FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY
Passionate Politics

bell hooks

  

 

 

 

 

 

 
“Thee oF COuTenTs :

 

Fernuist FOUTILS : WHERE we STAND... |

Femimict Css STRUGGLE oe)

 

PACE AYO GEMDER

 
FEMINIST POLITICS
Where We Stand

Simply put, feminism i
tion, and oppression. This was a definition of feminism I offered in
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center more than 10 years ago. It was
my hope at the time that it would become a common definition
everyone would use. I liked this definition because it did not imply
that men were the enemy. By naming sexism as the problem it went
directly to the heart of the matter. Practically, itis a definition which
implies that all sexist thinking and action is the problem, whether
those who perpetuate it are female or male, child or adult. Ie is also
broad enough to include an understanding of systemic institutional-
ined sexism. As a definition it is open-ended. To understand femi-
‘nism it implies one has to necessarily understand sexism.

As all advocates of feminist polities know, most people do not
understand sexism, or if they do, they think it is not a problem.
‘Masses of people think that feminism is always and only about
women seeking to be equal to men. And a huge majority of these
folks think feminism is anti-male. Their misunderstanding of femi-
nist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about ferninism
from patriarchal mass media. ‘The feminism they hear about the
‘most is portrayed by women who are primarily committed to gender
equality — equal pay for equal work, and sometimes women and

 

a movement to end sexism, sexist exploita-

 

‘men sharing household chores and parenting. They see that these
‘women are usually white and materially privileged. They know from
‘mass media that women's liberation focuses on the freedom to have
abortions, to be lesbians, to challenge rape and domestic violence.
Among these issues, masses of people agree with the idea of gender
equity in the workplace — equal pay for equal work.

Since our society continues to be primarily a “Christian” cul-
ture, masses of people continue to believe that god has ordained that
women be subordinate to men in the domestic household. Even
though masses of women have entered the workforce, even though
many families are headed by women who are the sole breadwinners,
the vision of domestic life which continues to dominate the nation’s
imagination is one in which the logic of male domination is intact,
‘whether men are present in the home or not. The wrongminded no-
tion of feminist movement which implied it was anti-male carried
‘with it the wrongminded assumption that all female space would
necessarily be an environment where patriarchy and sexist thinking
‘would be absent. Many women, even those involved in feminist pol-
itis, chose to believe this as well.

‘There was indeed a great deal of anti-male sentiment among
carly feminist activists who were responding to male domination
with anger. Irwas that anger at injustice that was the impetus for cre-
ating a women’s liberation movement. Early on most feminist activ-
ists (a majotity of whom were white) had their consciousness raised
about the nature of male domination when they were working in
anti-classist and anti-racist settings with men who were telling the
world about the importance of freedom while subordinating the
‘women in their ranks. Whether it was white women working on be-
half of socialism, black women working on behalf of civil rights and
black liberation, or Native American women working for indige-
nous rights, it was clear that men wanted to lead, and they wanted

‘women to follow. Participating in these radical freedom struggles
awakened the spitit of rebellion and resistance in progressive fe-
‘males and led them towards contemporary women's liberation.

As contemporary feminism progressed, as women realized that
males were not the only group in our society who supported
thinking and behavior — that females could be sexist as well —

 

