Born out of frustration about the near complete lack of dialogue or scholarship on identifying both as a mixed race person and a feminist, this blog was created as a way for me to share my personal thoughts on living in a society which still relies on old conceptions of race as being dependent on skin color classifications and continues to treat women as the "Second Sex" despite the enormous progress made in terms of gender equality.
I am multi-racial (African, Asian and European ancestries) and I am a feminist. Actually, I have been a feminist longer than I have proclaimed my mixed race identity (details to follow in another post). In fact, it was my personal journey into feminism that eventually gave me the courage to identify as mixed race (but not without a great deal of resistance and backtracking - more later).
I am a scholar who teaches in a Women and Gender Studies program and also teaches African American history. In essence, I live the life of a mixed race feminist on a daily basis as I confront sexism, racism and intra-racial discrimination in my work as a professor and in my personal life. I see it as my duty as a scholar to "complicate master narratives" about race and gender in our society.
I don't think all white people are bad or all black folks are hatin' on me because of my light skin. I don't think men are any smarter than women but I do think women's indulgence in 'raunch culture' (to quote Female Chauvinist Pigs author, Adrienne Levy) is contributing to hastening the backlash against feminism and all the gains women have made since the 1960's. In other words, I think questions of identity are fluid, complex and requires us to be introspective instead of reactionary.
This blog will be part personal diary, part academic analysis, with a smidgen of sarcasm, brute honesty and utter insanity for good measure. Questions? Email me at drnicol1922@gmail.com
The Mixed Race Feminist
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