For women of color, sexism cannot be untangled from components of institutional racism, even on a campus that prides itself on inclusivity and progress. That’s according to student activist Makia Jones, who described her most salient form of black feminist activism as simply taking up and reclaiming space. “I truly do believe that to be a black person on this campus is a statement,” she said. “It is continual activism for our community to succeed within a community and this institution that was not made for us, and still is not for us,” said Jones.
Today, our nation exists in what’s been identified as the third wave of feminism, to use terminology associated with race/gender/politics activist Rebecca Walker. While feminism in the first and second waves often focused on the rights of white, well-educated and often affluent women, the third wave is defined by its inclusivity of gendered bodies of all abilities and backgrounds.
But attention to this “third wave” at DU and on other campuses does not mean that exclusionary behavior has ceased to exist. According to Jones, women of color have been highlighting the unequal performance of feminism for more than a century, mostly in relation to what’s known as black feminism. Black feminism has been evolving since Sojourner Truth first delivered her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in 1851, which critiqued the hypocritical demand for women’s rights in the U.S. while simultaneously ignoring the issue of abolition.
Black feminism focuses on “intersectionality,” a term coined by feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe the oppression individuals face depending on their position in society. This is a term that resonates with Jones. “Black women have struggled with being resilient and strong while also performing an expected femininity,” Jones explained. “We’ve been forced to be hard and cold, while being told to be soft and gentle at the same time. Trying to be equal as black and a woman takes an emotional toll. On this campus I’ve had to be resilient and strong while performing my femininity and also realizing that there’s not always a place for that. When I’m an activist on campus I can’t simultaneously express my gender because there’s such a stigma of being a black woman,” Jones continued.
The intersection of sexism, class oppression, racism and gender identity are all emphasized in the curriculum of the Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) program at DU, according to the program’s description. Students studying in GWS are encouraged to explore the variety of ways individuals experience oppression based on these inextricable components of identity.
The GWS department at DU prides itself on using a cross-disciplinary education “to critically examine the intersection of gender with race, ethnicity, class, age, sexualities, abilities, as well as with other categories of difference,” according to the program’s website.
The DU community supports and advances individuals experiencing sexism and gender inequality through a variety of campus programs, organizations, affinities and online resources.
Such dialogues advance inclusivity on campus, according to Jasmine Pulse, assistant director for Undergraduate Student Success. Pulse noted that “limiting expectations of support, inclusion, and the dismantling of oppression to the diversity office [on campus] further contributes to the notion that it is our ‘problem to solve.’”
Students of color who identify within the LGBT community experience gender inequalities in an intersectional way, according to Pulse. And students at DU who do not identify within the gender binary may feel invisible within the LGBT community because of the commonly shared experience of racial discrimination and sexual orientation, or gender identity. The components of oppression experienced by queer students of color cannot be divorced from the struggle for civil and human rights, as Pulse noted.
When institutions of higher education employ a message of inclusivity and equality yet fail to recognize the differences in experiences of students within minoritized groups, they are not progressing towards a community of equality and supportive understanding, according to the U.S. News annual report on campus ethnic diversity, which rates U.S. public and private universities and colleges on their “Diversity Index.” Based on data drawn from each institution’s student body for the 2016-2017 school year, the Diversity Index creates a formula, considering the number of students who identify within the categories of black or African-American, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, white (non-Hispanic) and multiracial. The formula then generates a number between 0 and 1 to rank the diversity of the student body. In the most recent report, DU ranked 0.38. That’s lower than Regis University located just a few miles from DU and the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
Pulse said, “DU is definitely making progress toward creating a more inclusive campus climate. Although I have only been at DU for a year, I have gained a lot of context regarding where DU used to be and where we are now.” Still, diversifying a student body may not be enough to dismantle the social and racial issues that are perpetuated within the DU community, according to Pulse.
