White feminism is when one focuses on issues concerning well-off white women and fails to address oppression faced by women of color and other women without privilege. A great example of this happened just last week. Conservative talk show host Tomi Lahren, who is known for her less than kind words towards liberals, admitted to being pro-choice, and got suspended for a week, however, according to several news sites including New York Daily News, she may not return to the show despite the remaining six months on her contract.
At first, this sounds pretty great, right? She thinks women should have the right to choose whether she wants to get an abortion and the government has no place in that decision. So, she's not really as bad as people made her out to be, right? Not so fast.
Tomi has an extensive history of saying some controversial things that quite frankly are uninformed and borderline hate speech, such as when she tweeted the Black Lives Matter movement is the new KKK. The tweet has since been deleted, but Daily Mail grabbed a screenshot while it was still out on the internet.
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| Photo courtesy of Daily Mail |
However, after she told the world she's pro-choice on the talk show The View (her answer begins around 3:30), women all over the country flocked to praise her for holding such a feminist viewpoint. Someone even wrote an article on The Odyssey Online apologizing to her for tearing her down.
This is the perfect example of white feminism.
People were willing to forgive Tomi and suddenly have a complete attitude change toward her because she said she's pro-choice. They were willing to forget all of the racist rhetoric she's been spewing for months, and even the hateful comments she made about the Women's March a little over two months ago, calling them "snowflakes", saying they were crying and playing the victim card.
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| Photo courtesy of Tomi Lahren Twitter |
Feminism that ignores the struggles of fellow minority sisters is not real feminism. You can't claim to fight for women's rights unless you fight for ALL women's rights. This is called "intersectional feminsim".
An article from USA Today reports "If feminism is advocating for women's rights and equality between the sexes, intersectional feminism is the understanding of how women's overlapping identities — including race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation — impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination." According to the same article, intersectionality is a term first coined in 1989 by UCLA and Columbia Law professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in her seminal paper on race theory.
The feminist movement is no stranger to discrimination; there is a long history of racial tension coupled with women's rights movements. The National Public Radio analyzes this history. In the article, Boston University historian Ashley Farmer says, "When we actually get down to representation or creating a list of demands or mobilizing around a set of ideas...it tends to be that white middle-class or upper-class women's priorities get put above the rest."
One particularly infamous movement involving white feminism is the suffragette movement in the early twentieth century. Although she made great strides for women's suffrage, Susan B. Anthony was no friend to black people. According to Wesleyan University, she said “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman”, and, even worse than that, according to Women in World History Curriculum, she even said, "...The old anti slavery school says women must stand back and wait until the negroes shall be recognized. But we say, if you will not give the whole loaf of suffrage to the entire people, give it to the most intelligent first. If intelligence, justice, and morality are to have precedence in the government, let the question of the woman be brought up first and that of the negro last...." Not exactly the kindest thing coming from someone who was supposedly all about equality.
Intersectional feminism is important in modern day society, because without it, it's easy to ignore struggles faced by minorities within feminism, such as transgender bathroom laws or the fact that while white women are, on average, paid less than men, women of color are paid even less than white women. Without intersectionality, feminism is not truly feminism. There are only victories for the feminist movement when all women benefit.
What do you think? Do you think that white feminism is dangerous in modern day society? How might white feminism negatively affect other minorities?
An article from USA Today reports "If feminism is advocating for women's rights and equality between the sexes, intersectional feminism is the understanding of how women's overlapping identities — including race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation — impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination." According to the same article, intersectionality is a term first coined in 1989 by UCLA and Columbia Law professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in her seminal paper on race theory.
The feminist movement is no stranger to discrimination; there is a long history of racial tension coupled with women's rights movements. The National Public Radio analyzes this history. In the article, Boston University historian Ashley Farmer says, "When we actually get down to representation or creating a list of demands or mobilizing around a set of ideas...it tends to be that white middle-class or upper-class women's priorities get put above the rest."
One particularly infamous movement involving white feminism is the suffragette movement in the early twentieth century. Although she made great strides for women's suffrage, Susan B. Anthony was no friend to black people. According to Wesleyan University, she said “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman”, and, even worse than that, according to Women in World History Curriculum, she even said, "...The old anti slavery school says women must stand back and wait until the negroes shall be recognized. But we say, if you will not give the whole loaf of suffrage to the entire people, give it to the most intelligent first. If intelligence, justice, and morality are to have precedence in the government, let the question of the woman be brought up first and that of the negro last...." Not exactly the kindest thing coming from someone who was supposedly all about equality.
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| Photo courtesy of Us Weekly |
What do you think? Do you think that white feminism is dangerous in modern day society? How might white feminism negatively affect other minorities?
I never read about (though I'm not one for history) Susan B Anthony's hatred towards black people, and now I'm questioning our reverance of her, if she wasn't truly for the equality of all women....smh
ReplyDeleteI actually never knew Susan B. Anthony had hatred towards blacks. So, to answer you question I believe that white feminism is very harmful to our community especially being a women. I feel that white feminism not only affects minorities, but it affects women as a whole community.
ReplyDelete