Custom «Feminism and Women of Color» Essay Paper Sample

Feminism can be described as the collection of movements that aim at defining, establishing, and also defending equality in political stands, economic, and social rights for women. Feminism is also an act with the aim of establishing equal opportunities for all women when it comes to employment and education. There are incidences of the Black Feminism in the U.S. People, in this class experience sexism, class oppressions, and also racism. These acts are common in the U.S. where the women, especially with African-American origin and those of Asian origin, face discrimination in their land. It is with this concern that organizations such as Women of Color and Feminism have come in to try and air out these issues with the aim of reliving oppressed women from these injustices.

Feminism and Women of Color

The theory of feminism emerged from the feminist movements that aimed at coming to the understanding on the nature of gender inequalities that women face. In this research paper, the body is going to tackle and examine women’s social roles through looking at the experiences by some of them. This is based on analyzing five different books on feminism. Also, it will look at the progresses that women have gone so far in tackling the issues that oppress women in society. Feminist activists have been campaigning for women’s law contracts, property ownerships and also their voting rights. The research is going to tackle the issues on how bodily integrity can be promoted, autonomy and women’s reproductive rights.

Body

Feminism, feminist epistemologies and the feminist movement are playing leading roles to ensure that women of color are given free voice of their identities. These women of color include African-Americans, Latino-Americans and Asian-Americans women. The Women of Color have been experiencing severe economic and social discrimination. They are also the ones who are holding the worst jobs, earn the lowest incomes, and even have high rates of infant mortality. Thus, the introduction of multiracial feminism is recommended to address the needs of women worldwide for the purpose of achieving equality. The activities of feminism are being viewed by the women of color as movements aimed at ending chauvinist oppression in the society. It also helps eliminate the problem in political organizations of the United States of America and also worldwide.

The Language of Blood by Jane Trenka

Jane Jeong Trenka is the president of the organization called Truth and Reconciliation for the adoption Community of Korea. She was born in Korea, Seoul, and she was adopted in 1972 along with her sister by a white family in the rural, northern Minnesota. Trenka returned to live in Korea in 2004 where she became an activist on the issues that concerned human rights of adult adoptees, children, and also families. She later wrote the book Language of Blood talking about her life experiences. In her book, Trenka remembers the childhood insecurity that she got exposed to together with her sister. Her father was a drunkard who was used to abuse her mother so much that led to her adoption by a white family. This brought about mix of culture in her life when she could visit Korea to meet her real parents.

Trenka is also trying to enlighten the people through the expressions of how the women of color face violence in the American culture, and as she talks about Asian women being treated like property, objects, and exotic sexual temptress. An evidence for this is where the author is threatened by a man who even went ahead to break into her room, but her American parents took the matter lightly. It was believed that her white parent’s reaction to her issue were because of the stereotypical belief. The matter is made worse when it comes to the transracial exercises where the women of color are denied maternity blood. This causes many infant deaths; still, the women of color are accused of being irresponsible and also illegitimate for motherhood duties. In her views, women who are adopted are promised a better life ahead which always turns out to be untrue. This is because the women of color face unequal class limits with American women and also different social classes. The reason as to why most of these Korean women are victimized is because they lack adequate knowledge of their right and also have some inferiority complex issues with them.

Following this discrimination that the Korean adoptees get, Trenka is one of the key ambassadors that are advocating for the adjustment and improvement of the self esteem parameters in the adoption processes. There are measures that have been put into effect so far by the rights activists which assess the empirical processes. The assessment instruments deal with the personality tests, the racial identity tests, and also the use of questionnaires all aimed at monitoring and reducing the violation of Korean women’s rights. Trenka was also involved in the championing for the immigration policies on all Korean adoptees. From the light of Asian policies that were practiced in the United States, she advocated for some significant legal changes to be made on these policies so as to allow the adoptees rights to be neutralized (Trenka, 2005, p. 23)

In conclusion, the book expresses struggles and experiences that the women of color face in American land as a result of transracial adoption. The culture and stereotypes are some of the challenges that the women of color have to endure in their life. They are left on the mercy of feminism and activists like Trenka to try and struggle to overcome these injustices. When the world will get female activists like Trenka, then the problems those women of color face will disappear.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison comments that her purpose of writing the book A Mercy was exploring time before slavery was then identified with race. Her book has been reinstated in every conference sessions that have treated her recently written novels. Her portrayal of the colonies which later ended to be the United States is intricate since the novel was not only exploring issues of racism, but also gender, religion, and geography among others issues were also raised. A Mercy is one of Morrison’s shortest texts, but it is also considered as one of her richest books hence it requires some cautious and meticulous excavations in order to shed light on its complexity.

From this perspective of the book, one cannot, therefore, overlook the issues of race, but rather consider race among the interplay with many other social determiners, which are gender and the social class. In her book, Morrison insists that people should resist interpreting the term race to reference black-white relations, since in the colonial America, there were other people who were then subjected to some biological mayhem as well as painstakingly plotted genocides. From this statement, it is quite obvious that there is racism towards peoples' color, which includes the women of color in America.