anti-male sentiment no longer shaped the movement's conscious-
ness. The focus shifted to an all-out effort to create gender justice.
But women could not band together to further feminism without
confronting our sexist thinking. Sisterhood could not be powerful
as long as women were competitively at war with one another. Uto-
pian visions of sistethood based solely on the awareness of the real-
ity that all women were in some way victimized by male domination
were disrupted by discussions of class and race. Discussions of class
differences occutred eatly on in contemporary feminism, preceding
discussions of race. Diana Press published revolutionary insights
about class divisions between women as early as the mid-"70s in their
collection of essays Class and Feminism, ‘These discussions did not
trivialize the ferninist insistence that “sisterhood is powerful,” they
simply emphasized that we could only become sisters in struggle by
confronting the ways women — through sex, class, and race —
dominated and exploited other women, and created a political plat-
form that would address these differences.
Even though individual black women were active in contempo-
tary feminist movernent from its inception, they were not the indi-
viduals who became the “stars” of the movement, who attracted the
attention of mass media, Often individual black women active in
feminist movement were revolutionary feminists (like many white
lesbians). They were already at odds with reformist feminists who
resolutely wanted to project a vision of the movement as being
solely about women gaining equality with men in the existing sys-
tem, Even before race became a talked about issue in feminist circles
it was clear to black women (and to their revolutionary allies in
struggle) that they were never going to have equality within the exise-
ing white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

From its earliest inception feminist movement was polarized.
Reformist thinkers chose to emphasize gender equality. Revolution-
ary thinkers did not want simply to alter the existing system so that
women would have more rights. We wanted to transform that sys-
tem, to bring an end to patriarchy and sexism. Since patriarchal mass
media was not interested in the more revolutionary vision, it never
received attention in mainstream press. The vision of “women’s lib-
eration” which captured and still holds the public imagination was
the one representing women as wanting what men had. And this was
the vision that was easier to realize. Changes in our nation’s econ-
‘omy, economic depression, the loss of jobs, etc., made the climate
ripe for our nation’s citizens to accept the notion of gender equality
in the workforce.

Given the reality of racism, it made sense that white men were
more willing to consider women’s tights when the granting of those
rights could serve the interests of maintaining white supremacy. We
can never forget that white women began to assert their need for
freedom after civil rights, just atthe point when racial discrimination
‘was ending and black people, especially black males, might have at-
tained equality in the workforce with white men. Reformist feminist
thinking focusing primarily on equality with men in the workforce
overshadowed the original radical foundations of contemporary
feminism which called for reform as well as overall restructuring of
society so that our nation would be fundamentally anti-sexist.

Most women, especially privileged white women, ceased even,
to consider revolutionary feminist visions, once they began to gain
economic power within the existing social structure. Ironically, rev-
olutionary feminist thinking was most accepted and embraced in
academic circles. Incthose circles the production of revolutionary
feminist theory progressed, but more often than not that theory was,
‘not made available to the public. It became and remains a privileged
discourse available to those among us who are highly literate, well-
educated, and usually materially privileged. Works like Feminist The-
‘op: From Margin to Center that offer a liberatory vision of feminist
transformation never receive mainstream attention. Masses of peo-
ple have not heard of this book. They have not rejected its message;
they do not know what the message is.

While it was in the interest of mainstream white supremacist
capitalist patriarchy to suppress visionary feminist thinking which
‘was not anti-male or concerned with getting women the right to be
like men, reformist feminists were also eager to silence these forces.
Reformist feminism became their route to class mobility. ‘They
could break free of male domination in the workforce and be more
sclf-determining in their lifestyles. While sexism did not end, they
could maximize theie freedom within the existing system. And they
could count on there being a lower class of exploited subordinated
‘women to do the dirty work they were refusing to do. By accepting
and indeed colluding with the subordination of working-class and
poor women, they not only ally themselves with the existing patriar-
chy and its concomitant sexism, they give themselves the right to lead
a double life, one where they are the equals of men in the workforce
and at home when they want to be. If they choose lesbianism they
have the privilege of being equals with men in the workforce while
using class power to create domestic lifestyles where they can
choose to have little oF no contact with men.

