A feminist is a person who advocates for women to be treated equally to men. The rise of feminism is very much at large. With big name personalities endorsing this equal rights movement, feminist is becoming a term for both genders. Many people would agree that feminism is just a big word for sisterhood, but what happens when some feminists excludes a certain group of women? Is that still feminism? On multiple occasions where white women are victims to sexism many people come to their rescue and we expect that.
However, when a woman of color is the victim people are more likely to find a way to justify why she is being treated wrongly than to stand up for her. This type of feminism is called white feminism, in which mostly white women (women of color can also take part in this) fight for equality that revolves around the problems most white women face and fails to address the oppression of women of color and those who lack other privileges. White feminism is not feminism at all because it excludes women of color. In order to explain this idea we need go back to the beginning of feminism.
We need to be aware of the many ways feminism began and how it is interpreted differently in many parts of the world. Let’s start with the creation of feminism in America first. No matter who you are or where you are from we all know what kind of past America has- and it’s not a pretty one. After the abolition of slavery you would have thought racial tensions in the U. S. would soundly soonly die down, right? Actually it was quite the opposite, black people were still fighting for basic human rights. However, people of color were not the only ones rising against the system.
It turns out that even white women were not respected enough to get their basic human rights as well. In 1869, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two of the most beloved feminists in America, founded the national women’s suffrage association. This movement and its members are held in the highest esteem, and why wouldn’t it be? Well what if I told you that the women’s suffrage movement is the foundation of white modern feminism. The association was ran by white feminist with a very racist forward mindset and they were very much aware of their prejudices.
After black men were granted the right to vote in 1867, Susan and other members of the suffrage movement began to show their true colors, “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ask for the ballot for the Negro and not for the woman. ” (Susan B. Anthony). Anthony proves with this quote that the idea of feminism in a white woman’s mind is not about fighting the oppression of gender and race but elevating your status in society. (Segal, 1) When it comes to the women’s suffrage movement in america no one ever questions the absence of the involvement of women of color.
We are programmed to think that white women are the allies of people of color just because they too face oppression. Here is why we should not believe that. In the 1913 women’s suffrage parade, black women were not allowed to march with white women and later in the 1930’s(10 years after the 19th amendment was created) state laws began to disenfranchise black women in the south . (Garland, 1)This ultimately led to the discouragement of fighting for equal rights as a woman for black women. The hardships black women faced as an activist were taxing at times because they are forced to pick sides.
Should they support a movement that fights for the normalization of their skin color or of their gender? And with this question ( and many others in mind) that was how black feminism was born. When people hear the phrase, “Black Feminism. ” their faces immediately contort into a mixture of confusion and anguish. That’s understandable though, from the sound of it it seems like your are only advocating for the empowerment of black women and let us not forget in order for feminism to be feminism we have to empower all women.
However, we must remember how ignorant and unjust white women were towards feminists of color during the women’s suffrage period. So let’s look into the black woman’s perspective, you’ve just found a movement that supports the union of women and fights for their rights, unfortunately this movement does not really care for your dark skin so you must find another one. But what happens when that was the only movement that catered to your gender? Black feminism was not created to spite white women, it was created to fight against racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism towards black people. Cardoso, 2)
By now I believe we can all agree that white women have held almost all of the conversation concerning feminism. One may argue, “If women of color do not want white women to carry the conversation why don’t they just speak up! “. Well first off, it is not a colored woman’s fault that she is being overpowered by a white woman, globally a person of colors values, thoughts, and feelings are taken for granted and unwanted when being compared to the opinion of white people. In Claudia Pons Cardoso’s “Afro-brazilian feminism” she introduces the term cultural imperialism.
Cultural imperialism is the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilization. Essentially, cultural imperialism gave white women the right to dictate who speaks for feminism. (Cardoso, 3) In, “Native Son” by Richard Wright, the main character named bigger expresses his feelings towards white people to his friend when he thinks about the difference between how white white people live and how black people live. He concludes that white people live to live, while black people live to survive(Wright, 28).
That is an example of cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is harmful towards minority because it not only devalues their lives but it also leads to epistemicide. Epistemicide is the act of denouncing one’s knowledge of themself and their surroundings. (Cardoso, 3) Unfortunately, this a common move white people use to make people of color rethink their ideas of life and in the end people of color conform to the ideas white people enforce. So, a colored person’s silence is not intentional it is learned.
Even with the historical explanation with why black feminism exists, most people still cannot grasp the concept or the effects that made it exist and I think it’s because of the adjective placed in front of feminism. The adjective, “Black”, in front of feminism is not to organize or classify race, it’s to mark one’s political standing. (Cardoso, 13) Meaning that a person who enforces this idea supports people who face oppression that is based on many premises like systematic racism, religious discrimination, xenophobia,etc. Without black feminism, many young and old women of color would reap the effects of white feminism.
In Toni Morrison’s, “The Bluest Eye”, there are many important themes and lessons to be learned. The most recurring theme was about how European european beauty is seen as the epitome of all beauty. European features holds power and class in Americaamerica. This led to the assimilation of black women and even men. People with curly-afro hair would get relaxers to straighten the texture, people with wide or flat noses and monolids would get surgery or use makeup to mimic the feature of a Europeaneuropean person, and people with dark skin would bleach their bodies in order to become the shade of their oppressors.
Not only are these signs of internalized racism but it was also the realization of colorism. White people seen colored people of lighter shades as the most “superior” of people of color, now this only pits the oppressed race against each other. In the bluest eye,there is a character named Maureen Peal. She was a biracial child with long brown hair and held a “high yellow” skin tone. Most girls were jealous of her because of that and Maureen would only taunt and tease the other girls about how black they are. (Morrison,19) Another topic that stood out was the lack of representation for colored kids.
The three main characters in “The Bluest Eye”, are three young black girls. One of the three notices the white media, from Shirley shirley temple to the Mary Janes’ candy wrappers, that surrounds them. She gets irritated and angry that the only good roles models she has ever known are white. Kids of color are taught that white people are the pinnacle of the human race. White feminists do not acknowledge the lack of (good) representation people of color have and with their obliviousness it seems that white women are unintentionally convincing women of color that they are better. (Morrison,72)