This book in the current stage is used by the author to encourage specifically people who are victimized in the society. Morrison uses direct language to people like “Do Not Be Afraid” as a powerful message to encourage his readers that all is possible when people decide to fight for their rights. The title of the book, “A Mercy….” Is also one of the means that Morrison is trying to reach the people who are oppressing others, and thus emphasizes that all the people are equal, no matter of color and the origin. Mercy is reflected from the aspects of hate, violence, despair, and also betrayal. The author is also championing for unity since her vision in her books are championing against the visions that are turning into class operations, gender inequity, and also brutally activities in the current society. In general, the author is purely using her writing skills in passing the messages that are championing for more advanced visions in the society.

Morrison talks about identity issues in the last part of her book to the higher note. Mar Gallego-Duranas essay tackles the four key women characters in her text book, especially in considering the strategies they use to survive in order to adopt the overarching patriarchy that majorly restricts legal, economic, and social possibilities. In her book, Morrison states that all the women of color, especially those living in America, have endured traumas, but at times when they exist in equitable communities they thrive. This signifies that discrimination against the women of color affects the performance of bright and intelligent women within societies. In paragraphs of the book, Gallego-Duran insists that women should engage themselves in amplifications of motherhood duties, for the purpose of constructing workable places, or to some cases, destructive, understanding of self. In Morrison’s views, women should not sit back and let discrimination rule them; she encourages women to fight back through making their voices being heard, as that is what will set them free (Morrison, 2008, p.45).

In conclusion, A Mercy will continue to be taken as one of the wealthy books; thus, many people believe that this book can mark a significant beginning in reducing the issues of racism that the mixture of American dwellers has to undergo. The book also compels its readers to reconsider the American origin; thus, inviting speculations on the current political, social, religious and economic climate. This is a positive step towards ensuring that feminism and issues of women of color are brought to an end in the modern society.

The Dogs Came with Them by Helena Maria Viramontes

The author, Helena Viramontes, was born in the East of Los Angeles, California, in a Mexican American family. Her book Their Dogs Came with Them is the most recent, published in 2007. The book is acclaimed for its personal and complex characters, with its gritty writing style. It focused on the freeway construction of the difficult conditions that Mexican Americans passed through in their stay at the American cultural land.

With the aim of championing for women’s rights, Helena Viramontes writes about Turtle, a girl that is desperate to have the sense of belonging in a male dominated community, who goes ahead to disguise herself as a boy for the purpose of appeasing her brother who was a gang member. The girl goes to the extent of joining the McBride Homeboys in her pretext to appease her brother and even lives in the streets when her brother went to Vietnam War, but later, she ended up getting killed in these streets. Helena also writes a story of young six years old girl. Since her parents are of Mexican origin, the employment opportunities available to them do not bring enough money to support the family; hence, forcing both her parents to go and work. The little girl is, therefore, left with the responsibility of picking up her little brother from the neighbor’s house every day after she returns from school. The job seems to be much tough for her and she ends up getting lost in the neighborhood. Since her father had warned her to avoid the police at all cost, mainly because they were Mexican Americans, she avoids the police and does have an idea of what to do next and thus ending up in a more complex situation. From this story, the author emphasizes on the life that some people living in America are subjected to since they are of different origin. This goes to the extent where parents warn their children to avoid the police which is ironic; the police that are supposed to offer help to the citizens equally.

The author is also advocating for the justice of women. This is seen in the scenario witnessed where a woman lost her son called Geraldo. The main point comes in as the woman is referred to have come from a Latin-American country. She goes to the police station to report her incident, but due to her origin, the police does not offer any help in searching for her son. Disappointed and with no hope of getting her son, the woman is taken by her nephew to his home in the U.S. On one day as she was walking down the streets of a North-American city, she spots the little boy that she lost and decides to take him as him begin rightfully hers. She does not have an easy time with the police who came to pick the boy away from her by force without even listening to her. With no hope of any assistance, she decides to pour hot, steaming coffee to the officers’ faces hence bringing the scene to a sad ending (Helena, 2007, p. 21).

In conclusion, the author is trying to air out the injustices that the people of different cultures from the American one are faced with in their lives. These ranges from poor employment, lack of protection by the state government, and harassment of the police. Most parts of the stories in this book are focused on the East America where Mexican Americans were many, and relations between the people and the police were discussed. Also, covered here was the issue of employment where decent jobs are given to white people. In the North-America, however, the book focused on people with Latin origin and how they are not helped by the police in their concerns. This book is an educative book with the aim of trying to end injustices and racism that people face in America and of the world.

Critical Race Feminism by Ahn Hua

Taking a look at the Northern American contexts, many issues concerning races and ethnicities have been extremely lodged in the contexts of black-white dialogue, dialogues of tense relations on racial matters between white people and black people. The author is airing the critiques and the limits of the black-white discourse. She examines how the race feminism might complicate the issues thus adding value to the picture. Ann in her book urges feminist scholars to move beyond black-white if they need to open up feminist theories and debates. This will help them to understand multiple and complex shifting processes of identification and political affiliations.

