Letter to ignorance

Dear Ignorance,
I looked past it when a friend said it many moons ago. I look past it when a family member said it not so long ago. I looked past the way the wheels in strangers minds turn when they are wondering about it when I tell them that I have an honours degree in Women’s Studies. So why do I bother to write about it now? I’m tired of looking past it.
I dress comfortably and I’m somewhat of a tomboy. Yea that’s what happens when one grows up with 3 older brothers. I’m not into wearing purses especially when pockets will do. I do my make-up only when I feel like it. I don’t shave my legs until I want to. I don’t have a boyfriend because I don’t want one. I majored in Women’s Studies because finally I found something that relates to me and challenges my way of thinking. I have mostly women friends because they have become family. MY LIFE DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND MEN!!! Does that make me a lesbian??
What does calling me a lesbian actually get you? Is it your way of trying to scare me into conformity? Do you want me to adhere to some fucked up notion of what it means to be a woman? Does it matter that I don’t have a man to latch onto? What if I said I was a lesbian? Then what? Does it matter to you if I say I’m not? What is the problem here? Is my sexuality in question or do you not have enough things in your own life to worry about?
Would you rather me be by myself or have a fucking monster in my life that hits me, cheats on me, and treats me like shit? Well, you and I both know what you have chosen for yourself. And I have chosen what is right for me at this point in my life. Before you think of questioning my sexuality again, think about where your own has gotten you.
Has an entire social movement been lost on women like you who think that the presence or absence of a man defines any part of yourself? I refuse to answer any question you have about my sexuality because, frankly, it is none of your fucking business!!!
I leave you with this bit of advice that I have found very useful to me over the years. The late, great Bob Marley said “emancipate yourself from mental slavery...none but ourselves can free our mind.” I beg of you to rid your mind of ignorance and realize that there is a great big world out there if you choose to look past the men who are blocking your view.

What's left to be done?

As an immigrant woman of colour I am grateful for all the things that the North American civil rights and women's movements have allotted me. I take advantage of the opportunities to pursue without being discriminated against (at least not outright and to my face). I take advantage of my rights to vote. And very seldom do I actually think about how it got to the point that I can do those things. I walk into a university classroom and claim my seat for a semester without giving a second thought to the millions of men and women who did not have the rights much less the opportunities to do the same, not even a century ago. Nor do I consider the struggles of the countless women and men who demanded and fought for these opportunities that I and many others take advantage of.

The colour of my skin, the texture of my hair, the accent that suddenly comes back to me when I talk to a family member, they all serve as reminders of the non-human status that my people have held for hundreds of years...the reproductive organ that i have reminds me of the non-human status that my sex/gender have held for so many centuries. How do I separate those two identities? Sometimes I feel like I have to. But i can't. Those identities help make me who I am and i refuse to identify one as being more important than the other.

The point of all this is that there is still a long way to go before my race and my gender/sex are not the source of oppression, inequity and inequality in society...sometimes it feels like everything that could be done has already been done. What's there left for a young woman of colour who is just now finding her way into the field of social justice to do?