Comments on CHICKS ROCK!: A Woman First

Fair point, Renee. I do think the lines become ver...

2008-09-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

Fair point, Renee. I do think the lines become very blurred, but I also know that there are many times when I've known exactly why I was being discriminated against. I have found that this is more common with Latinas than other WOC I have interacted with. Not sure what makes us so different...

I patently refuse to choose between my race and ge...

2008-09-24T16:55:00.000-04:00

I patently refuse to choose between my race and gender. I think the question is unfair to WOC as either way we are privileging a part of our identity of another. Both my race and my sex equally impact my life. In fact the lines are often so blurred that I am not sure which part of my identity is being discriminated against.

I define myself as a woman first - in fact, since ...

2008-09-23T14:51:00.000-04:00

I define myself as a woman first - in fact, since I'm biracial, defining my "culture" at all is sometimes a bit of a challenge for me.

But if I think about struggles I faced growing up (in white, suburban Indiana), I can easily say race was the bigger issue in my life. That was what made me different, what made me less able to do things like go out at night alone, or made me have to deal with comments and perceptions based on appearance.

Since moving to NYC, which is much more diverse, I feel my female identity much more than my racial one. I deal with comments from men on the street, which stresses me out, I worry in job interviews if I'm being offered the same rate of pay, etc.

I can more easily think of myself as a woman without qualifying it with race, than vice versa. Overall though, if the experience of one or the other has shaped me more, I think it is race.