When San Jose State University senior Erika Jackson tried to recruit fellow women of color for a new feminist group on campus, the overwhelming reply was the sneer: “white women.” Those words were code for another term: racist. Many women of color, like their Anglo counterparts, eschew the term “feminism” while agreeing with its goals (the right to an abortion, equality… return to article
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Reader Comments (6)Page 1 of 1 pagesAny so-called “progressive” movement that clings to outmoded notions of race-identity, or any other fixation upon sociological category, simply undercuts their own efforts. To differentiate “women of color” from “white women” is itself a racist formulation. Certainly women of European descent have been victimized by foolish underestimation and legal-cultural barriers to fulfillment, just as have so many women whose skin is brown. The habit of subdividing socially progressive movements into race- or gender- or lovestyle-based categories to the detriment of concepts like broad human rights (i.e. for the species as a whole) only serves the segregators and the withholders of rights. All people need their rights upheld, all people (except for bigots) benefit when rights are expanded, all people deserve to be treated with respect and with equality before the law. To dilute our efforts toward making a better society by insisting on dividing and subdividing people into categorical factions simply delays the victory. In fact, it plays into the hands of our opponents.
Posted by Kuya on Apr 22, 2004 at 6:54 AM So women of colour don’t want to get involved with feminist groups because those groups are white.
Yet it is the white groups that are described as racist, not the women who won’t join because of the colour of the groups.
Go figure.
Posted by Nus on Apr 22, 2004 at 2:14 PM Maybe you commenters missed the part of the article where it said that mainstream/white feminist groups ignored the desires and concerns of the non-white members of those groups. Why would you work with an organization that isn’t willing to work with you on issues that are important to you?
Posted by Jake on Apr 22, 2004 at 9:44 PM Kuya, to dismiss “notions of race-identity” as not “progressive” ignores the VERY REAL fact that race, gender, class and citizenship status shape perceptions and interactions on a daily basis.
for example:
a white woman generally doesn’t have to worry about whether a cab will stop to pick her up even if she is dressed in a suit.
a white woman generally doesn’t worry about whether her natural hair texture will keep her from getting a job.
a white woman generally doesn’t worry about whether someone will undercut her wages with cheaper immigrant labor and/or be paid less because of her immigration status.
a white woman generally doesn’t worry whether people will assume she’s not a citizen because of her ethnicity.
these are the types of race-identity concious concerns that white feminist organizations have ignored. addressing them directly benefits the “concept of broad human rights.”
in short: if the problem is race-/class-/gender-/ citizenship-/sexual orientation- based discrimination, how can you not have a race-/class-/gender-/ citizenship-/sexual orientation-based solution?
Posted by tiffany on Apr 26, 2004 at 4:38 PM Girls, you better name the movement something else, because Feminism is WHITE, and it’s MIDDLE CLASS. That’s why I never joined.
Just to show that nothing’s changed since the ‘70s, who was asked to address the Women’s March on Washington last weekend? Madeline Albright! I couldn’t believe it when I saw that name. Albright was one of the butchers of Yugoslavia, and when asked about the sanctions against Iraq, which killed over 500,000 Iraqi children, she responded, “It was worth the price.” Was the Women’s March sending a message out? You bet! African-American and Latino and Muslim women are going to have to band together and make their OWN movement. The Civil Rights movement did pretty well without whites.
Posted by Stephanie Bodene on Apr 28, 2004 at 4:15 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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