Dear Editor,

I wanted to commend you on your most recent issue on feminism. I must say I was attracted to the cover, and the articles within were interesting as well. However, I was surprised to read over an over throughout your articles that feminism stands for “equal opportunity in life for all people” according to Dr. Mary Cameron. I thought, “Wow, that is a huge definition that technically makes every human rights activist, social reformer, and minority advocate a feminist.” If this is so, why don’t minority advocates, especially minority women, participate in organizations such as NOW in large numbers? The truth is that racial discrimination is a far more prominent issue for minorities than sexism. In fact, historically, organizations like NOW have had low numbers of minority participants partly because minorities have felt that the issues on the table mainly favored middle class white Caucasian women. Also some minorities are in contrast to the polarizing approach some the feminist organizations take towards the sexes. Most minorities, both men and women, feel they are being equally discriminated against; as a result, most of their effort is spent trying to eliminate racial discrimination. Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American women have to overcome the racial stigma first. And then if they overcome that barrier (in the workplace for example), they tackle the sexism issue. Therefore, I believe that ideally feminism wishes to advocate equal opportunity for all, but it really for the most part addresses the issues of middle class white Caucasian women.