Choices and Links

My blog list (folder title Weblogs/Opinions) became too large recently and I had to make use of the dreaded subfolder. Actually, I like subfolders, but this time I was struck with so many thoughts regarding who should go where that it really highlighted how much I've learned in the last few months.

Originally, I had subfolders Feminism and Games/Entertainment (my fluff folder). Now I have Racial Justice and Feminism, Feminism, Racial Justice, Religious, Advice/Etiquette, and Games/Entertainment and the substance of my Feminism folder has shifted.

Originally, many WOC Feminist blogs went under "feminism". That was how I found them and where I put them because it made sense. But adding Racial Justice (orig. title "racism" but I felt that was false advertizing) shifted the dynamic since so many of the blogs I'd picked up for regular reading were about BOTH. One of the issues Black Amazon raised, near the beginning of my stint reading blogs, was that women of color (WOC) have a unique challenge being subjected to two forms of systematic discrimination and were usually asked by one or the other side to prioritize one over the other. Given that concern, I felt I couldn't pigionhole them in one or the other, so the hybrid folder was formed.

Then there was the issue of order. I started with Feminism on top (which is where it usually was) but again, given the new composition of the folder, that just seemed ....wrong. So Racial Justice and Feminism rose to the top with "Feminism" second because I was going to list "Racial Justice" third.

Ironically, given how I tend to check my blogs, this means I starts with An Angry Black Woman now instead of Renegade Evolution.

What struck me most overall, however, was how easily and quicky a perspective can be expanded if one is interested. The issues facing WOC would have been a closed book to me if BA hadn't written so eloquently on the pains and challenges of being asked to choose. It's likely BA's post might have been closed to me if I hadn't previously read one of Andre Lorde's poems (see below) and dwelt on the idea of "the slighter pleasures of their slavery." And all this lead to a change in my bookmarking system that reflected my awareness of the lack-of-uniformity of oppression.

Thanks, BA. I couldn't have done it without you.