GLOSSARY  

 

Affirmative Action:Nancy Maclean’s article, “The Hidden History of Affirmative Action” quotes Hodson and Sullivan’s work that defines affirmative action as “A program designed to place women and minorities in jobs which they are underrepresented...an attempt to compensate for past discrimination through hiring goals, preferential consideration among otherwise equal candidates or active recruitment of women or minority workers (The Social Organization of Work by Randy Hodson and Teresa Sullivan, 112). Maclean talks about affirmative action programs making requirements equal so women can get into jobs that they were once denied.(JC)
 

“A policy or a program that seeks to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through active measures to ensure equal opportunity, as in education and employment”(The American Heritage Dictionary 2000). (LC) 
 

Amalgamation:“The mixing or blending of different elements, races, societies, etc.; also the result of such combination or blending; a homogeneous union” (dictionary.com).(SB)

In “The Construction of Asian American” Nazli Kibria writes “The second generation immigrant experience has traditionally been understood in the U.S. as one that is driven by the forces of assimilation, which pull immigrants towards amalgamation into the dominant, white middle-class sectors of society” (Kibria, 524).(AS)

 

Ambivalence:“Simultaneous and contradictory attitudes and feelings (as attraction and repulsion) toward an object, person or action” (Webster’s online dictionary).Gloria Anzaldua writes, "She can be jarred out of ambivalence by an intense, and often painful, emotional event that inverts or resolves the ambivalence” (Anzaldua, 429).Anzaldua uses this word frequently throughout her article entitled “La Conciencia de lamestiza/Towards a New Consciousness.”(EV)

 

American Dream:bel hooks defines the American Dream in “Ain’t I a Woman.”“America as the great melting pot where all races come together as one” (hooks, 119).(SB)

 

Apartheid:“A policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa” (Miriam Webster’s online dictionary).(KD) hooks uses this term in Where We Stand: Class Matters, “It was the world of premodern, the world of poor agrarian southern black landowners living under a regime of racial apartheid” (hooks 17).(AS)

 

Assimilated:In her book, Where We Stand: Class Matters, bell hooks explains, “Poor students would be welcome at the best institutions of higher learning only if they were willing to surrender memory, to forget the past and claim the assimilated present as the only worthwhile and meaningful reality” (hooks, 37).I understood assimilated in this context to mean, “to absorb into the culture or mores of a population or group” (Miriam Webster's online dictionary).(EV)

Judith Ortiz Cofer in “The Story of My Body” talks about the idea of being assimilated.My definition of this is to fit in and take on the characters of the “dominant” group.Her example is the Italian and Irish immigrant children who assimilated in her community.(CH)

 

Berdache/Two-Spirit:“A person, especially a Native American man, who assumes the sexual identity and is granted the social status of the opposite sex.”Some Native Americansprefer that “two-spirit” be used in academic contexts since there are “derogatory implications implicit in the etymology of ‘berdache’” (American Heritage Dictionary 2000).(LC)

Black Nationalism:“A group of militant Black people who urge separatism from white people and the establishment of self-governing black communities”(The American Heritage Dictionary 2000).(LC)


 

Black Robes:In I am Woman by Lee Maracle, black robes meant priests that came to the Indian village.These missionaries convinced many Indians that their children must be taught the white man's ways, and thus convinced many Indians to send their children away to a boarding school to be taught (Maracle, 62).(JC)

 

Class Action Suit:“The Hidden History of Affirmative Action” written by Nancy Maclean discusses class action suit, which means a large group of people getting together to file a lawsuit (Maclean, 2).(CC)

 

Coalition:“An alliance, especially a temporary one, of people, factions, parties, or nations” (American Heritage Dictionary 2000).(LC)An alliance of people for one or more common goal.(CC)

Cognizant:In “Hwame, Koshkalaka, and the Rest” Paula Gunn Allen says, “A woman who is older is more cognizant of what that power entails, the kinds of destruction it can cause, and the ways in which it can be directed and used for good” (Allen, 254).I would define cognizant in this case as understanding or aware of the situation around her.(EV)

 

Colonialism:“Control by one power over a dependent area or people.A policy advocating or based on such control” (Miriam Webster’s online dictionary).A policy by which a nation maintains/extends its control over foreign dependants.In I Am Woman, Lee Maracle discusses colonialism and writes, “A sense of powerlessness is the legacy handed down to the colonized people.Loss of power – the negation of choice, as well as legal and cultural victimization – is the hoped-for result” (Maracle, 94).(KD)

 

