Seeking Trust and Commitment in Women's Interracial Collaboration in the Nineteenth Century and Today

Abstract

We do not need to become each other in order to work together. But we do need to recognize each other, our differences as well as the sameness of our goals. —Audre Lorde (“Commencement” 216) We were drawn to this special issue of MELUS in part by research we each do on nineteenth-century interracial collaborations, but of equal interest was the opportunity to examine our own experiences with interracial collaboration. Having crafted this essay, we now understand women’s interracial collaborations to signify both social action projects and writing produced through a shared composing process. Notable cases of interracial collaboration by US-affiliated women have often begun with one (either participating in a coalition around a social goal or writing together) and moved to the other. In either case, particular collaborations need not reach an “ideal” status to be productive, but achieving a degree of trust through commitment to identifiable goals (whether visionary or pragmatic) supports women’s interracial collaborative work.