Feminist Theory Friday--Placeholder--On Race
The online feminist community is in the middle of a crisis. I wish I could pretend it was less than that, but it's not. And all of us need to reflect and think about what our feminism means to us, what it means to others, and what we want it to mean. We've been working very hard to reclaim the word "feminist." There are people, now, walking away, and throwing the word away, leaving the movement. We need to do a better job in our community, folks. We need to try to see things through a different lens, accept that our experiences don't define the experiences of others, and learn to let go of our own narrow worldview. We need, quite simply, to hear people when they talk, and we need to commit and contribute to change.
I learned a long time ago, in school, that I didn't want to be involved in a feminist thought, in a feminist practice, that ignored the voices of others and pretended I, as a white feminist with a very good job in the law, have no privilege based on my race or my class. I think it's appalling when white feminists dismiss the voices of feminists of color, the differently-abled, homosexuals, transpeople--anyone--and pretend they are immune from enacting privilege on the backs of others simply because they are feminists.
Feminists don't get a free pass because we're feminists. And part of beginning to do a better job, part of making sure that my feminism is not defined purely within the context of its undeniable history (or what I thought was history) of internal oppression and white privilege, of marginalization, or appropriation, is denouncing the exercise of white privilege and racism within the community.
A prominent voice in the feminist community has been, for a while now, behaving, in my opinion, abysmally. She has deliberately and angrily dismissed the queries, challenges, and accusations that she has marginalized the concerns of women of color in her feminist writings. There are now a lot of angry people on both sides of the issue.
I plan to blog more fully about it on Sunday. I just didn't want to leave nothing here, to be silent, or to say I am giving up on feminism. Silence is a privilege too, you know.
The thing is, Amanda Marcotte is not THE voice of feminism. She's A voice of feminism. And I'm not ceding her the field. My feminism is a feminism of inclusion and intersectionality, one in which I feel I can be called on my privilege when I don't see it and the feminism itself won't break. I hope when I am I'm gracious enough to take a hard look at myself and assess how I contribute to the problem. And there is a problem, and it's a bigger problem than one woman's persecution complex.
If you aren't willing to look at your OWN privilege, as far as I am concerned, you're not DOING feminism.
More later. I actually have to get some law-related work done today, and I want to get the promised review of Little Brother done before I sink into this abyss.
I learned a long time ago, in school, that I didn't want to be involved in a feminist thought, in a feminist practice, that ignored the voices of others and pretended I, as a white feminist with a very good job in the law, have no privilege based on my race or my class. I think it's appalling when white feminists dismiss the voices of feminists of color, the differently-abled, homosexuals, transpeople--anyone--and pretend they are immune from enacting privilege on the backs of others simply because they are feminists.
Feminists don't get a free pass because we're feminists. And part of beginning to do a better job, part of making sure that my feminism is not defined purely within the context of its undeniable history (or what I thought was history) of internal oppression and white privilege, of marginalization, or appropriation, is denouncing the exercise of white privilege and racism within the community.
A prominent voice in the feminist community has been, for a while now, behaving, in my opinion, abysmally. She has deliberately and angrily dismissed the queries, challenges, and accusations that she has marginalized the concerns of women of color in her feminist writings. There are now a lot of angry people on both sides of the issue.
I plan to blog more fully about it on Sunday. I just didn't want to leave nothing here, to be silent, or to say I am giving up on feminism. Silence is a privilege too, you know.
The thing is, Amanda Marcotte is not THE voice of feminism. She's A voice of feminism. And I'm not ceding her the field. My feminism is a feminism of inclusion and intersectionality, one in which I feel I can be called on my privilege when I don't see it and the feminism itself won't break. I hope when I am I'm gracious enough to take a hard look at myself and assess how I contribute to the problem. And there is a problem, and it's a bigger problem than one woman's persecution complex.
If you aren't willing to look at your OWN privilege, as far as I am concerned, you're not DOING feminism.
More later. I actually have to get some law-related work done today, and I want to get the promised review of Little Brother done before I sink into this abyss.