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Overall Summary
This Bridge Called My Back (1981) is a collection of essays by women of color that are critical and creative. The authors focus on intersectionality in feminism, which means they discuss how race, gender, sexuality intersect to affect the way people live their lives. They challenge white feminists who refuse to acknowledge these issues; specifically, they argue that white feminists should not ignore this important topic. This book helped establish third-wave feminism as well as its importance for all women today.
This Bridge Called My Back is made up of a number of diverse texts, both in poetry and prose, by black, Latinx, Native American and Asian women authors. The book’s title comes from the poem “The Bridge Poem” which discusses how black women have to straddle issues related to race as well as gender discrimination. This book makes it clear that non-white women are banding together for human rights no matter their racial or ethnic identities. It also reveals to white readers what non-white women face when dealing with gender discrimination while existing in the liminal space between race and gender issues.
One essay in This Bridge Called My Back is Norma Alarcon’s “The Theoretical Subject(s) of This Bridge Called My Back and Anglo-American Feminism.” In this essay, she writes about Third World feminism, the idea that there are racial, class, and geographic hierarchies that make it impossible for all feminists to be placed within a single group or relate to each other on an equal plane. She writes about language and its deep historical use. She relates it to political expression. It makes clear that power dynamics must be examined not only between gender groups but also within them; there are power structures separating white from non-white feminists as well as wealthy from impoverished ones.
A collection of writings by women, about their experience as minorities in America. They write about what it’s like to be a minority woman and the violence they’ve experienced at the hands of men, white women, schools and institutions. Some writers talk about pretending to be white so they won’t get persecuted.
In the second and third sections, the authors write about their relationships with other women. In the second section, they talk about how they feel alienated from other women and want to break those barriers in order to create a unified community. In the third section, however, stories of white women taking over commandeer feminist movements are contrasted with tales of black and brown voices being pushed into obscurity.
In the fourth section, the writers discuss how queer women are still looked down upon in feminist and female communities. Similarly, in Speaking In Tongues, authors talk about how it’s important to lift up minority voices because they’re less likely to be heard by privileged people.
The anthology ends with a hopeful section on the power of women’s movements. The potential to create a unified, powerful movement is discussed when looking at Third World Feminism and how it can change America and the world. Cherrie Moraga is an activist, poet, essayist who teaches English at UC Santa Barbara in California. Gloria Anzaldúa was a scholar of Chicana literature in conjunction with feminist and queer theory; she won awards for her work as well as teaching positions in Texas and California before her death in 2004.
