Race And Feminism: Women's March Recalls The Touchy History

npr.org - The streets of Washington looked vastly different the day after Donald J. Trump's inauguration than they did the day-of. Instead of the largely white crowds that lined Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day, people of all colors, classes and ages filled the streets for what's being called the most diverse march for women's rights ever. The Women's March On Washington drew tens of thousands to the nation's capital to press for protection of women's rights, including reproductive health care, LGBT issues and equal pay. "Sister marches" held concurrently in every state across the nation, (and in several cities abroad) added to the numbers and the diversity.

But all that diversity came with a cost: racial tension — not just around the march itself, but around the feminist movement, who leads it and why. Some bemoaned the discord as a distraction from the march, saying on this occasion, "we should all be women first."

Grace Hong is not surprised. A professor of Asian American and Gender Studies at UCLA, Hong says for decades, white women didn't have to consider any interests beyond their own because "historically, the category 'woman' has, implicitly, meant white women." The call to put womanhood above all else, Hong says, is based on the idea that "critique and dissent undermine a unity that's based on the lowest common denominator: Find the one thing everyone has in common."

How Do People Live and Cope In The Midst Of Violent Conflict?

We're pleased to meet Zainab Salbi; an Iraqi American author, social entrepreneur and tireless advocate for women's rights; as she discusses how women's resilience and strength shine through even in the toughest of times. "When you keep the joy, you keep the laughter, you keep singing the song ... that is how women resist and show their resilience," she says.

Read about her here and click through for the interview featured on ideastream, as part of TED Radio Hour on NPR. 

wcpn.ideastream.org - Humanitarian Zainab Salbi explains how life continues in the midst of war — and how the ones who "keep life going" are women.

About Zainab Salbi

Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi-American humanitarian who advocates for women's rights throughout the world, particularly in conflict-ridden areas. In 1993, she founded Women For Women International, an organization whose aim is to help women who are survivors of war.

Since then, Salbi has gone on to write a memoir Between Two Worlds: Escaping From Tyranny where she describes her experiences of growing up in Saddam Hussein's inner-circle. Salbi is also the author of The Other Side Of War, in which she shares the stories of other women's experiences in conflict.

She is currently the host of "Nida'a," a talk show for Arab women broadcast throughout the Middle East and North Africa. She is also the Editor-at-Large at Women In The World Media, a digital news platform hosted by The New York Times.

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NPR Interviews Young Visionary Behind #1000BlackGirlBooks

Marley Dias loves to read. But the New Jersey 11-year-old—who, among other things, has traveled to Ghana to help feed orphans and received a grant from Disney—has made it her latest passion to collect children's books featuring black female protagonists so she and other students can have role models in fiction that include people like themselves.The project, #1000BlackGirlBooks, saw its beginning when Dias commented to her mother that she was "sick of reading about white boys and dogs." Determined to show that there are wonderful black girl protagonists—and to introduce the books to schools and show that reading is enhanced by including diverse perspectives—Dias set out to collect 1,000 such books by the beginning of February. She's currently at 4,000 books and counting.

Dias spoke with NPR's Morning Edition about her effort and the importance of students being able to identify with protagonists.

"I think it's important in general for kids to be reading books with diversity. When you read about a character that you can connect with, you'll remember the things that they learned, so if I like hair bows, and the character I'm reading about likes hair bows; I'll remember what he or she learned in that book because I have something in common with them," Dias told Morning Edition's David Greene.

Read an excerpt and listen to the interview, and click through to check out the rest of the article, including book recommendations from Dias.

NPR Ed - (Excerpt) Black girls, like Marley, were almost never the main character.

What she was noticing is actually a much bigger issue: Fewer than 10 percent of children's books released in 2015 had a black person as the main character, according to a yearly analysis by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. And while the number of children's books about minorities has increased in the past 20 years, many classroom libraries have older books.

Last fall, Marley decided to do something about it. She set a goal of collecting 1,000 books about black girls by the beginning of February, and #1000blackgirlbooks was born.