It was a great book, just what I needed to read at that time. I had always held that any self-respecting woman had to be a feminist, and living in more than one place had taught me that each culture has its own particular ways of keeping its women under. Just as I was getting used to this idea of a pan-national, trans-historical sisterhood, the essays in this book — by Afro-, Asian-, Latin- and Native-American women — complicated that idea. The essays were eloquent, passionate and thought-provoking, and made me see how I benefited from having white skin. For the first time in my life, I saw myself as a person of relative privilege.
When I telephoned — or called, as I was learning to say — to tell Susan so, she squealed with delight. "I knew it," she cried, her voice an even deeper shade o