Color Phobia:Beverly Guy-Sheftallwrote in “Introduction: The Evolution of Feminist Consciousness Among African American Women” about Nannie Burroughs’s (a political activist) concern for the plight of black working-class women.Guy-Sheftall wrote, “her intense feelings of racial pride were manifested her rejection of white standards of beauty, and she accused her sisters of “color phobia” if they used hair straighteners and skin bleachers” (Guy-Sheftall, 9).(SB)

 

Comfort zone:My definition of comfort zone is an area in which someone feels peaceful and safe.This could be anywhere from a home, school, church, or a combination of a few places.It could also be an invisible area around a person or it could also have to do with how someone feels about taking risk or public speaking, how far they will go for a risk.(SH)

 

Consciousness Raising: “An increasing of concerned awareness especially of some social or political issue” (Miriam Webster’s online dictionary). To make people aware of the more complicated framework in which they live.(CC)

 

Cultural Amnesia:The willful forgetting of one's culture.An example would be the different races assimilating into the dominant culture.It could be explained as forgetting one's roots on purpose.(JC)

 

Cultural Imperialism:In I am Woman Lee Maracle speaks of cultural imperialism.She defines it as “altering a colonized people's cultural expression without consideration for the aspirations of the people” (Maracle, 110).She gives numerous examples throughout the book of white “Americans” colonizing Native Americans.(CH)

 

Dimensions of Whiteness:In “Growing Up White,”Ruth Frankenburg writes, “Whiteness has three dimensions.First, it is a position of privileges, from higher wages to better health care.Second, it is a ‘standpoint’ or a place from which to look at oneself, others and society.Third, it is a set of practices, not defined as being white but looked at as ‘American’ or ‘normal’” (Frankenburg, 53-54).(JC)

 

Double Bind:“A very familiar story which goes like this: If we try to be “human” we are punished for not being “women”; if we try to be “women” we are punished for not being “human”’ (A Feminists Dictionary, 129).In her article “The Feminist Movement: Where Are All the Asian American Women” Esther Ngan-Ling Chow described double bind as the plight of Asian-American feminists, “pitting ethnic identity against gender identity; stereotyped as subservient, obedient, passive, hardworking and exotic,” (Chow, 367).It is difficult for Asian-American women to work towards the goals of feminism.(LC)

 

Double Jeopardy:Beverly Guy-Sheftall talks about the idea of double jeopardy in her article “The Evolution of Feminist Consciousness Among African American Women.”When writing about Anna Julia Cooper’s (a 19^th century black feminist) collection of essays commenting on the black woman’s unique status, she states that Cooper “advanced the argument of “double jeopardy,” since black women experienced both gender and race problems” (Guy-Sheftall, 8).That is double jeopardy.(CH)

 

Dualistic:“A theory that considers reality to consist of two irreducible elements or modes” (Webster’s online dictionary).InGloria Anzaldua’s article, “La Conciencia de la Mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness” she states, “A massive uprooting of dualistic thinking in the individual and collective consciousness is the beginning of a long struggle, but one that could, in our best hopes, bring us to the end of rape, of violence, of war” (Anzaldua, 429-430).(EV)

 

Emancipate:At liberty, free, untrammeled; not bound or formulated by or adherent to currently accept mores, techniques, or beliefs; spirits who demand the right to live in their own way.As Audre Lorde, author of“The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” puts it: “Yet it is only in the patriarchal model of nurturance that women who attempt to emancipate themselves pay perhaps too high a price for the results” (Lorde, 110-123).This term is used quite often to demonstrate what feminists are trying to have for themselves against anyone who is trying to oppress them.(AS)

 

Equal Rights:Beverly Guy- Sheftall explains in her article, “Introduction: The Evolution of Feminist Consciousness Among African American Women” that, “While Frederick Douglass believed the antislavery movement was helping empower women, he understood the need for an independent, organized movement to achieve equal rights for women” (Guy-Sheftall, 4).I personally define equal rights as having the option for the same opportunities as everyone else, and being treated with respect and fairness.(EV) (CC)

 

Ethnicity:Belonging to a certain ethnic group(s).(KD)

Your cultural background, where you come from.(EV) 

Ethnocentrism:“Believing in the superiority of ones own ethnic group” (Webster’s dictionary).
In “Growing up White: Feminism, Racism, and the Social Geography of Childhood” Ruth Frankenberg used this term to describe how white feminists were continuing to act during the mid-1980s towards other races.They were putting themselves above others because of class and ethnic group.(AS)

