yall know where the term women of color came from?
who can say that?
see we're bad at transmitting history.
In 1977 a group of black women from Washington DC went to a national women's conference
that Jimmy Carter had given 5 million dollars to have as part of the World Decade for Women
there was a conference in Houston Texas.
This group of Black women carried to that conference
something called a Black women's agenda
because the organizers of the conference
Bella Abzug, Ellie Smeale and what have you
had put together a 3 page minority women's plank
in a 200 page document
that these Black women thought was somewhat inadequate.
[laughter]
And so that's who formed the group called Black Women's Agenda
to come there in Houston with a Black women's plan of action
that they wanted the delegates to vote to substitute
for the minority plank that was in the proposed plan of action.
Well a funny thing happened in Houston
when they took the Black women's agenda to Houston
then all the rest of the "minority women of color" wanted to be included in the Black women's agenda.
OK, well they agreed, except that you could no longer call it the Black women's agenda.
And it was in those negotiations in Houston that the term "Women of Color" was created.
OK? And they didn't see it as a biological designation.
You're born Asian, you're born Black, you're born African American, whatever.
It is a solidarity definition
a commitment to work in collaboration
with other oppressed Women of Color who have been minoritized.
Now what's happened, you know, in the 30 years since then
is that people see it as biology now.
You know, like OK, I don't, and, and, and people are saying
"I don't want to be defined as a Women of Color. I am Black. I am Asian American..."
Well that's fine, but why are you reducing a political designation to a biological destiny?
That's what white supremacy wants you to do.
You know?
And I think it's a setback when we disintegrate as people of color
you know, around primitive ethnic claiming, you know?
Yes, we are Asian American, Native American, whatever,
but the point is when you choose to work with other people who are minoritized by oppression
you have lifted yourself out of that basic identity,
into another political being, another political space.
And unfortunately so many times people of color hear the term people of color
from other white people, that they think white people created it.
Instead of understanding that we, we self-named ourselves.
This is a term that has a lot of power for us,
but we've done a poor-ass job of communicating that history so that people understand that power.