a manifesto....

"We are a family who first only knew each other in our dreams, who have come together on these pages to make faith a reality and to bring all of our selves to bear down hard on that reality. It is about physical and psychic struggle. It is about intimacy, a desire for life between all of us, not settling for less than freedom even in the most private aspects of our lives. A total vision. For the women in this book, i will lay my body down for that vision. This Bridge Called My Back." - Cherrie Moraga, excerpt from, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color.

We resolve, in the spirit of the women who have gone before us, to be uncompromising in our pursuit of total freedom. We understand that as academic women of color, our ideologies are inextricably and irrevocably tied to our intimate lives, and that although this places an unfair burden upon us, it also brings us closer to that complete freedom we desire. We acknowledge that as professional women of color, the odds are heavily against us in terms of the prospects of truly free intimacy, be it camaraderie or romance. We know that our backs will be consistently walked on throughout our lives, but we refuse to tolerate this from the people we choose to let enter our lives. We offer our backs to these, and bear the weight gladly. We will not be your cultural capital, your token/trophy, your walk on the "wild side," that makes you think you are legitimate and down with the brown. We will keep the hope alive, and we will do it in style.

xoxo,
desertDIVA, libralady, othergrlnxtdoor, XXunbound