Product Description

What would it take to end violence against women of color? How does the mainstream antiviolence movement help? How does it hinder? When will we admit that repositioning women of color at the center of the movement— women more often harmed by the police, prisons, and border patrols than aided by them— means that we must address state violence?

In Color of Violence, INCITE! demands that we • reconsider a reliance on the criminal justice system for solving women’s struggles with domestic violence; • acknowledge how militarism subjects women to extreme levels of violence perpetrated from within, and without, their communities; • recognize how the medical establishment inflicts violence—such as involuntary sterilization and inadequate health care—on women of color; • devise new strategies for cross-cultural dialogue, theorizing, and alliance building; • and much, much more.

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence was born in 2000, when more than two thousand dedicated activists from diverse communities came together to end the war being waged on women of color in the US and around the world. Now the largest multiracial, grassroots, feminist organization in the United States, INCITE! boasts chapters in more than 20 cities. Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology presents the fierce and vital writing of 32 of these visionaries, who not only shift the focus from domestic violence and sexual assault, but also map innovative strategies of movement building and resistance used by women of color around the world. At a time of heightened state surveillance and repression of people of color, Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology is an essential intervention.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #233610 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 275 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Anyone who's complacent about the successes of the feminist movement should dip into this collection of 28 essays about the women left behind, left out or simply forgotten. Ranging in style from the jeremiad to the jargon-laden, from the anecdotal to the analytical, the essays are compiled by Incite!, which describes itself as "the largest multiracial grassroots feminist organization in the U.S." Three essays offer eye-opening revelations below the radar of mainstream feminism ("Disability in the New World Order" by Nirmala Erevelles; "Disloyal to Feminism: Abuse of Survivors within the Domestic Violence Shelter System" by Emi Kayama; "Criminal Punishment and Economic Violence Against Women of Color" by Patricia Allard). Though representing a broad spectrum, the contributions often fall in ethnic huddles; four, for example, focus on the Israel/Palestine conflict and three on Iraq and terrorism. Andrea Ritchie's "Law Enforcement Violence against Women of Color" and Andrea Smith's "Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy" are noteworthy for their inclusiveness. Frequently polemical and controversial, some essays may preach to the choir while turning off the congregation. Two haunting poems by Noura Erekat and maiana minahal urge a thoughtful consideration of the other texts. (Nov.)
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From the Publisher
Springing from the work of the nation's largest grassroots multiracial feminist organization, this collection expands understandings about violence against women, clarifying how violence operates through race, class, gender, and nationality, and exposing the state's role in condoning and furthering violence.

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended.
Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology is a collection of politically charged writings by a diverse variety of authors (all or nearly all of whom are female) concerning violence against women of color, endemic in numerous settings - from domestic violence to institutionalized or even militarized rape committed against women of color crossing the US-Mexico border, legal and illegal immigrant women of color, and women of color in the prison-industrial complex. Other feminist and person of color concerns addressed range from the tendency of state systems to take black children away from their mothers more readily than white children in the same living situations; the profound negative impact that war has upon the lives of women and the culture they live in; discrimination and dehumanization amid domestic violence shelters; and much more. Though some of Color of Violence may lean toward the radical side of social engineering - such as the exhortation "prisons don't work", which ignores the simple fact that a rapist or murderer removed from society cannot continue his violence against society at large while he remains isolated from it - the majority of the essays are biting, candid, and honest in their assessment of very real inadequacies on personal, familial, and governmental levels to promote a safe world for women, as well as how the white, middle-class feminist perspective can actually be deleterious to the needs of women of color. Highly recommended.