Reading: Race and Resistance

7 thoughts on “Reading: Race and Resistance”

1. I really identified with some of the main points in Minh-ha’s article called “Commitment From the Mirror Writing Box.” I’ve never heard the term ethnic-feminist consciousness. The reading explains how women/writers of color are deeply affected by it because they are constantly divided and pulled into different directions since they represent many communities or “masses.” In a way they have a responsibility to uplift their community because it is not enough just to write for themselves. Also in addition it makes it even more difficult because they must use language, a system that “partake(s) in the white-male-is norm ideology” which can possibly lead to recreating it over and over again therefore, never truly challenging it (245). I wonder whether to create change if people should use the systems in place or if something more radical needs to occur like destroying those structures that way they can be rebuilt without injustice and inequality which seems difficult because firstly, people need to change. Our institutions are a reflection of our society. Furthermore she recognizes that the idea of writing for the masses is a difficult task because writing can be seen as elitist. It implies that everyone is literate. Literacy and literature is deeply intertwined therefore, it raises problems in communities of color because most people can’t read due to many barriers that prevent people from having access to an education. Lastly, I really related with the idea that intellectual activities in her case writing but for undergraduate students such as learning about philosophy, theology, etc., are not considered as “real work.” There are many students of color when they are questioned by their families and friends about what they are doing might hear from them that it would be better if they were earning wages because money is in fact tangible compared to abstract theories taught in school. Money is only a temporary solution that will never address the root problems but an education can do that. Minh-ha contends that writing is a “legitimate way to participate in struggle” (249). Although this is true, sometimes when families are dealing with hardships sometimes as children we want to help our families any way we can. For families of color an education is truly a privilege because not everyone can or has the opportunity to pursue one. It is important that we don’t let feelings of guilt or doubt deter us from continuing because what I learned about writers in the article is that we must be persistent. We will be rejected a millions time throughout our life but it only takes one person to say yes.

2. I really enjoyed the piece “The Poem for the Young White Man…,” Cervantes describes the perfect society where individuals write of love and childish memories, there is no hunger, and people are not consumed with greed. Cervantes exemplifies a utopia however she doesn’t believe the world or our country can be such a place. I believe her not to be a fool. The young white man is surrounded by his own race, never at the bad end of a joke or the subject to a racist remark. He is naïve and doesn’t know how it feels to be a minority. Cervantes does, she has enemies those who hate the color of her skin and make fun of her native accent. I also like how Cervantes talks to the white man as if he was in the room, telling him he doesn’t have a bull-eyes on his forehead, she does. The past and now the present one sees the racism that goes on. I especially love the last line of the poem, “but in this country there is a war.” I believe there is a war not of guns within the United States but with words. In today’s society racism has a zero tolerance but it manages to slip through the radar. This piece inspired me however whenever they talked of racism I thought of the male dominance that is in our society instead. Both are connected there is an oppressor and the oppressed. Overall I really enjoyed this piece.

3. These were both very interesting pieces. I can definitely see something in common between the way that both Minh-ha and Lorna Dee Cervantes use their writing to speak up and as Beatriz pointed out, “show a legitimate way to participate in the struggle.” I think that I have really come to learn through this class that writing is a powerful tool and really enjoyed reading Lorna Dee Cervantes’ poem because I think that the way she has phrased and arranged her poem really says something. The narrator starts off by saying that in her land there are only poems full of love and childlike syllables, which I think sets a very passive and easy-going poem, but as the poem continues, you can almost feel this strength that it begins to gain as it becomes more personal and visual, and when she says that the typewriter doesn’t fade out the sounds of blasting and muffled outrage, the true power of writing is revealed. As she begins to identify herself with the color of her skin and the poet that she is, she really personifies the poem. The title alone gives it much importance because the narrator is identified as an intelligent well-read person, but yet she always has “this nagging preoccupation with the feeling of not being good enough.” It really shows the ignorance of the white man contrasted with the reality that she has learned through her experiences and what she actually sees in her world.

4. Anzaldua describes literature and literacy as both being important and connected. She speaks that in Bambara’s beginning career as the neighborhood scribe is putting his skills in service for the community. This gives to show the two sides, those who can write and those that can’t but despite the fact that they might not be able to write they are equally important as those who can write. 
   I also liked Lorna Dee Cervantes’ poem and the connection I see between the two is through the line, “I’m marked by the color of my skin” (Cervantes, 5). A person of color is separated by race, in both its asking for a liberation of this assignment based on color of the skin.

5. To me writing is a love/ hate relationship. At times the blank page will be starring me down. Waiting for me to make the first move. If it is something that I don’t have an interest in or find interesting it will take me ages to write something down. On the other hand if its something that I like than its easier to get my ideas down. With the internet I think that it is a little easier for one to get their writing out there to the public. Like PubIt! by Barnes & Noble, one can upload and sell their work in just a few clicks. Well this makes it easier to get one’s work out there, I think the challenge is out of all the books that are out there, how will one’s book get read. I think the challenge is finding readers. One has to really push/sell their book to get an audience.

   I think that by starting out the poem by describing this ideal world really allows the readers to see the stark difference in the real world described later in the poem. She acknowledges that some readers may disbelieve her and conintues saying that she is the target of this anger.

6. Right away, from both Cervantes’s poem, and Trinh T. Minh-ha’s writing I see a connection that I’ve seen Chicanos of my age struggle with. The dealing with the clear physical difference of the privileged and the non-privileged is a complicated one. Like Virginia Woolf describes, “One cannot grow fine flowers in a thin soil.” I have had a few conversations with students my age who see the difference in struggles between generations. Although some may fight and complain about their parents, they understand that it’s harder to relate because they didn’t have to spend long hours in the field, or migrate through country borders and re-establish in an entirely new home. But it is not so easy as saying that my generation has grown in riches, because like Cervantes imagines in her poem, “I can forget about it when I’m safe, living on my own continent of harmony at home, but I am not there.” Instead she understands that although it is our parents and grandparents who faced constant criticism for being the “other”, it has continued. She writes, “Every day I am deluged with reminders that this is not my land–and this is my land.” It is because of this that we carry a guilt built from both sides and that working with the arts creates feelings of “indulging in a “useless” activity.”

7. Cervantes highlighted a key danger that Chicanos and blacks must deal with. Parents especially probably worry more about the danger of their kids being wrongful targets of hate crimes, simply because of the color of their skin. When Cervantes wrote, ” I know you don’t believe this. You think this is nothing but faddish exaggeration. But they are not shooting at you.(4)”, she nailed the difference point of views of the danger. People who aren’t Chicano or black can’t really grasp the lurking danger that awaits these two minorities at all times. Just like the Trayvon Martin killing, a person could just be angry with something a minority did to them in the past, so they take their anger out on an innocent person who has the same skin color as their past nemesis. Minority moms probably worry more so of the endless dangerous and unpredictable scenarios that their children must face in the world. The Trayvon Martin killing just confirmed their fear isn’t exaggerated.

   Minh-ha shows the struggle women who are minorities have to face if they are writers. It is easier for a white male or female writer to just be classified as a writer. Minority women writers however can’t just be seen as a writer, they are pressured to represent other aspects of their background. Minh-ha does a good job of explaining this when she writes, ” She must choose from among three conflicting ideas. Writer of color? Woman writer? Or woman of color? Which comes first? Where does she place her loyalties? (245)”.Minority women writers must decide whether they will write about their race, or talk about their own topics as an author, or talk about women struggles. Minority women writers, unlike white women writers are forced to choose what they stand for when they write. They unfairly can’t simply be assumed as an author.

Comments are closed.