Women of color gather for symposium

Womanism, activism and media representation were at the heart of a conference Saturday intended to educate and to bring together women from various backgrounds.

More than 30 women and a few men attended The Women of Color Symposium, held in Hutchins Hall. The event revolved around discussion of issues important to women of color.

The conference consisted of three panels, ranging from general discussion of womanism to more specific discussion of media and representation and activism.

Deana Rabiah, one of event's coordinators, described these three topics as basic issues that every woman must face.

Panelists discussing the topic of womanism talked about the place of women of color within the feminist movement. Rabiah explained that the discussion the panel initiated was significant because women of color often have been excluded from the great

JEREMY MENCHIK/Daily LSA senior Rabeha Kamaluddin, a peer education co-coordinator for the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, speaks at the Women of Color Symposium held at Hutchins Hall on Saturday.

er feminist movement.

The second panel, media and representation, covered stereotypes that are often assigned to women of color from various backgrounds. Panelists included Emma Garcia, an American culture graduate student instructor, LSA senior Gail Kim and Michelle Mitchell, an associate professor in history and the Center for African and Afro-American Studies.

The panelists discussed the range of stereotypes the media applies to women of color, citing many examples and explaining how those stereotypes affect perceptions of women of color.

Mitchell briefly described a few stereotypical images of black women in film and television. One of the six stereotypes she classified was the "sapphire" which she said is "an overly aggressive, domineering, pushy loud black woman who takes no sass; if married, her husband is henpecked; if unmarried, she is a pathetic, pushy old maid who drives away men." Mitchell said the character Florence from the television sitcom "The Jeffersons" fits the definition of the "sapphire."

The panelists gave numerous examples of stereotypes linked to women of color. They showed how some stereotypes are constant across all ethnic groups and others are more specific to certain women.

The last of the three components, and what Rabiah described as the focus of the symposium, was the activism panel.

She said the coordinators didn't want to stop at the discussion of women's issues.

The idea behind the activism panel, she said, was to elevate the level of dialogue to demonstrate how women of color have impacted their communities and ways that they can be involved in the future.

LSA sophomore Brian Babb said that as a minority student, he is aware of the unique obstacles people of color face. He said the conference was an opportunity for him to educate himself better about the struggles of women.

"It's a necessary perspective to understand," Babb said.

Kim said she agreed to participate to be a panelist because discussion such as those are important in inviting change.

"As individuals our voice is very small, but as a group our voice is very large and in order to change anything we need to be a group," Kim said.

04-19-99