This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color

While issues of environmental rights were not a main focus of this text, pieces like Chrystos’s “No Rock Scorns Me as Whore” touch on nature and ecology in a Third World woman context. Using the Third World feminist lens of This Bridge Is Called My Back, how might one address the visibility and invisibility of Third World women in an ecological context?

While This Bridge Is Called My Back addresses the blindness to privilege in mainstream feminism of the era, issues of privilege and oppression continue to be topics of serious discussion in the United States. For example, top industry leaders and members of government today continue to be overwhelmingly male and white. How would you characterize the discussions around privilege and oppression today, compared to the way they are characterized in this anthology? What are mainstream examples of ways the subject of privilege and oppression are being addressed, and how does this fit with the sentiments exhibited by the contributors to This Bridge Is Called My Back?

The topic of separatism—feminists separating from non-feminists, lesbians from straight people, people of color from white people—comes up time and time again in This Bridge Is Called My Back. Drawing from at least three examples in the text, what are the arguments for and against separatist movements? What would you argue is the stance on separatism articulated by the Third World feminists in this book?

This Bridge Is Called My Back is made up of a blend of poetry, prose, essays, speeches, and interviews pertaining to the experiences of Third World women and women of color. The authors also include pictures of artists’ works, such as paintings or collages. How does this range of mediums serve the purpose of this anthology? What would be different if the editors chose to limit the book to one type of writing style, such as a book of poetry, a series of interviews, or a collection of essays?

What are some specific examples of internalized oppression described in this book?

Many of the contributing authors to This Bridge Is Called My Back identify as lesbians in addition to being Third World women. While few feminist scholars of the time period focused on the experience of nonwhite women, even fewer acknowledged that of queer women. Drawing from examples in this book, what are similarities and differences between the ways these lesbian authors’ sexuality intersects with their experiences of being Third World women?

Drawing from This Bridge Is Called My Back and your own research, what could the acknowledgement of differences between women while still working together to reach feminist goals look like among feminist groups, and do you see any examples in movements today that try to achieve this balance?

This Bridge Is Called My Back is written by Third World women in a mainly US context, but many of them come from immigrant families, and there are references to Third World women across the world. How do you see the messages of this book being adapted for a global audience? What issues may remain the same, and what additional forms of privilege and oppression may need to be addressed?