With the aim of advocating for gender equality, Ann writes on the issue of Critical Race Feminism from a different perspective. According to her, when history is reviewed and compared to the current society, the second wave of liberal and radical feminists has still sidelined the women of color to feminists from women’s movements. A critical race feminist has passionately and inspiringly been writing about racism and classism that are implicit within feminist movements. Ann believes in the idea that critical race feminism may permit people to move beyond the common black-white discourse. Not all theorists that write on the race interconnections, class and the gender oppressions are the women of color. Thus, critical race feminism can allow all the feminists to move beyond the binaries of black or white through including those who cannot in any circumstance fit to the either side of the divide, hence making this action as one of the campaigns in reducing feminism activities (Hua, 2003, p.78).

The Author also emphasizes that when the dialogues are considered on the basis of black-white, they are bound to have numerous shortfalls. The white-black types of dialogue provide people with insights on race relations between blacks and the whites, while, on the other hand, it excludes other subjects that do not consider themselves as neither black nor white. Examples of such subjects are the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Filipinos, Latin Americans, Vietnamese, South-Asians, and other mixed races. The black-white dialogue fails in accounting for multiple processes of identifications and the political affiliations that people may have in their minds in relation to the societies In other words, the black-white dialogue have the risks of coming up with assumptions that black people can only identify themselves with the blacks, and the same applies to their white counterparts. Such moves are dangerous since they may fail in addressing the issues of how a black person or a white person may identify themselves positively.

In conclusion, the author has examined the critiques of which the limits of black-white dialogue that are common in American discussions on race and ethnic relations. She has also explored the contributions provided by the black feminist writers and also the challenges they experience in their binary black or white thinking. The black-white types of dialogue only seek to speak of the politics of identity, rather than the necessary politics of identification and affiliations. All these ideas and proposals are aimed at reducing the acts of feminism and racism.

Women of Color and Feminism by Maythee Rojas

In this book, author and Professor Rojas Maythee tackle the intricate crossroads that the women of color have to incur in their lives. The Women of Color and Feminism look at the issues on how women experience feminism, and also how the races and socioeconomics may alter the experience. In her book, Rojas explores the aspect of women of color through looking at the identity and how this identity relates to the mainstreams of culture and feminism.

The aim of the author in the current context is to reduce racism through featuring the profiles of historical women of color, such as Hottentots Venus, Josefa Loaiza and also Anna Mae. In these profiles, the arts and the visions behind the development of feminist movements that are built on love and healing perspectives are being championed. Rojas also does an examination of the intersectional nature related to being the woman of color and feminist. A range of topics that are related to the current challenges were discussed, namely; sexuality, gender politics, violence, stereotypes, and reproductive rights. The Woman of Color and Feminism, therefore, offers a far-reaching view in this multilayered identity (Maythee, 2009, p. 87).

In conclusion, the author is trying to emphasize on the positive effects related to empowering all types of races in the society. The author is also referring to the Black American women population as the one who contain exceptional skills as compared to their White female counterparts. This calls for the needs of bringing neutrality in the current United States community that might help in boosting the countries activities in forms of leaderships and investment opportunities.

Difference and Domination by Baca Maxine

The author here talks about the experiences that women of color face when it comes to the scholarships awarding. Beginning from the 1980s, the female scholars have noted great discrimination that the women of color get when the scholarships to the various services in the US are being awarded. The type of women affected particularly is the African American women, the Latinas, Asian American women and also the Native American women. Gender is also the principal sector that is unbalanced in these groups of women. The people of color have also been experiencing the severe economics and the social dislocations especially starting at the time of their arrival to the United States up to date. The women of color according to the author are the ones with the worst paying jobs, receive lowest wages as compared to the Whites, have high infant mortality rate, and are the ones who in most cases are victimized due to rape cases.

The women are however not sited back and watch everything take control. Instead, they are actively involving themselves in the slave rebellious activities, the American Indian wars, some labor revolts in the fields of mines, among other activities. Contemporary cases of urban uprising have been documented, whereby the women are reported to engage in resistance forms of activities. In Gilkes’s in this book, she illustrates the ways of which the black contemporary women community are working with the aim of combating racism and also empower the communities with growth and survival strategies. The Black women community is working in this strategy not only for survival but also for change and the empowerment of all the people who are termed as people of color (Maxine, 1998, p. 5).

In the general conclusion, all these books are interrelated in essence that they are presenting disadvantages that the women of color and feminism activities face in the modern world and how the authors are championing for the rights of the mistreated people in these contexts. The paper has presented the possible ways to frame race interactions and gender together in the context of addressing the violence against the rights of the women of color. The paper has analyzed the six books talking on the gender issues and even giving life examples that people experienced and are continuing to experience. Different ethnic groups have been discussed such as Mexican American, Asians, Latin Americans, and many more. Each group was discussed at a time in different books with examples stated. From all these analysis, the paper come to the understanding and suggests that it is indeed crucial to stop oppressing the women basing on their cultural origins and also skin color. They are normal human beings who can work and think as those of other communities. The work that the authors of these books are doing is to address these issues and that those issues should be praised and promoted to the higher levels.