 

Ethnogenesis:In Nazili Kirbia's article “The Construction of ‘Asian American’: Reflections on Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity Among Second Generation Chinese and Korean Americans” she talks about ethnogenesis.In class, we defined this as being the beginning of an ethnic group.(CH)

 

Eurocentric:Deborah King used the idea of Eurocentric in her article, “Unraveling Fabric, Missing the Beat.”To me Eurocentric is an attitude of cultural superiority and thinking in only terms of European descent.King uses the example of men being the traditional breadwinners in the nuclear family as a solution to many problems within African American families based on the idea of Eurocentric ideology (King, 40).(CH)

 

Exogamy:“The custom of marrying outside the tribe, family, clan, or other social unit... prohibits marriage between members of the same tribe” (dictionary.com).(SB)

 

Fascists:“One who adheres to or advocates a tendency toward severe dictational control” (Webster’s dictionary).bel hooks uses this term in her book Class Matters “Mama and Daddy were awesome authority figures-family fascists of a very high order” (hooks, 29).(AS)

 

Female job ghetto:The female job ghetto was a phrase used by author Nancy MacLean in “The Hidden History of Affirmative Action: Working Women's Struggles in the 1970's and the Gender of Class” when referring to the low paying jobs women held and the idea that women were kept in these positions to ensure men's superiority.(CH)

 

Gender Ratio:Sucheta Mazumdar talks about the male/female ratio that existed in the late 1800's and early 1900's in her article “General Introduction: A Woman-Centered Perspective on Asian American History”.Many men immigrated to the US but could not bring their wives. This led to more men than there were women. This is what is meant by gender ratio, how many women per man (Mazumdar, 2).(JC)

 

Gringo:“Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person” (American Heritage Dictionary 2000).Also used by Latinos/as in North America to describe white people, usually in a derogatory way.(LC)

 

Hedonistic Consumerism: In bell hooks’ Where We Stand: Class Matters, she calls it consuming in excess.hooks states that hedonistic consumerism “can lead individuals with class privilege to live beyond their means and therefore to feel they are in a constant state of lack, thus having no reason to identify with those less fortunate or to be accountable for improving their lot” (hooks, 60).(JC)

 

Hegemony:Leadership or predominance.In “U.S. Third World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World” Chela Sandoval talked of “hegemonic feminist theory”in which she was referring to:people of a majority dominating by denying, permitting, and producing difference among other groups (Sandoval, 93).(AS)

Having influence or authority over others, most likely a minority group.

Hegemony can take two forms.First, hegemony can be had by force, or it can occur by persuasion and getting a group to willingly believe in your ideologies.It is hard to maintain hegemony or control because people's views are constantly changing; it is an ongoing process.(JC)

 

Hierarchy:In bell hook’s article, “Racism and Feminism: The Issue of Accountability,” she talked about hierarchical social status.A hierarchy is the classification of a group of people according to ability or to economic, social, or professional standing.hooks discussed how slavery created a new status for white females within the hierarchical social status.The hierarchy would look something like this:
1. White Males
2.White Females
3.African Americans

A.Male

B. Female

4. Other Minorities
Within the African American group, males have higher status than women.In the entire hierarchy, black female slaves defied the power of white females because they were taught that the white male, who was the top of the hierarchical structure, was the sole power source.(JC)

 

Home Girls:“The girls from the neighborhood and from the block, the girls we grew up with.”In “Introduction to Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology,” Barbara Smith argues that black feminism is organic to black experience and she remains a home girl even if she is a black, lesbian feminist (Smith, 146).(JC)

Homogeneous:In her article, “General Introduction: A Woman-Centered Perspective on Asian American History” Sucheta Mazumdar explains, “It would be inaccurate to talk about a homogeneous Asian American community when discussing class, education, national origin, economic status, or the potential for economic mobility” (Mazumdar, 16).In this case I would define homogeneous as being the same within a community.(EV)

 

Household:“A domestic unit consisting of the members of a family who live together along with nonrelatives such as servants” (www.dictionary.com). Paula Gunn Allen writes in “Hwame, Koshkalaka, and the Rest: Lesbians in American Indian Cultures”, “Nontribal households: unit composed of a father, mother, and offspring” and “Tribal households: May consist of assorted blood-kin, medicine society kin, adoptees, servants, and visitors who have a clan or supernatural claim on membership although they are biologically unrelated to the rest of the household” (Allen, 248).It is interesting that Gunn Allen's definition of “tribal households” seems to align more closely with the actual dictionary definition of “household”.(LC)

