So Long, Farewell

So my month has come to a close here at the Nation and I want to thank Peter Rothberg for this opportunity and his amazing support and Kristina Rizga from Wiretap Magazine for recommending me! If you have not checked out Wiretap Magazine please do so for the freshest and bravest in youth voices and activism.

Actively creating space for the voices of women of color is imperative for progressive publications. I currently work at the Center for Media Justice in Oakland, CA where we fight for the media rights of disenfranchised communities and support grassroots organizers in accessing the media in ways that support their organizing goals. In doing so, the theme of misrepresentation of people of color comes up again and again. Historically marginalized communities have never had access to traditional media, both in terms of representation and in having their voices heard. Progressive news has suffered a similar trajectory, so it is on all of us to actively advocate for the communication rights of disenfranchised communities. At CMJ we do this by supporting grassroots organizers with their strategic communications, along with building a movement for media justice. You can read more about us here.

I bring this up because advocating for the voices that may disrupt common ideologies in ways that are often difficult and challenging is part of creating a just and fair media. The change we want can only happen if we centralize those voices which have been most denied.

So thank you Nation for giving me the opportunity to bring my voice and the topics I care about to such a national and respected source.

And for those of you that were into it, you can keep reading me at Feministing.

Up next is Echidne from Echidne of Snakes, a good friend of Feministing's, so please read on people, read on!

Comments (19)

1. keep on typing!

   Posted by frosty zoom at 04/01/2008 @ 11:31am

2. i have an interesting question: if we all are stuck in cyberspace, how do we know who really is a "woman of color", and does it really matter? and has the internet created a new type of androgyne?

   i would love to hear the author's thoughts.

   Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 11:39am

3. for the record, samhita, i am a woman of color also living in the bay area (SF).....soon to be re-locating way, way north....

   Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 11:40am

4. Nice to have had you with us, Ms. Mukhopadhyay.

   Good luck in the future.

   Posted by Mask at 04/01/2008 @ 12:05pm

5. Posted by ZERO 04/01/2008 @ 12:39pm

   Translation: "Stop having all these damn feminists on...or come clean that you're just catering to their upper middle-class elitism and man disparaging!"

   Posted by Mask at 04/01/2008 @ 12:44pm

6. hey jomamma, i actually agree with your first statement.....

   is "white" a color? is it the visible absence of color? or is it all colors in one?

   does one who is 'white' necessarily embrace a 'white' opinion? or all opinions?

   can a white man have a disenfranchised opinion?

   can a black woman have a mainstream opinion?

   the days of identity politics are OVER, folks. with the takeover of a cyberspace-centered political theater, identity is fluid, dynamic and invisible.

   Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 1:11pm

7. what's truly astounding is that i'm not entirely sure that samhita is a woman of color. sure, she's got a photo up there, but is it actually her?

   if it wasn't actually her, then is she/he/it a fraud?

   Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 1:13pm

8. Posted by ZERO 04/01/2008 @ 12:39pm

   My thoughts exactly. Why not have a liberal, white-male masculinist guest blog for a month? We'll let the feministingers guest blog for 11 months out of the year, but for one month -- just one little old month -- treat the readers to an entirely different take on gender relations.

   Posted by KSP556 at 04/01/2008 @ 1:27pm

9. Why not have a liberal, white-male masculinist guest blog for a month?

   and if it's white male liberal doing the blogging, i highly doubt he will have anything offensive to say about feminism, black people or jews.

   and this is precisely my point. skin color has NOTHING to do with the opinions one might hold about race, culture, economics, gender.

   this is why i object, on principle, to the rubric "woman of color." to claim you are a 'woman of color', first and foremost, reinforces the largely racist paradigm against which women of color rebel. to insert yourself into the dialogue, first and foremost, as one color or another, or one gender or another, makes yourself visible or known to your ideological enemies.

   for instance, "she is a woman of color," therefore......"she has this set of opinions".

   Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 1:36pm

10. Posted by KSP556 04/01/2008 @ 1:27pm

    Or black-male, brown-male, yellow-male...didn't mean to limit it to a specific ethnicity.

    Posted by KSP556 at 04/01/2008 @ 1:36pm

11. why not bypass the largely static qualities of color, race, gender, etc, and opt for the more nuanced and complex qualities of change, difference, invisibility.....

    Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 1:38pm

12. Posted by DARLADOON 04/01/2008 @ 1:36pm

    Well said, and I totally agree.

    The point I was trying to make earlier is that the word "male" is reviled in these guest-blog columns. Let's not just have the feministingers appear here; let's offer a wider range of opinions.

    Posted by KSP556 at 04/01/2008 @ 1:39pm

13. for instance, "she is a woman of color," therefore...... "she has this set of opinions".

    Or: "white male: therefore, he must be sexist, misogynistic, power-hungry, oppressive, androcentric in worldview," etc.

    Posted by KSP556 at 04/01/2008 @ 1:44pm

14. if one attempts to link political opinion with skin color, is one not a racist?

    Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 2:28pm

15. what's truly astounding is that i'm not entirely sure that samhita is a woman of color. sure, she's got a photo up there, but is it actually her?

    if it wasn't actually her, then is she/he/it a fraud?

    Posted by DARLADOON 04/01/2008 @ 1:13pm

    that's mask!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/01/2008 @ 2:31pm

16. i'll debate that crew over at feministing over identity politics any day of the week!

    my position: how identity politics has set back overall progressive politics by a decade at least.

    Posted by darladoon at 04/01/2008 @ 2:51pm

17. Samhita, I really enjoyed reading your work here--thanks for pointing out your org, it sounds great!

    Take care.

    Posted by bfp at 04/01/2008 @ 3:09pm

18. Hey People,

    I am in total agreement..:-) Why not try a unique idea and have someone write that might actually contribute something that is NOT your average liberal, feministing, man hateing blather..? It might be a nice change of pace to have a man or woman who Loves the opposite sex, who loves America, and actually conveys the ideas of the normal American..?

    What say you..?

    Bill

    Posted by tidbit100 at 04/01/2008 @ 3:58pm

19. Posted by TIDBIT100 04/01/2008 @ 3:58pm

    Well...

    1. Any evidence that Ms Mukhopadhyay doesn't "love the opposite sex" (or that it matters)?

    2. Any evidence that she doesn't "love America"?

    3. Any polling data for what you would define as a "normal American"?

    Posted by Mask at 04/01/2008 @ 4:15pm