White Feminists: It’s Time to Put Up Or Shut Up on Race « Radically Queer (via cornellwocc)

And also remember that WOC is a political term that is intended to denote being non-white as an umbrella, but was more importantly intended as an act of solidarity between various non-white women. And yet we so often fail at that solidarity part too. And it is really important to acknowledge that identifying as a WOC (or choosing not to identify as such due to the failure of solidarity one has encountered) does NOT in any way take away from the more specific identities as non-white women. Just because I ID as a WOC does NOT mean that I don’t still, and more importantly, ID as a Native/First Nations woman. My experience as a First Nations woman is not the same as that of a Chican@ or a Desi or a Black woman. So WOC can’t be a shorthand for homogenizing us either. We are still unique and have experiences and needs in relation to our specific ethnic and cultural backgrounds that we speak of and that must be acknowledged. So often even well-meaning white feminists who say they want to be anti-racist do not acknowledge those differences and instead lump us all together and act like our voices are one united WOC front. They expect one or a few women they like to be the voices of the WOC when we can’t, and don’t want to, speak for the experience of others.