 

Ideology:“A body of ideas used in support of an economic, political or social theory...the way of thinking of a class, culture or individual” (The New American Webster Handy College dictionary).(SH)

bell hooks refers to this in her article, “Ain't I A Woman”:“In America, white racist ideology has allowed white women to assume that the word woman is synonymous with white women, for woman of other races are always perceived as Others...”(hooks, 138).hooks uses the term to mean: using and assuming popular beliefs of a large group of people hold true for every person inside and outside of the group.(AS)

In her article, “Being Queer, Being Black: Living Out in Afro-American Studies,” Rhonda M. Williams explains, “The essay then engages the nexus of sexuality and race, suggesting that Black queers interrupt a longing for a stigma-free Black sexuality, a longing forged in the fires of racist ideology” (Williams, 267).I would define ideology as a set of beliefs and commonplaces that we hold to be true.(EV) 

A way of thinking, a set of beliefs (often unconscious) assumptions you take for granted, what seems “natural”, whole structure of ideas your view of reality is based on.(DS)

Imperialism:“The policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas” (Miriam Webster’s online dictionary).bell hooks talks about the concept of racial imperialism in her article, “Ain’t I a Woman.”She writes that imperialism deals with white people creating a nation where white is superior.White racial imperialism allowed white women the role of oppressor over black women and men” (hooks, 119-158).(CH)

 

Internal psychology of colonization:In M.A. Jaimes-Guerrero's article “Exemplars of Indigenism: Native North American Women for De/Colonization and Liberation” the author mentions the idea of the internal psychology of colonization.The author defines this as “when colonized persons become colonizers among their own people” (Jaimes-Guerrero, 210).The author also gives examples of Native Americans oppressing members of their own group especially women.(CH)

 

Issei:“A Japanese immigrant, especially one to the United States”(dictionary.com).(SB)

Mitsuye Yamada, author of “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an

Asian American Woman” defines Issei as immigrant Japanese, living in the U.S.”(Yamada, 540).(SH)

la raza cosmica:In Gloria Anzaldua's article “La conciencia de la mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness” she refers to Jose Vascocelos's definition of la raza cosmica which is “a fifth race embracing the four major races of the world.”His theory is that in doing this it makes a better and more superior race that is flexible by creating a “rich gene pool” (Anzaldua, 427).(CH)

 

Liberation:Barbara Smith uses this word in her article “Introduction to Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology” saying, “This myth confuses liberation with the fact that Black women have had to take on responsibilities that our oppression gives us no choice but to handle” (Smith 149).I would personally define liberation as being free of something.(EV)

 

Liberation by Analogy: Described by Becky Thompson in her article “Time Traveling and Border Crossing,” in Names We Call Home as an approach to fighting oppression often enlisted by white women: “fighting someone else's fight because you can't acknowledge and fight your own.” Thompson claims this “feeds a ‘saving them’ approach to organizing rather than a ‘saving all of us’ perspective” (Thompson, 106); (LC)

 

Lynching:The term lynching goes back to slavery (maybe even further then that) and this was done to African American slaves who ran away or were not obeying the slave master.The African American would be hung out in the yard, publicly, from a tree.After the Civil War the Klu Klux Klan did the lynching, but this was done at night and in the morning the rest of the town would see the dead body.The term lynching is also used to describe a public verbal thrashing of sorts.Where someone is yelled at or proved wrong publicly and nice words aren't used.(SH)

Lynching continued into the 20th century and was used to keep “uppity” black people under control. Black men, usually men, charged with a crime were taken from jail by an angry mob and hung.Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a very courageous black journalist, exposed the economic roots of lynching--usually the charge was something involving sexual advances toward white women (whistling, talking, etc), but the real problem was black people threatening white business interests or not acting subservient enough.During the Civil Rights movement, killings of civil rights workers continued in this awful tradition.(HB)

 

Machismo:“A strong or exaggerated sense of masculinity stressing attributes such as physical courage, virility, domination of women, and aggressiveness” (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000).Gloria Anzaldua writes in “La conciencia de la mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness” about the meaning of the word machismo.She states, “For men like my father, being macho meant being strong enough to protect and support my mother and us, yet being able to show love.Today’s macho has doubts about his ability to feed and protect his family.His machismo is an adaptation of oppression and poverty and low self-esteem.It is the result of hierarchical male dominance” (Anzaldua, 432).(LC)

 

