Queer Nuns by Melissa M. Wilcox

Author:Melissa M. Wilcox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New York University Press

Navigating Whiteness

Like Sister Baba, other Sisters of color also note the whiteness of their order. For some, this is not a problematic state of affairs; others share Baba’s longing for a larger community of Sisters of color. In her remarks on Sister Baba’s blog, Sister Freida says to “the Sisters of today” that “I am glad to see the immense diversity you express and though I’m told there are many more Sisters-of-color than were when I ‘entered’, I’d sure like to see more of you.”13 Sister Chiquieata relates, “For a long time I thought I was alone.”14 And in the middle of a conversation about whiteface during the 2011 international Conclave, Sister Jonbennet Gesserit commented to me, “I haven’t met very many Sisters of color.” “I’ve not either,” I responded, already nearly two years into my fieldwork. Sister Jonbennet continued, “I think I’ve met—” She paused to count. “Three.”15 Sister Baba even joked during our interview that when other members of the San Francisco house ask her about her lattice face she always replies, “You’re welcome! Because you could use the P.R.”16 White members of the order around the world have also criticized not only whiteness but also racism in the Sisters. Mother Inferior, for example, one of the founders of the Australian order, told me flat-out that “some nuns are racist and sexist. We can’t have that in a Sister of Perpetual Indulgence.”17

To put a few numbers to the patterns I describe herein: of the ninety-one Sisters whom I interviewed, seventy-six were asked and answered my question about racial and ethnic identification. Of these, two replied that they do not identify racially. Two more found the question problematic—one even called it offensive—but both reluctantly described themselves as having white European heritage. Including the latter two Sisters, a total of sixty-one—over four-fifths—of those who answered this question identified themselves as solely white and/or European in ancestry. Seven interview participants identified as multiracial, having among them white, Latino, Native American (one Nez Perce and the other two unspecified), black, South Asian, Filipino, and Chinese ancestry. Three considered themselves Latino, Hispanic, or Chicano, two identified as Native American (one Morongo and one Cherokee), and one identified as black. Because I had the opportunity to interview a number of Sisters with whom I did not conduct fieldwork, these demographics are if anything less white and less non-Native than those I saw when attending Sister events in the United States and Europe.

Five of the Sisters who identify as white also described an ancestry similar to that described by the Sisters who consider themselves multiracial. All had some white ancestry and generally felt that they were perceived as white by those around them, which impacted their decision to identify as white. In addition, one participant had Pacific Islander ancestry, one had Chinese ancestry, and two had Latin American ancestry.18 The fifth Sister who identifies as white but whose ancestry and racial identity relate in complex ways is both white and Cherokee; her story contrasts with

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