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The three authors of the past week have described systems of oppression from their personal standpoint and position within that system. They have amazing insight into the structure of that oppression not only because they are knowledgeable about their own position, but also because they can recognize the way in which oppression works in a more comprehensive way. They do more than just describe their position; they each offer a solution calling for a consciousness change within society.

Lorde’s position she describes as intersectional. She feels she has many different identities that cannot always be read by others as many within the whole of her self. She is black, lesbian, working-class, feminist, mother—all these things together, which can conflict within her and cause her to suppress one or more aspects of her life in order to be more accepted, simpler to read. Her resolution, therefore, is to say that all differences between people should not be seen as dualisms; rather society needs to accept differences as new knowledge from which to learn and benefit.

Anzaldua is describing much the same position. She has an intersectional consciousness from being positioned between her indigenous Mexican identity and western culture. Hers is a little more complicated though, because of language, and strong differences in cultural values between the two. Her standpoint is fragmented. She feels she cannot find a balance within her aspects of identity because they are so conflicting. She feels like she doesn’t have her foot fully planted anywhere, and this makes her vulnerable to oppression. Her solution is the mestiza consciousness, or ambiguous social identities. She wants to say that the clash that she feels is ok, and not something to thwart her actual existence, or lead to her being considered as lesser than.

Gunn-Allen’s position I see as embodying the mestiza consciousness that Alzaldua describes. She feels tension between the western culture she has entered as an adult, and the Native American culture of her childhood while living on a reservation. While these two influences often conflict, she has made an identity for herself that consolidates them. In this way she is living in the mestiza consciousness, not really being one or the other, but both together. She never has to suppress her Native American-ness or her western-ness; they can exist together. She achieves this by recognizing the power of her native cultural history and reverting to the ideals within it whenever she sees disconnection within the western culture.