Man Hating:Barbara Smith deals with myths of feminism in her work “Introduction to Home Girls.”One of these myths includes the idea of man hating, which is sometimes misconnected to the reason behind feminism.Smith states, “it is important to make the distinction between attacking institutionalized, systematic oppression (the goal of any serious progressive movement) and attacking men as individuals [man hating]” (Smith, 149-150).(CH)

 

Male Chauvinism:“A man who believes that women are naturally less important, less clever, etc. than men and so does not treat them as equals with men” (Cambridge Dictionary).Beverly Guy-Sheftall speaks of male chauvinism in her article, “Introduction: The Evolution of Feminist Consciousness Among African American Women”(Guy-Sheftall, 14).(SB)

 

Marginal:“Occupying the borderland of a relatively stable territorial or cultural area; excluded from or existing outside the mainstream of society, a group, or a school of thought” (Miriam Webster’s online dictionary). In Deborah King's article, “Unraveling Fabric, Missing the Beat: Class and Gender in Afro-American Social Issues” she states, “Because women are marginal, if not quite invisible as subjects … patriarchy in familial and economic realms is unexplained” (King 41). (SB)

 

Marginalize:“To relegate to a marginal position within a society or group” (Miriam Webster’s online dictionary). Gloria Anzaldua used this term throughout her article, “To(o) Queer the Writer—Loca, escritora y chicana,”meaning: to confine and contain all races under one explanation or term leaving no room for individuality (Anzaldua, 264-265).(AS)

 

Marianismo:In “Latina Women and Political Consciousness: La Chispa Que Prende,”Carol Hardy-Fanta writes “Marianismo, the feminine correlate to and opposite of machismo, derives from the image of the Virgin Mary- meek, mild, and supportive of men” (Hardy-Fanta, 224).(AS)

 

Maternal Chauvinism: This term was used in the Pesquera and Segura article, “With Quill and Torch.” It was defined as the Anglo woman’s belief that they can solve the problems of minority women.It is a spin off of the definition of chauvinism, which has a definition of a feeling of superiority over members of the opposite sex.So, maternal chauvinism deals with the feelings of white women’s superiority overminority women.(JC)

 

Melting Pot Myth:The melting pot was a metaphor for the United States.This is the idea that the entire world’s different cultures, language, and people would come here and mix, thus creating a new person or a new group of people.In her article, “Racism and Feminism: The Issue of Accountability” bell hooks talks about the melting pot – where all races come together as one (hooks, 119).(SH)

 

Mestiza:According to Anzaldua’s article, “La conciencia e la metiza/Towards a New Consciousness,” “la mestiza is an Aztec word meaning torn between ways, la mestiza is a product of the transfers of the cultural and spiritual values of one group to another” (Anzaldua, 428).(SB)

Anzaldua further explains, “Indigenous like corn, like corn, the mestiza is a product 

of crossbreeding, designed for preservation under a variety of conditions”(Anzaldua 430).(EV)

Mestiza Consciousness: In “La conciencia e la mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness,” Gloria Anzaldua uses the term to describe a new consciousness which involves women strengthening their tolerance, opening up to new ways of thinking, and being able to change herself to fit whatever society she is in while trying to overcome racism and discrimination (Anzaldua, 431).(JC)

 

Militant:“Aggressive; engaged in warfare”(Webster's dictionary).Mitsuye Yamada, author of “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman” writes“A discussion of the ‘militant’ voices in some of the other writings we had read in the course ensued.Surely, I pointed out, some of these other writings have been just as, if not more, militant as the words in the introduction?”(Yamada, 538).(AS)

 

Misogynist:“One who hates women”(American Heritage Dictionary 2000).In “Exemplars of Indigenism: Native North American Women for De/Colonization and Liberation,” M.A. Jaimes-Guerrero writes, “there remain critical problems of poverty, illness, unemployment, and other social ills, as well as having to deal with misogynist men” (Jaimes-Guerrero, 215).(LC)

 

Monism:Looking at only one difference or explanation of oppression when many could be applied.Monism is highlighting only one cause and making it the reason for oppression.Deborah King discusses monism in “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Contest of a Black Feminist Ideology.”She writes, “To the extent that we have found ourselves confronting the exclusivity of monistic politics, we have had to manage ideologies and activities that did not address the dialectics of our lives” (King, 52).(CC)

 

Monolithic:“Constituting on a massive undifferentiated whole exhibiting solid uniformity often without diversity” (Webster's dictionary).Beverly Guy-Sheftall writes“While black feminism is not a monolithic, static ideology, and there is considerable diversity among African American feminist, certain premises are constant...”(Guy-Sheftall, 2).(AS) (SB)

