ABSTRACT
Here we reflect upon our experiences collaborating on a participatory action research project at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) in the summer of 2002. We represent six members of a team of seven who worked together on a qualitative research project called “Makes Me Mad: Stereotypes of Young Urban Womyn of Color,” a study that considers the relationship between the lack of resources in a
community (the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City) and mischaracterizations of young women.2 The project is for and by young urban womyn of color, and is reflective of our own concerns and the issues that personally affected us. The theme of stereotypes repeatedly came up in our group discussions. We latched onto the idea of exploring the stereotypes that we were frustrated with and challenged by. Though we are all women of color, we are a diverse collection of personalities and backgrounds; the fact that we all felt so passionately about this topic is a testament to its likely importance to all young womyn affected by stereotypes that are pervasive in popular culture and the self-image issues that stem from them. This is a snapshot of our collaborative process that we think gives a sense of where we started and the evolution of our project. Along the way we share our different perspectives on what it was like to be involved in this project, our process, the challenges we faced, and the impacts of our research.
