It has been decades since women of color first turned feminism upside down, exposing the ‘70s feminist movement as exclusive, white, and unaware of the concerns and issues of women of color from around the globe. Now a new generation of brilliant, outspoken women of color is speaking to the concerns of a new feminism, and to their place in it. Daisy Hernandez of Ms. magazine and poet Bushra Rehman have collected a diverse, lively group of emerging writers who speak to their experience—to the strength and rigidity of community and religion, to borders and divisions, both internal and external—and address issues that take feminism into the twenty-first century. One writer describes herself as a “mixed brown girl, Sri-Lankan and New England mill-town white trash,” and clearly delineates the organizing differences between whites and women of color: “We do not kick ass the way the white girls do, in meetings of NOW or riot grrl. For us, it’s all about family.” A Korean-American woman struggles to create her own identity in a traditional community: “Yam-ja-neh means nice, sweet, compliant. I’ve heard it used many times by my parents’ friends who don’t know shit about me.” An Arab-American feminist deconstructs the “quaint vision” of Middle-Eastern women with which most Americans feel comfortable. This impressive array of first-person accounts adds a much-needed fresh dimension to the ongoing dialogue between race and gender, and gives voice to the women who are creating and shaping the feminism of the future.
Colonize This!
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Ms. magazine columnist Hernandez and former Muslim poet Rehman, both feminist activists, have assembled a broad collection of essays by young women writers, academics, and activists from a range of cultures and sexual orientations. A few essays have a very specialized focus, describing such experiences as a Chicana with HIV and a Native American woman participating in the typically male War Dance ceremony. More often the contributors look more generally at their lives and families and consider how these experiences have influenced their understanding of feminism. Several writers critique "white, middle class feminism" for failing to take into account the impact of classism and racism on women of color. One essay discusses the impact of gentrification on poor, single mothers; another tells of the author's immigrant mother turning to sex work to support her daughters. Cultural and religious customs are discussed by a Nigerian woman who comes to the United States for college and by an Indian American woman who is expected to pursue an arranged marriage. These are very personal, interesting, and readable essays. Recommended for large public and academic libraries. JDebra Moore, Cerritos Coll., Norwalk, CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Daisey Hernandez and Bushra Rehman, self-described as a "Catholic Cuban-Colombian girl from New Jersey" and a "Pakistani Muslim girl from Queens," offer various perspectives--their own and others--of life lived as young feminists of color, exploring commonalities and cultural differences and examining macho cultures and American capitalism. The collection takes its title from an essay by Cristina Tzintzun, whose Mexican mother and white father personified the colonial experience. The essays explore four major themes: family and community; mothers; cultural customs; and talking back to white feminists, men, mothers, liberals, and others. These women express a more radical, racialized feminism that broadens the movement beyond its early incarnation. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One day, after four months working in a largely white-staffed major chain bookstore, I discovered this book on the shelf. By the end, I was left wishing I had been able to submit a piece and hoping that I would one day find these other women.
I was excited to see the inclusion of American Indian women; we are all too often tossed aside- not only by anti-Indianist mainstream society, but by other people of color themselves. Hernandez' book is not only hers, not only the contributors', but all women of color's. These are individual voices of passionate and determined women of color, which are the real voices of feminism today, not the pedagogical discourse with which all women's studies majors are bombarded.
I enjoyed the stories of other queer women of color. I do not believe that these should be difficult to understand or relate to by straight women, after all, are not all queer women forced by society to understand the stories and trials of heterosexuality? I applaud Hernandez, not only for including the stories of queer women of color, but celebrating them as well.
At the United States Student Association, when someone calls "Holla Back," the room resounds with "I've got your back!" To all the women of color in the world- the editor and contributors of this book have got yours.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
After reading colonize this I was filled with a sense of all the possibilities of life, a sense of courage and a feeling that being a woman of color was not a life-sentence. Instead the women who wrote in this book made me feel that I didn't have to fit into someone else's mold of what it was I should be. Instead I could choose to love and live and learn the way that I felt was right what my heart told me.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Colonize This will make some readers uncomfortable to the contributors' honesty and in some cases anger. The various entries bring race to the center stage and this in itself will cause some readers to shift uncomfortably as they re-think their own particular privilege.
This book is ideal in a women's studies classroom or ethnic studies, english, or sociology. I think the book would be best served by also reading _This Bridge Called My Back_, since so many of the contributors refer to _Bridge_ as causing their "click" of feminism.
Colonize This isn't your typical academic tome, but a personal (and political) book that should cause some lively debate.
This book is ideal in a women's studies classroom or ethnic studies, english, or sociology. I think the book would be best served by also reading _This Bridge Called My Back_, since so many of the contributors refer to _Bridge_ as causing their "click" of feminism.
Colonize This isn't your typical academic tome, but a personal (and political) book that should cause some lively debate.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good read
Bought this on the recommendation of a friend who read this as part of a women studies course. Good reading - interesting stories.
Published 2 months ago by RNRemie
1.0 out of 5 stars
Odd
I went to the library to check this one out after reading one of her articles on the internet attacking white people. Read more
Published on January 13, 2011 by Joseph
5.0 out of 5 stars
Need for pre-reading
I would suggest that those who have rated this book poorly may want to start with "Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America"
Published on December 1, 2010 by lesmom
1.0 out of 5 stars
Where is the balance?
I guess the book should really have been called "Whites not Allowed"? Where is the book "White Women on Today's Feminism"?
Published on November 19, 2010 by Deckard
5.0 out of 5 stars
In response to 'racist'
Initially, I wanted to respond to the person who wrote 'racist' to say, that he's an ignorant idiot; particularly for his unexamined complicity in affirming the oppressive hegemony... Read more
Published on December 10, 2006 by I. Dolido
5.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling Third Wave feminist, multiracial, youth anthology
"Colonize This!" is a thought-provoking, important Third Wave feminist youth of color reader powerfully documenting the myriad ways that the politics of gender, race, class,... Read more
Published on April 20, 2006 by wildflowerboy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thinking and Racism
To think about racism is to be thoughtful. To be thoughtful is to be engaged in the process of learning. To refuse to reflect on and examine your belief systems is to be ignorant.
Published on October 27, 2004 by Renee Airington
4.0 out of 5 stars
In response to "racist"
In response to the last reviewer, it is always interesting how the very people who perpetuate racism and the oppression of people of color are the first to denouce as 'racist' any... Read more
Published on July 11, 2004 by C. Sniffen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hope for a new radical feminism
Antonio Gramsci once said "we are forced into an interregnum in which the old is dying and new cannot yet be born". 'Colonize This!...' is the new being born. Read more
Published on February 27, 2003 by LastAngelofHistory.org
3.0 out of 5 stars
gives good insight
The book contains a collection of various females from differened colored backgrounds and their distinct views on feminism. Read more
Published on January 12, 2003
