How identity politics can
be used to spark just societies rather than dividing society
This
book explores women of color’s grassroots leadership in
organizations that are not singularly identified with feminism.
Centered in New York City, Pushing
Back brings an
intersectional perspective to communities of color as it addresses
injustices tied to domestic work, housing, and environmental policies
and practices. Ariella Rotramel shows how activists respond to
injustice and marginalization, documenting the ways people of color
and the working class in the United States recognize identity as key
to the roots of and solutions to injustices such as environmental
racism and gentrification.
Rotramel
further provides an in-depth analysis of the issues that
organizations representing transnational communities of color
identify as fundamental to their communities and how they frame them.
Introducing the theoretical concept of “queer motherwork,”
Rotramel explores the forms of advocacy these activists employ and
shows how they negotiate internal diversity (gender, race, class,
sexuality, etc.) and engage broader communities, particularly as
women-led groups.
Pushing
Back highlights
case studies of two New York–based organizations, the
pan-Asian/American CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities (formerly the
Committee Against Anti- Asian Violence) and South Bronx’s Mothers
on the Move/ Madres en Movimiento (MOM). Both organizations are
small, women-led community organizations that have participated in a
number of progressive coalitions on issues such as housing rights,
workers’ rights, and environmental justice at the local, national,
and global levels.
