By: Marilyn Dell Brady Writings by global women of color have exploded many of my assumptions. These women, and the characters in their books, are not the homogeneous, victimized masses that “Third World women” are sometimes stereotyped to be. Neither are they “just like me,” or would be if they’d only “progress.” They are diverse and particular women, each with her own experiences, choices, and perspectives. As a woman, I can empathize with their characters’ concerns over husbands, lovers, and children as well as with their involvement in events outside their homes, but their situations and priorities are simply not my own. Reading about them I can understand how limited my own sense of reality is and expand my own sense of what it means to be a woman and a human being.
My 2013 Global Women of Color Challenge and Blog grew out my experience reading books which these women have written. I created it to encourage others to read them and to make a place where we can share what we are feeling and learning. People can sign up at various levels: 1) Structured reading of ten books from different continents. 2) Unstructured reading. 3) Not committing yourself to particular books, but following the blog and entering relevant reviews and commentis. We are putting together a master list of the books we read and review. I am also working on an easy way for us to discuss what we are reading. Come join us at gwcbooks.wordpress.com.
Of course, global women of color may choose not to write about the women in their cultures or countries. Any author chooses whether or not to write about how race, gender, religion, and all the rest play out in the society they know best. Really good authors can write about a range of people and places, if they are willing to be sensitive and learn about them. Most authors, however, draw on their own experiences and can give us nuances and details that outsiders miss. That is part of the unique power of their writing.
More importantly, wherever they live, women of color bring their own perspectives to their writing. African American historian, Elsa Barkley Brown, suggests that we can “pivot” into the lives of others. We don’t need to become who they are, but we need to taste what their lives are like in order to honor and learn from their experiences. Books by global women of color allow us to do just that. We can learn to accept and celebrate our differences rather than fear them.
In the globalized world we live in, many women of color no longer live in the societies and cultures in which they were born. Their books often deal with immigrant and expatriate experiences. These women are literally and figuratively at the boundaries of the new and the old. As Gloria Anduzala, a Chicana raised near the boundary between the USA and Mexico explains, living in borderlands is often painful, but it provides an unique perspective. We can all learn from what authors from borderlands can teach us.
“Western” feminists (usually white, financially secure women of North America, Europe, and Australia) often seem to understand the need for their movement to address the needs of women across lines of race, class, religion, and nationality. Yet understanding in the abstract lacks any concrete information of the actual lives and provides little empathy for real women. Books by global women of color can help us fill that gap in our knowledge and in our understanding. Reading novels pulls us into the hearts and minds of diverse women so we empathize with their choices and honor the decisions that are different from what ours would be.
And the writings of global women of color are often simply very, very good. Seldom is learning something you need to know so enjoyable.
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Spinifex Press is helping the Global Women of Color Challenge by offering up five books for a give-away. More details can be found here
