Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) championed identity politics over the weekend and claimed that society today conditions women “to act like white men.” She made her remarks during the South By Southwest event in Austin, Texas.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the Democratic Party’s most high-profile progressive stars right now, answered questions from the audience during the festival. One woman wanted to know what advice Ocasio-Cortez would give “to young girls of color who want to get into politics.”
AOC, as she’s become known, launched into an explanation of how women of color must “stop trying to navigate systems of power.” Instead, she argued, they must “start building your own power.”
Ocasio-Cortez added, “There are so many subconscious forces that make us try to act like somebody else.”
“And — and we’re taught to like — like put our hair back, and be small, and — and articulate in a certain way, and you know, be square, and essentially try to — try to do an impression of power,” which uses “our subconscious signals to try to act like white men,” she said.
But “even if you’re producing the same result [or] the same quality of work, you are somehow seen as less than” others who aren’t women of color, the congresswoman insisted. – MORE