that the “wave” metaphor works to marginalize and conceal the ways in which the race and gender activism of women of color has developed alongside and influenced mainstream feminism (Springer 2002). Therefore, multiracial feminism should not be seen as an add-on to mainstream feminism; rather, it developed simultaneously and has directly influenced discussions of diversity in second-wave feminism as well as the political awakening of women in third-wave feminism (Snyder 2008). The anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Moraga and Anzaldúa 1981)—written by and for black, Latina/Chicana, Native American, and Asian American women—is considered a cornerstone of multiracial feminism. Historically, multiracial feminists have straddled a border between striving to name particular race-based feminist issues and working to not be essentialized. While writing in solidarity with each other, group-specific issues were simultaneously brought to the fore through scholarship and activism. African American multiracial feminists frequently illuminated stereotypical positionings of black women’s bodies (as matriarchical and hypersexualized, etc.) used to justify

The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, First Edition. Edited by John Stone, Rutledge M. Dennis, Polly S. Rizova, Anthony D. Smith, and Xiaoshuo Hou. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118663202.wberen234

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oppressive practices. Asian American women documented the role of US military in sexual abuse and general stereotypes of Asian women as passive and exotic. Latinas/ Chicanas often highlighted immigration issues, challenged patriarchal gender roles, and critiqued binary (black/white) conceptions of racial politics. Native women concentrated on sovereignty and land rights, genocide, sterilization, and cultural exploitation. White antiracist feminists, considering themselves multiracial feminists as well, worked in solidarity with women of color in antiracist, anti-imperialist organizations and movements. This scholarship and activism inherently highlights connections between race and gender oppression; however, women of color have also written specifically about these intersections. Particularly noteworthy is black feminist Patricia Hill Collins’s (1991) concept of “the matrix of domination,” explaining that various forms of privilege (e.g., race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation) always exist in relation to each other, intersecting in complex, powerful ways. Intersectional analysis (Crenshaw 1989) is now deemed crucial in most feminist work. Additionally, the voices of women of color have expanded to more prominently include the voices of Arab Americans, South Asian/Indian Americans, Muslim Americans of various ethnicities, and multiracial people. Mainstream feminism has become more inter- and transnational through the influences of multiracial feminism. With the rise in postmodern theory, “third-wave” feminists foreground intersectional narratives and embrace multivocality (Snyder 2008); as such, the term “multiracial feminism” is diminishing given the growing assumption that feminism should inherently incorporate analyses of various structures of power, including race. Although standpoint theory writings by women of color and antiracist white feminists continue, many

women of color feminist writers are resisting such self-naming. Puar’s (2012) latest work on assemblage deprivileges the human body. While intersectionality emphasizes patterns and grids, assemblage, with its focus on intricate configurations of self, makes defining a standpoint difficult if not impossible. Keeping concepts of intersectionality and assemblage in tension with each other might, Puar argues, help us better understand power relationships. SEE ALSO: Black Feminist Thought; Immigrant Smuggling; Immigrant Women; Intersectionality

REFERENCES Collins, Patricia Hill. 1991. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge. Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989: 139–67. Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1991. “Introduction: Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.” In Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, edited by Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, 1–47. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Moraga, Cherríe and Gloria Anzaldúa. 1981. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Watertown, MA: Persephone. Puar, Jasbir K. 2012. “‘I Would Rather Be a Cyborg Than a Goddess’: Becoming-Intersectional in Assemblage Theory.” philoSOPHIA: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 2(1): 49–66. Snyder, R. Claire. 2008. “What Is Third-Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay.” Signs 34(1): 175–96. Springer, Kimberly. 2002. “Third Wave Black Feminism?” Signs 27(4): 1059–82. Thompson, Becky. 2002. “Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism.” Feminist Studies 28(2): 337–60.

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Zinn, Maxine Baca and Bonnie Thornton Dill. 1996. “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism.” Feminist Studies 22(2): 321–31.

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FURTHER READING Anzaldúa, Gloria and AnaLouise Keating. 2002. This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. New York: Routledge.