Women of Color--Diversity Network

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Comment by Elizabeth Asahi Rising-Sun Sato on October 15, 2009 at 11:53pm

Sue thanks for the info but please reassure me that you are not spamming this website with advertisements. I pray it ain't so because we have already had spammers on here from other countries run the usual con. I understand wanting to promote you business but I purposefully do not inundate my sisters on TWHP with advertisements et al unless a colleague asks about my line of work. The groups generally are meant for dialogue about a specific topic or concern. I welcome your contribution in this regard. Elizabeth

Comment by Sue Lundquist on October 14, 2009 at 11:16am

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Comment by Elizabeth Asahi Rising-Sun Sato on July 2, 2008 at 5:46pm

TWHP Leaders:

Check it out sisters:

http://www.americandiversityreport.com/

Informative, interesting and very unique. A must see, must read and by all means a must support. We have got to start supporting each other--come on now--are women brilliant and creative or what?

This website is an incredible mechanism for diverse thought and articulating important news that just does not get reported in the "Big C's" (ABC, CBS, NBC) and traditionally "exclusive" publishing circuits.

I give it two thumbs up!

Asahi

Comment by Gloria Cordova, Ph.D. on June 25, 2008 at 10:35pm

I'm a Latina, born and raised in southern Colorado, and now living nearly 40 years in northern New Mexico. I've accumulated volumes of lessons-learned from LIFE, developing a personal philosophy of open-heart, LOVE God(de), and service toward others. I know from experience that POC are treated differently (i.e., as lesser) and that a lifetime of hurt embeds itself as internalized oppression. Recovery is possible! I've participated in ReEvaluation Counseling (RC) and learned to get beyond the re-stimulation that can happen when hurtful experiences touch those places that were hurt before.

We can change. We can grow and develop.
From my now nearly 70 years of life experience.
Love and blessings to the women in this forum.

Comment by Elizabeth Asahi Rising-Sun Sato on June 11, 2008 at 10:22pm

Greetings wonderful, incredible and powerful women of the White House Project:

When I posted this forum, it was my intent to welcome "diversity of thought" as well as diversity of culture, political view and faith perspective. I too am a believer but I articulate, celebrate and express my faith perspective in a very different way.
I feel very strongly that Jesus Christ was the ultimate radical change-agent and that he articulated a truth that was often rejected during his time and even now in our current generation his message is often-times not well received. He was continually reminded of and embraced his cultural heritage, an indigenous prophet from a tribe that was persecuted. He exemplified the purest form of love and forgiveness but he also had the courage to speak out about injustice.

For two decades of my life, I hated Christians. I swore I would rather die than to profess a faith that also included membership from the KKK or slave traders. For five hundred year’s missionaries and evangelists tried to bring the gospel to reservations forcefully espousing a cultural genocide to my people with little love or grace. Every political science class I attended or in-depth cultural studies I immersed myself in to push me further away from a gospel I felt caused more anguish than good.

But then my life transformed. The very thing I hated. The very perspective I despised entered my life through an immediate spiritual very personal transformation that can only be described as divine intervention. I was very hard-headed in my twenties but God wanted to use me and use me He did.

I too, wish I could set aside my culture. I would love to go shopping at Nordstrom and not get followed around by security or apply for a small business bank loan and be warmly welcomed and encouraged. Goodness gracious wouldn’t it be nice to be woman executive who can step in to a board meeting amongst men without the all-male board reminding you that your gender prohibits you from engaging in the real decision-making process?

I cannot set aside my culture nor put away my gender. I am who I am because God purposefully created me to be who I am and I am very honored to be me. That does not mean it is always easy nor does it mean that my life is in any way privileged. In fact—like my faith perspective, there comes many challenges and barriers that I have to purposefully choose with each day to face. I don’t believe I am any less of a believer or a woman of God or a woman of color or a woman period if I purposefully choose to embrace all that I am whether it is accepted, cool or recognized by any power system/structure.

