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“Thinking Familiar with the Interstitial”: An Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Abstract

It's not that we haven't always been here, since there was a here. It is that the letters of our names have been scrambled when they were not totally erased, and our fingertips upon the handles of history have been called the random brushings of birds. (Lorde 1990, ix)

Because… [racialized peoples'] dehumanization has not been successful, conceiving of self and others and their exercise of themselves both against dehumanization and toward liberatory possibilities has meant living double lives backed up by peopled ways of living, acting, perceiving, thinking familiar with the interstitial, liminal, and with breaking up with, delinking from, colonial modernity. (Lugones, this issue, 20; my emphasis)

We are not born women of color. We become women of color. To become women of color, we would need to become fluent in each other's histories, to resist and unlearn an impulse allowing mythologies to replace knowing about one another…. We cannot afford to cease yearning for each other's company. (Alexander 2002, 91; italics in original)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Hypatia, Inc.

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Footnotes

There are so many people whose support and hard work made this special issue possible. Many thanks to Linda Alcoff, Alison Wylie, Asia Ferrin, and the members of the University of Washington Hypatia staff whose encouragement and aid made this difficult project much easier. I owe a debt of gratitude to Donna‐Dale Marcano who played an integral role in the proposal of this special issue. Thank you to all the contributors who worked hard to produce women of color feminist philosophy in their own images. Thank you as well to all of the anonymous reviewers (and there were many) who took time out of their busy schedules to provide valuable feedback throughout this process. And, finally, thank you to all of the people who submitted essays to be reviewed for this special issue. Every essay submitted aided in informing and expanding my understanding of women of color feminist philosophy. There is some fantastic work out there.

References

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Anzaldúa, Gloria E., and Keating, Ana Louise. 2002. This bridge we call home: Radical visions for transformation. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press.Google Scholar
Lorde, Audre. 1990. Foreword. In Wild women in the whirlwind: Afra‐American culture and the contemporary literary renaissance, ed. Braxton, J. and McLaughlin, A.New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Moraga, Cherríe, and Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1981. This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. Watertown, Mass.: Persephone Press.Google Scholar
Ochieng'‐Odhiambo, F. 2006. The tripartite in philosophic sagacity. Philosophica Africana 9 (1): 1734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reagon, Bernice Johnson. 1983. Coalition politics: Turning the century. In Home girls: A Black feminist anthology, ed. Smith, B.New York: Kitchen Table Press.Google Scholar