Question: "How much of your feminism flies in the face of your family? Do you find yourself at Thanksgiving dinner muffling your voice in favor of a 'nice' gathering? Or do you snap at your homophobic relative over the gravy? Or do you all forgo the big dinner and volunteer at the local food pantry instead?"
my family dinners usually consist of mother and sisters. that's our family. when the four of us are together, rioting ensues with much witty banter and hilarious conversation bringing on contagious laughter. people outside our immediate circle think we're weird (go figure). of course, we are all of different political ideology. i'm the most radical with my Love Knows No Gender/Color/Class self. then there's my older sister who lives with the father of her third child and is his domestic slave in all ways. my younger sister is a post-90s cynic who sees "PC" as conventional and is currently on a quest create the world's first Roadkill coffee table book. so, me being a "feminist" (or, humanist, as i prefer) isn't a big deal. my mother was a single parent who married outside her race and who worked through school and jobs and raised three kids. she's definitely a role model for feminism.
however, at our mother's extended family gatherings, my sisters and i are refered to as "little niggers" as we are the darkest of the relatives. my father is mexican and cape verdean, so we're a nice hue ranging from burnished gold to light tan. the old timers in our bunch are Southern Baptist Democrats who are staunchly against uppity-ness in all its forms. we all keep our views to ourselves cause, as always, we're the minority and it's not our job to "enlighten" people who are just fine in their views. we practice a version of tolerance that means we neither advocate nor discourage the thoughts of those around us. we simply exist within them and then pick them apart afterwards. it's kind of like watching the 700 club just to find out what the enemy's up to. with friends/strangers, i'll step up to the challenge and voice my ideas/opinions, but with family - well, they aren't going anywhere so you just have to deal with it. family's family.