I believe in the restorative power of forgiveness and I believe in the significance of truth but I also believe that to articulate truth that we must have courage to face what is real and we cannot allow our fears to immobilize our talents or gifts. We must not hide it away, water it down or use it forcefully. I will never ever forget about my color, set it aside, water it down or deny it—ever—it is me.

My Grandfather James Arthur Kent, Sr. was a son of a sharecropper. He recently went home to be with the Lord at 96 and I have written many short stories about his life and the rigors of sharecropping. Being raised in the segregated south he was often told to forget his color and then was promptly reminded of who he was or what others believed him to be when he went to buy groceries or deposit money at a local bank. He was a decorated military policeman in the army and served our country in two wars but when he tried to get a job as a police officer in Portland he was told that he could only police “his own people." Grandpa turned that good paying job down even with seven mouths to feed because he was a man of tremendous principal. He decided that if he could not be a regular policeman like all public servants, he refused to just police his own people. Grandpa loved the Lord with all of his heart and soul and professed such a powerful faith until his dying day, he probably knew the Word better than most preachers who study it their entire life and graduate with multiple theological degrees. Grandpa never set his color aside, he was proud to be who God made him to be and he made me feel very worthy as his granddaughter.

Now don’t get me wrong. I do not use my culture or my color or my gender to guilt-trip anyone or seek advantage. I work just as hard as the next person but the simple truth is racism still exists, there are still cultural and gender barriers and we still have a great deal of work to do to equalize a playing field that was not level since day one. I don’t think Jesus would stand for this type of injustice and neither will I. My three sons who are incredibly bright, academically exceptional and outright phenomenal human beings are reminded in the affluent (allegedly educated) environment where we live that they are less then each and every day. Do you think hiding away who they are will help? They hear the N-word more times in school than they have in their entire life listening to various forms of music.

I can understand and embrace what my sister is trying to say—but I respectfully disagree. We have to be able dialogue lovingly and with courage but we must dialogue nonetheless for understanding and to effect real change. My experience is different. I can embrace your perspective and but despite all I do to be educated, successful, skilled and resourceful—sometimes all people see first is my color and my gender –and while they want me to feel less then—I refuse to—because I am Asahi, the rising sun and I will rise to excellence each and every day in the brilliance of all of my color. Can I get an amen?
In complete love and respect,
Asahi

Comment by Crystal Brown-Tatum on May 28, 2008 at 12:11am

We are the change we want to see! By being active members of this forum, we are sharing ideas, brainstorming, networking, forging alliances and fostering open dialogues on change in preparation for the future.

Comment by Belinda on May 20, 2008 at 11:41am

Good afternoon,
Sisters. Just a thought: You need to be the change you want to see!"
Blessings, Belinda

Comment by Crystal Brown-Tatum on May 18, 2008 at 11:38am

OH my gosh Elizabeth! That is terrible! I can see that happening because our SCORE (Houston) is run by older White males as well. And I thought I had it bad when people say "You are so well spoken." Um...I haven't had a stroke so why wouldn't I speak well?

Comment by Elizabeth Asahi Rising-Sun Sato on May 18, 2008 at 2:55am

Hi Crystal: Well--- SBA suggested SCORE and boy was that a waste of time. I had to endure retired Caucasian men telling me about how much they love "Injuns" and insisting I listen to their stories and when they realized I was also half Japanese I got the stories about WWII. It was not helpful at all. I have much more on the ball then the SCORE folks at least in this part of the country. I found out about a couple of mico lending programs which I am goin to check out and I will report back.

Comment by Crystal Brown-Tatum on May 13, 2008 at 5:12pm

From my experience, Black women have the hardest time securing bank loans based on the perception (and there may be some validity to it) that Blacks have the lowest credit scores. If you have your paperwork, solid business plan and stable financial history, you may qualify. Have you thought about approaching the SBA or SCORE for loan guidance?

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