Emmanuel Casillas - Blog Assignment #3

An interesting idea posed in Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thronton Dill's article "Theorizing Difference From Multiracial Feminism," is the idea that the umbrella term Feminism does not fit every woman. There is the presentation of the idea that women of color have been given a back seat in Feminism, while white middle-class women take the charge of running the cause. This is an interesting point to look at since one would think that because Feminism is a response to discrimination against women, then women in this cause would include any woman and allow her an equal opportunity to represent herself (and in so doing her ethnic background). In response to this a new form of Feminism erupted, Multiracial Feminism. It is also interesting to note that mainstream Feminism acts as a social structure, which is what it is trying to demolish. Feminism tries to promote equality and a destruction of all social structures that cause separation based on physical or ethnic differences. While it tries to achieve this purpose it forms its own social structure that separates women due to majorities and minorities, whites from all ethnic groups. One last thing to note is that in multiracial feminism even men are allowed to join. This point is noteworthy because mainstream feminism relies on empowerment of women through basically seeing men as the root of the problem. Multiracial Feminism allows any to join, and in so doing probably promotes equality in a broader sense.
A second article to look at is Audre Lorde's "Age, Race, Class, and Sex." In it she discusses how it is commonly seen as the job of the oppressed to teach their oppressors about what they have done wrong and how to change it. I disagree with this idea that is posed by Lorde. The reason is because when it comes to oppression there have always been those who are a part of the "oppressors'" group but who choose not to partake in their actions, due to their own personal beliefs. It is interesting that Lorde believes this because since she is black she knows that in the Black freedom movement many whites joined in with black in order to help them. These whites were not taught by anyone that it was wrong to discriminate, they just knew it because of their morality. Another interesting point that Lorde makes is the fact that recognizing differences between people of different race, age, and sex is not what is separating us, but rather our refusal to recognize the differences. She makes a good point because if we recognize the differences then we recognize that the ones with the differences are still people; we recognize that as people they have small differences and we can learn to accept them, as long as they are shown and recognized.
In response to Prof. Messner's question of "situated knowledge" and whether or not it is an impediment to judgement I believe that no matter how neutral one tries to be one is still biased. One can be biased in the sense that when a judge for example sees one of his race on the stand he may be more inclined to believe what he or she has to say. Since they identify with the person they might see a part of themselves hidden in that person. So they try to help themselves by helping the accused