Photo retrieved from: http://www.theinclusionsolution.me/buzz-mlk-violence-white-silence/
“By visibly hovering near us, they are ‘proving’ that they are ‘with us.’ But the hard truth is this isn’t helping to solve America’s racist problem. The Negroes aren’t the racists. Where the really sincere white people have got to do their ‘proving’ of themselves is not among the black victims, but out on the battle lines of where America’s racism really is — and that’s in their home communities; America’s racism is among their own fellow whites. That’s where sincere whites who really mean to accomplish something have got to work.”—Malcom X, 1964
As much as white people love to deny it, it’s no secret that racism exists in the United States. As a woman of color and self-proclaimed feminist, much of my personal life and professional work is related to racism: understanding it, unpacking it, more importantly, undoing it. This work is not a choice for me; it’s a matter of life and death. I don’t have the privilege of ignorance that many white feminists lean on, and I certainly don’t have the privilege of silence. The overwhelming silence of white women on racial issues is not just frustrating—it is destructive and is rooted in a long-standing legacy of white supremacy within feminist history.
White women have played a significant role in upholding white supremacy, a fact that is almost always glossed over in conversations around feminism. For example, the suffragette movement in the United States was embedded with racially based hatred and violence. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, prominent leaders of the suffragette movement, consistently and intentionally sided with white supremacy in order to push their agenda of suffrage. They adamantly opposed the passage of the 15th amendment (giving Black men the right to vote) because, “it would result in women being dominated by inferior men.” Additionally, thousands of white women were active members of the Klu Klux Klan, and it was white women who were on the front lines protesting Elizabeth Eckford (of the Little Rock Nine) attending school—look it up, the pictures speak a thousand words. White women were actively involved in protests against desegregation, but again, this is rarely ever mentioned in any discussions on women’s history or feminism.
White women have historically chosen to side with their racial interests over their gender, and this pattern has remained consistent to this day. The most glaring example happened in 2016, when 53 percent of white women voted for the current president. White feminists were in shock, but women of color? Not so much. And let’s not forget the BBQ Becky’s or Permit Patty’s, white women that cannot fathom cohabiting a public space with a person of color. They automatically criminalize people of color, using 911 as their customer service line when America becomes ‘too Black’ for them.
Conversations around white supremacy are often approached from a heavily masculinized regard. This is not because women don’t play a part in white supremacy, but rather because women have been largely left out of historical dialogues. In this case, white women’s active role in upholding oppressive structures in the U.S. is erased and often goes unseen. The invisibility of white women’s racism is what makes it so insidious and dangerous. Regardless of gender, white people all intrinsically benefit from systems of racial hierarchy and it is imperative that white women recognize these systems and the role they play in them. If reading this makes you uncomfortable, that’s good. That means you have work to do—in fact, we all do. The work is not to fix a ‘broken’ system, because the system is not broken—it’s working exactly as it was designed to. It’s our job to break it.
Written By: Betool Ridha, M.A.
(For those who are interested in doing the work, check out Layla F. Saad’s Me and White Supremacy workbook—it’s a great resource for people with white privilege to examine and dismantle their complicity in white supremacist systems, and it’s free! https://www.meandwhitesupremacybook.com)
References
(2017, June 28). The KKK started a branch just for women in the 1920s, and half a million joined. Retrieved from https://timeline.com/the-kkk-started-a-branch-just-for-women-in-the-1920s-and-half-a-million-joined-72ab1439b78b
Browne, R. (2016, July 08). What to Do When They Don't Want You to Exist. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/07/what-to-do-when-they-dont-want-you-to-exist.html
Cleary, T. (2018, June 23). Jennifer Schulte, 'BBQ Becky': 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. Retrieved from https://heavy.com/news/2018/05/jennifer-schulte-bbq-becky/
Davidson, J., & Davidson, J. (2017, December 07). White Silence Is Not An Option. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-silence-is-not-an-o_b_10927210
Hamad, R. (2018, May 07). How white women use strategic tears to silence women of colour | Ruby Hamad. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/08/how-white-women-use-strategic-tears-to-avoid-accountability
Staples, B. (2018, July 28). How the Suffrage Movement Betrayed Black Women. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/suffrage-movement-racism-black-women.html
Stoner, R. (2018, April 12). 'Segregation's Constant Gardeners': How White Women Kept Jim Crow Alive. Retrieved from https://psmag.com/social-justice/segregations-constant-gardeners
No comments:
Post a Comment