 

Morphogenesis:“The formation and differentiation of tissues and organs” (Webster's dictionary).In “La Conciencia de la Mestiza/ Towards a New Consciousness,” Gloria Anzaldua uses this term, “Nuestra alma el trabajo, the opus, the great alchemical work; spiritual mestizaje, a ‘morphogenesis,’ an inevitable unfolding.We have become the quickening serpent movement” (Anzaldua, 430).(AS)

 

Multiracial Feminism:In “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism,” Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill write, “Multiracial feminism is an evolving body of theory and practice informed by wide-ranging intellectual traditions.This framework does not offer a singular or unified feminism, but a body of knowledge situating women and men in multiple systems of domination” (Zinn & Dill, 2).A few examples of US multiracial feminism would include African Americans, Latina’s, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.(CH)

 

Multiple Jeopardy:In “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of Black Feminist Ideology” Deborah King defines multiple jeopardy as “several simultaneous oppressions …[and] the multiplicative relationships among them ” (King, 45).(CC) 

 

Mutual Rape:The act of sexual violence and dehumanization through the dual process of committing rape and taking away one's spirit by enslavement and colonization.Lee Maracle states in her book, I Am Woman, “For us intercourse is not marked by white, middle-class, patriarchal dominant-submissive tenderness.It is more a physical release from the pressure and pain of colonialism – mutual rape” (Maracle, 20).(AS)

 

Narcissism:“An abnormal tendency to admire one's own perceptions”(The New American Webster Handy College dictionary).In Where We Stand: Class Matters, bell hooks uses this basic idea in chapter five, “The Politics of Greed” to explain why the rich think of themselves and not the poor. The upper class really perceive themselves of being so great that they need more and more money and more and more luxuries.(SH)

 

Nepantilism:Gloria Anzaldua used this word in her article, “La conciencia de la mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness.”Nepantilism is an Aztec word meaning torn between ways. In the article, nepantilism is used to describe the feelings that mestiza has concerning having more than one cultural background and trying to decide what feelings or thoughts she should have (Anzaldua, 428).(JC)

 

Nisei:In “Invisibility Is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman,”Mitsuye Yamada writes “Second generation Japanese born in the U.S.”(Yamada, 541).(SH)

 

Nuclear Family:Paula Gunn Allen explains in “Hwame, Koshkalaka, and the Rest: Lesbians in American Indian Cultures,”“Malinowski and other researchers have dismissed the household as an economic unit but have continued to perceive households from the viewpoint of the nuclear family - father, mother, and offspring” (Allen, 249).I would define the nuclear family as a traditional family with the mother and father and the children.I think the key word is traditional.(EV)

 

Oppositional Consciousness:Chela Sandoval speaks of oppositional consciousness in her article “Third World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern Third World.”We talked about it in class as meaning individuals asserting their views, their own points of view, and resisting dominant definitions. The example in Sandoval’s article related to oppositional consciousness is how it worked to divide the feminist movement from within.(CH)

 

Optional Ethnicity:Described by Mary C. Waters in her article “Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?” as a privilege extended to whites, who can choose to “claim any specific ancestry, or to just be ‘White’ or ‘American’ …or to choose which of their European ancestries to include in their description of their own identities. White peoples’ option of ‘choosing how to present themselves’ is extended as a benefit of their social mobility, immigrant assimilation, and political and economic power” (Waters, 29).(LC)

 

Organized Rape:Being sexually violated from society by hate and isolation because of one's choice of sexual orientation.Lee Maracle, author of I Am Woman, states, “For society to force someone, through shame and ostracism, to comply with love and sex that it defines, is nothing but organized rape.That is what homophobia is all about, organized rape” (Maracle, 30).(AS)

 

Ostracizing:“To banish from society; cast out of social or political favor or fellowship”(Webster's dictionary).Barbara Smith used this term in “Introduction to Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology” writing, “Black women can legitimately choose not to work with white women.What is not legitimate is ostracizing other Black women who have not make the same choice” (Smith, 157).(AS)

 

Other/Otherness:“Otherness is a quality of being different in appearance or character from what is familiar, expected or generally accepted.Being different and distinct from the literary mainstream” (Cambridge dictionary). In “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” Audre Lorde writes, “As White women ignore their built-in privilege of Whiteness and define woman in terms of their own experience alone, then women of Color become ‘other’” (Lorde, 117).(SB)

 

