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The Origin of the phrase "Women of Color"

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

Terms like 'women of color' are not just descriptions, but have political and ideological histories and current meanings. Here's a clip of Loretta Ross, cofounder and national coordinator of SisterSong -Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, sharing one of the birthing moments of the term 'women of color'.

http://www.sistersong.net
http://www.westernstatescenter.org
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Video Language:
English
Duration:
03:00
Radical Access Mapping Project edited English subtitles for The Origin of the phrase "Women of Color"

English subtitles

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