The Importance of Personal Identity

While the theme of racial identity is an overarching and obvious priority for women of color in the feminist movement, the value of one's own individual identity comes frequently only as a result of that larger, overarching search. When women who identify themselves as lesbians, for example, are rejected in both their own and white American culture, the alienation they feel forces them to find and rest in their own personal strength. They must use that as a source later for the strength to forge new paths in culture. It is also reinforced by the experience of having stifled one's identity in order to more closely resemble white America, when in adulthood, the fatigue of the facade finally drives a woman back to her heritage, and reminds her of its value. Speaking specifically about writers, it is the truth of genuinely felt and expressed...