Outmarriage:Nazli Kibria, author of “The Construction of Asian American: Reflections on intermarriage and ethnic identity among second-generation Chinese and Korean Americans” used the term ‘outmarriage’.She writes, “rather than being seen in absolute terms, the definition of outmarriage is most aptly viewed as a continuum on which marriage partners are placed, based on the degree to which they are perceived to share ethnic membership” (Kibria, 525).I would define it as marrying outside of your race or heritage.(EV)

 

Pan-ethnic:Groups of people forging a new sense of ethnic unity when in a new multicultural context such as, Chinese and Japanese identifying as Asian.Nazli Kibria, author of “The construction of Asian American” wrote “depending on the circumstances at hand, national identities may be emphasized over pan-ethnic ones or vice versa” (Kibria, 526)(SH)

 

Patois:“A dialect other than the standard or literary dialect” (Webster’s online dictionary).In “La conciencia de la mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness,” Gloria Anzaldua writes, “Being tricultural, monolingual, bilingual, or multilingual, speaking a patois, and in a state or perpetual transition, the mestiza faces the dilemma of the mixed breed: which collectivity does the daughter of a dark skinned mother listen to” (Anzaldua, 428).(EV)

 

Patriarchy:A male ideology of how to live.However, in “White Woman Listen!”Hazel Carby states that the concept of patriarchy is more complex for Black women.She writes, “Black women have been dominated ‘patriarchally’ in different ways by men of different colors” (Carby, 115).Carby quotes the Combahee River Collective “We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black women’s lives as are the politics of class and race” (Carby, 111).(CC)
 

Picture Bride:In “General Introduction: A Woman-Centered Perspective on Asian American History” Sucheta Mazumdar states that picture brides,“were often found through the village matchmakers, and selected by the groom's family.As negotiations ended, photographs were exchanged and the bride's name written into the families register to legalize the union. The bride then set sail for the United States to meet her mate”(Mazumdar, 7). The picture brides became a way of survival for many Korean and Japanese communities and not for individual fulfillment.(CH)

 

“These are the women who waited on the dockside of ports... for husbands they had married by proxy in Japan or Korea” (Mazumdar, 6).(SB)

Privilege:“A right or immunity granted as a particular benefit, advantage, or favor”(Webster’s dictionary).(SB)

 

In “White Privilege and Male Privilege,” Peggy McIntosh writes “an invisible

package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious” (McIntosh , 78).(CC)

 

Politically correct:The deliberate attempt not to offend anyone based on race, religion, sex, or any other difference in one's actions or expression of opinion. Politically correct would be a T.V. Show having one black person in a group of all white people for the sole purpose of having a different race represented or a person saying vertically challenged instead of the word “short”.(KJ)

 

Queer:In Gloria Anzaldua’s article, “To(o)Queer the Writer – Loca, escritora y chicana” she states “queer is used as a false unifying umbrella which all ‘queers’ of all races, ethnicities, and classes are shoved under” (Anzaldua, 264).She also writes that queer came from “working class words.”In the past, queer had sick connotations. Basically, people want to categorize all homosexual people into one category, but they are not.Recently many gay and lesbian people have reclaimed the word as a positive statement of their identity.(CH)

 

Race:In “Race, Gender and the Concept of ‘Difference’ in Feminist Thought,” Mary Maynard cites Antias (1990), “...defining ‘race’ as relying on ‘notions of a biological or cultural immutability of a group that has already been attributed as sharing a common origin”’ (Maynard, 20).(EV)

 

Racial Identity:Described by Ruth Frankenberg in her article “When We Are Capable Of Stopping, We Begin to See” from Names We Call Home (Thompson & Tyagi, 1996) as “the situated practicing of a multifariously marked self … made through the claiming and the imposition of samenesses and othernesses” (Frankenberg, 4).(LC)

 

Racial Passing:In“Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?”Mary C. Waters defines racial passing as, “People raised as one race who change at some point and claim a different race as their identity” (Waters, 29).(SB)(AS)

 

Racial Social Geography:Ruth Frankenberg defines this term in “Growing up White” as“Racial and ethnic mapping of a landscape in physical terms … a beginning sense of the conceptual mapping of self and other with respect to race” (Frankenberg, 54 ).(SB)

In “Growing up White,” Ruth Frankenberg researched five women on their childhood and teenage years.This idea was key to her research.(CH)

 

Racism:“A belief that race is a primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that radical differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Webster’s dictionary).Institutionalized oppression to a person or a group of people, which is engendered either by direct personal experience or through information. (SB)To discriminate against someone solely on their race.(CC)

