Friday, March 29, 2013

WLP featured at Teen Skepchick



WLP leaders Jamion Allen, Clay Wesley and Janeth Silva are discuss racism, feminism, school climate and media images of women of color in the Teen Skepchick Interviews series:

By Kate Donovan

"TS writers talk with amazing women scientists and skeptics about life, the universe, and everything. These three women are part of the Women’s Leadership Project, a feminist service learning program in South Los Angeles. The WLP has been in operation since 2006, and helps encourage and guide young women of color in their own advocacy projects, including activism around race, gender, and LGBT equality. The WLP is sponsored by the L.A. County Human Relations Commission and the Gardena Healthy Start collaborative. Interviews were compiled by WLP program coordinator Diane Arellano. I was introduced to the Women’s Leadership Project when Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson spoke at DePaul University last year, and have followed its work ever since. I am deeply flattered that Jamion, Janeth, and Eclasia responded to my questions– and I wish I was so articulate and assured in conversation..."


http://www.teenskepchick.org/2013/03/28/teen-skepchick-interviews-jamion-janeth-eclasia/



Monday, March 18, 2013

Beyond White Feminism

In their landmark book Some of Us Are Brave, Gloria Hull and Barbara Smith argue that in historical representations of women's and civil rights struggle, "all the women are white, and all the blacks are men." Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Betty Friedan. Gloria Steinem. Often, when "women's history" or feminism are portrayed in mainstream American textbooks, heroic white women take center stage. The women's movement is de-contextualized from the radical struggle for human rights, citizenship, visibility, and enfranchisement. There is little examination of the contemporary implications of white suffragists' racist, xenophobic opposition to the Fifteenth Amendment, the debt women's suffrage owes to abolitionism and Iroquois societies, or the modern civil rights movement's roots in black women's fight against domestic sexual terrorism. So how is feminism culturally relevant to young women and men of color today? On March 20-22nd Women's Leadership Project students will explore these issues at Gardena and Washington Prep High schools. Where: Social Justice Hall and Room H1 When: March 20-22nd 8:45-12:25.