Reply To: Setting, and respecting boundaries…
This discussion of borders reminds me of a book chapter by Black feminist scholar Suryia Nayak that I read recently.
In it, she talks about ‘border consciousness’ and how the goal isn’t to eliminate all borders (and thus create a ‘border-less’ world), but rather, for us to acknowledge the very real differences between us so that we can embrace the “emancipatory potential of crossing through, with, and over these borders in our everyday lives.” (which Nayak quotes from Mohanty’s book Feminism Without Borders)
To JJ’s point, I feel that cultivating grounded curiosity and visibilizing hidden borders can help us experience the emancipatory potential of confronting and traversing difference.
I also love this quote from Gina Valdés (in Spanish): “Hay tantísimas fronteras due dividen a la gente, pero por cada frontera existe también un puente.” (From Anzaldúa’s ‘Borderlands’).
The translation is: “There are so many borders that divide us, but for each border there is also a bridge.”
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This reply was modified 2 weeks, 4 days ago by
Lily Alexander.
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This reply was modified 2 weeks, 1 day ago by Walk Around Philadelphia Admin.
Lily Alexander.
Walk Around Philadelphia Admin.