Here’s a Much-Needed History Lesson on the Origins of the Term ‘Women of Color’

March 10, 2015 / Loretta Ross

Have you ever wondered where the term “women of color” came from? Have you mistakenly assumed that it was created by white people? Are you unsure about how you feel about it?

Check out this awesome video where Loretta Ross gives a history lesson on how it came to be, what it really means, and why it’s so important.

Let us know if you use it – and why or why not.

With Love,
The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

Loretta Ross:

You all know where the term women of color came from? Who can say that? See, we’re bad at transmitting history. In 1977, a group of black women from Washington, DC went to the National Women’s Conference that Jimmy Carter had given 5 million dollars to have as part of the world decade for women. There was a conference in Houston, Texas.

This group of black women carried to that conference something called a Black Women’s Agenda because the organizers of the conference, what have you, had put together a three-page minority women’s plank in a 200-page document that these black women thought was somewhat inadequate.

They actually formed a group called Black Women’s Agenda to come there in Houston with a black women’s plan of action that they wanted the delegates to vote to substitute for the minority plank that was in the proposed plan of action. Well, a funny thing happened in Houston. When they took the Black Women’s Agenda to Houston, then all the rest of the minority women of color wanted to be included in the Black Women’s Agenda.

Okay. Well, they agreed – except that you could no longer call it the Black Women’s Agenda. It was in those negotiations in Houston, the term women of color was created. Okay? They didn’t see it as a biological designation. You’re born Asian. You’re born black. You’re born African-American. Whatever. It is a solidarity definition, a commitment to work in collaboration with other oppressed women of color who have been minoritized.

Now, what’s happened in the 30 years since then is that people see it as biology now. You know? People are saying, “I don’t want to be defined as a woman of color. I am black. I am Asian-American.” Well, that’s fine. But why are you reducing a political designation to a biological destiny. That’s what white supremacy wants you to do, you know?

I think it’s a setback when we disintegrate as people of color, you know? Around primitive ethnic claiming, you know? Yes, we are Asian-American, Native American, whatever. But the point is, when you choose to work with other people who are minoritized by oppression, you have lifted yourself out of that basic identity into another political being, another political space.

Unfortunately, so many times, people of color hear the term “people of color” from other white people; then they think white people created it. Instead of understanding that we self-named ourselves this. This is a term that has a lot of power for us. But, we’ve done a poor-ass job of communicating that history so that people understand that power.

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Loretta Ross is a nationally-recognized women’s rights and human rights leader and expert on women’s issues and racism. Her work emphasizes the intersectionality of social justice issues and how this transforms social change. She was a co-founder and the National Coordinator, from 2005 to 2012, of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a network of women of color and allied organizations that organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement. You can check her out at her website and on Twitter @lorettajross.