In “Growing up White”, Ruth Frankenberg states, “challenging racism is not a

project that can take place only on the level of ideas, but one which calls for major changes in the social, economic and legislative orders.”She goes on to warn, “unlearning racism … is not the same thing as ending it” (Frankenberg, 80).Racism could be identified as a natural process and seen to be a logical consequence of the differences between races.Racism has come to be an economic, political, ideological, and social expression.(DS)

 

Reflected Appraisals: In Johnson-Powell’s article “Alice’s Little Sister” from Names We Call Home, (Thompson & Tyagi, 1996), she describes how “very early in a child’s life, her self-concept is shaped by the significant others in her life in a process of ‘reflected appraisals’ – a child is appraised by others and in time begins to appraise herself.A critical phase in this process of self-differentiation and development of self begins when a child asserts herself, opposes others, and compares herself with peers” (Johnson-Powell53).(LC)

 

Sapphire:In the article "Being Queer, Being Black," by Rhonda Williams, there is a quote from Ingrassia.It states that sapphires are bitchy, bossy, black women trying to dominant, taken from “Amos ‘n’ Andy” (Williams, 271). In this sense it is a negative term to describe self-reliant women who know what they want.(JC)

 

Second Generation:In her article, “The Construction of Asian America” Nazli Kibria is using the term second generation to mean the children of immigrants. It would be the children of those who first came to the new country. Second generation children are often more assimilated into the dominant culture (Kibria, 524).(JC)

 

Sexism:Discrimination against a person based on their gender or believing a particular gender is better than the other and therefore giving that gender privilege and responsibility not offered to the other gender.(KJ)To discriminate against someone solely on their sex. (CC)

 

Shaman:“A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic or sorcery for purposes of healing, divination, and control over natural events”(American Heritage Dictionary 2000). Both men and women held this role, it was a position of authority and significance.(LC)


 

Sisterhood:bell hooks talks about sisterhood in “Ain’t I a Woman.”She argues that “White women were assuming that all they had to do was express a desire for sisterhood, or a desire to have black women join their groups, and black women would be overjoyed” (hooks, 144).Sisterhood should mean women dedicated to working together as equals for the support and promotion of women’s rights at the local, national, regional, and global levels. (DS & HB)

 

Social Construction:This term comes up a lot in our readings. I define it as shared meaning that is created by society and brought into being. A social construction is bringing something into existence.When discussing social construction in her article, “White Woman Listen!”Hazel Carby writes, “The way the gender of black women is constructed differs from constructions of white femininity because it is also subject to racism” (Carby, 112).(EV)

 

Subservient:In her article entitled, “The Feminist Movement: Where Are All the Asian American Women,” Esther Chow says, “Many others are aware they occupy subservient positions and are relegated to traditional women's functions” (Chow, 364). Subservient suggests being thought of unfairly as an inferior person or group. It also would be similar to subordinate.(EV)

 

Talented Tenth:bell hooks talks about the talented tenth in her book Where We Stand: Class Matters (hooks, 90-91). This is the idea that a community would support the best tenth of their youth to make sure that they are successful.So they would focus all of their energy, money, and emotional and education support for the top tenth of the youth.The argument is everyone needs to work together showing the power of many in supporting the youth.(SH)

W.E.B. DuBois first highlighted the importance of this group in the early 20^th

century when he and others founded the NAACP.He was arguing against the prevalent industrial education philosophy that Booker T. Washington, who was the most prominent black educator of the late 19th and early 20th century, was emphasizing.DuBois wanted to be sure all black people weren’t channeled into menial jobs--but that the most gifted people be educated for intellectual and professional leadership.(HB)

 

Trickle-down patriarchy: M.A. Jaimes-Guerrero discusses the idea of obligating Indian women to choose between loyalty to their male-dominated tribe and working to alleviate the oppression inherent in being women of the third-world in her article, “Exemplars of Indigenism: Native North American Women for De/Colonization & Liberation.” (LC)

 

Triple Jeopardy:Deborah King described three simultaneous oppressions, racism, sexism, and classism in “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness” as “widely accepted and used as the conceptualization of black women’s status.”Each of these three independent control systems has a “single, direct and independent effect on status” (King, 45).(LC)(CC)

 

Triple Oppression:Hazel Carby defines triple oppression in her article entitled, “White Woman Listen!: Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood” as “Gender, race, and class can be understood, in their specificity and also as they determine the lives of black women” (Carby, 111).(CC)

 

Tropes: