I’m a light skinned, mixed race, Jewish/Arab-American, lesbian, feminist.  For many people, I defy their realities.

I’m a mixed race, US based, Jewish, Latina, butch lesbian of African descent. For many people I defy their realities.

I enter into People of Color spaces and it is presumed that I am the tragic mulatta or `simply’ a Black American. My history as a Jewish Latina of the African Diaspora is largely ignored and discounted as irrelevant.  Given this definition of Blackness and its assumptions, it is then deemed safe to talk about immigrants taking over the country, Jews taking over the neighborhoods, Arabs as terrorists or mixed people as lost causes. 

I enter into People of Color spaces and I am often considered to be too light skinned to be a “legitimate” person of color.  I’m told that I could not possibly experience racism and I am actively silenced- the door literally slammed in my face.

I can’t enter and don’t desire entering into predominantly white spaces except sometimes when I am with other Jews, and even then whiteness is not the same as it is among non-Jews. Yet, despite what we have in common, the internalized notions of who constitutes a Jew is unearthed and I become the other.   In the few white spaces I have entered, it is clear I am there conditionally, always conditionally. 

I enter into predominantly white spaces and I am not to be trusted because I explode and disrupt notions of whiteness.  White people become enraged by my presence as someone who looks white but is “other”.  I am treated with contempt and distrust.

I enter into LGBTI spaces and I am over-sexualized: the mulatta who gives it away, the Latina sex object.  When I dare to speak, it is met with much consternation.  According to many in those rooms, I am also not really butch - my hair is locked, not chopped; my aesthetic is not stiff enough to pin down. 

I enter into lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex spaces and I am not a `legitimate’ lesbian because I am femme - being mixed race, Jewish and Arab does not sit well with folks either. The presumption is that I’m trying to fit into the status quo by passing as a white and heterosexual woman. 

We are dykes who feel strongly that transphobia and biphobia are unacceptable and must be challenged with vigilance in all levels and aspects of our movement, including in the creation of movement history.

We are feminists and Jews.  To the discomfort of many, we disrupt and challenge sexism.  This enrages both men and women.

We are Jews who feels strongly that anti-Semitism must be challenged and that its definition should move beyond anti-Jewish sentiment to include prejudice, genocide and violence against any community that does not practice Christianity.  Many feel that we are operating from a place of internalized anti-Semitism and that we are bringing disrespect and dishonor to the Jewish Diaspora - in particular the Ashkenazi community.

We are women of color who believe that the boundaries of racial and ethnic identity must collapse and be reconstituted to fit the complexities of past, present and future generations.  We want a new alternative to black and white binary thinking.

We are saddened that our existence defies reality for many people.  We think that the reason this happens is because many people are caught up in the blindness of binary thinking. Bridge people – those of us that transgress socially sanctioned boundaries and communities – are lightening rods and targets of other people’s anger because we disrupt notions of identity, place and belonging.  We must continue to disrupt these notions without taking away from or diluting the experiences of other oppressed communities. However, we must also work to ensure that the framework in which we are operating is wide enough to allow for peoples’ wholeness, complexity and reality. 

This is our call for multiplicity.