Lifestyle feminism ushered in the notion that there could be as
‘many versions of feminism as there were women. Suddenly the politics
‘was being slowly removed from feminism. And the assumption pre-

vailed that no matter what a woman’s politics, be she conservative
or liberal, she too could ft feminism into her existing lifestyle. Obvi-
‘ously this way of thinking has made feminism more acceptable be-
cause its underlying assumption is that women can be feminists
‘without fundamentally challenging and changing themselves or the
culture. For example, let's take the issue of abortion. If feminism is a
‘movement to end sexist oppression, and depriving females of repro-
ductive rights is a form of sexist oppression, then one cannot be
anti-choice and be feminist. A woman can insist she would never
‘choose to have an abortion while affirming her support of the right
‘of women to choose and still be an advocate of feminist politics. She
‘cannot be anti-abortion and an advocate of feminism. Concurrently
there can be no such thing as “power feminism” if the vision of
power evoked is power gained through the exploitation and oppres~
sion of others.

Feminist politics is losing momentum because feminist move-
ment has lost clear definitions. We have those definitions. Let's re-
claim them, Let’s share them. Let's start over, Let's have T-shirts and
bumper stickers and postcards and hip-hop music, television and ra-
dio commercials, ads everywhere and billboards, and all manner of
printed material that tells the wotld about feminism. We can share the
simple yet powerful message that feminism is a movement to end sex-
ist oppression. Let's start there. Let the movement begin again.

FEMINIST CLASS STRUGGLE

Class difference and the way in which it divides women was an issue
‘women in feminist movement talked about long before racé, Ih the
mostly white circles of a newly formed women’s liberation miove-
‘ment the most glating separation between women was that bf class.
White working-class women recognized that class hierarchies were
present in the movement. Conflict arose between the reformist vi-
sion of women’s liberation which basically demanded equal rights
for women within the existing class structure, and more’ radical
and/or revolutionary models, which called for fundamental change
in the existing structure so that models of mutuality and equality
could replace the old paradigms. However, as ferninist movement
progressed and privileged groups of well-educated white women be-
‘gan to achieve equal access to class power with their male countet-
parts, feminist class struggle was no longer deemed important.
From the onset of the movement women from privileged
classes were able to make their concemns “the” issues that should be
focused on in part because they were the group of women who re-
ceived public attention. They attracted mass media. The issues that

 

‘were most relevant to working women or masses of women were
never highlighted by mainstream mass media. Betty Friedan's The
‘Feminist Mystigue identified “the problem that has no name” as the
dissatisfaction females felt about being confined and subordinated
in the home as housewives. While this issue was presented as a crisis
for women it realy was only a ctisis fora small group of well-educated
‘white women. While they were complaining about the dangers of
confinement in the home a huge majority of women in the nation
‘were in the workforce. And many of these working women, who putin.
Jong hours for low wages while still doing all the work in the domes-
tic household would have seen the right to stay home as “freedom.”

twas not gender discrimination ot sexist oppression that kept
privileged women of all races from working outside the home, it was
the fact that the jobs that would have been available to them would
have been the same low-paying unskilled labor open to all working
women, Elite groups of highly educated females stayed at home
rather than do the type of work large numbers of lower-middle-class
and working-class women were doing, Occasionally, a few of these
women defied convention and worked outside the home perform-
ing tasks way below their educational skills and facing resistance
from husbands and family, It was this resistance that turned the is-
sue of their working outside the home into an issue of gender dis-
ctimination and made opposing patriarchy and seeking equal rights
with men of their class the political platform that chose feminism
rather than class struggle.

From the outset, reformist white women with class privilege
were well aware that the power and freedom they wanted was the
freedom they perceived men of theie class enjoying. Their resistance
to patriarchal male domination in the domestic household provided
them with a connection they could use to unite across class with
other women who were weary of male domination. But only privi-
Jeged women had the luxuty to imagine working outside the home
would actually provide them with an income which would enable
them to be economically self-sufficient. Working-class women al-
ready knew that the wages they received would not liberite them,

Reformist efforts on the part of privileged groups of women to
change the workforce so that women workers would be paid mote
and face less gender-based discrimination and hafassment on the
job had positive impact on the lives of all women. And these gains
are important. Yet the fact that the privileged gainéd in class power
‘while masses of women still do not receive wage equity with men is
‘an indication of the way in which class interests superceded feminist
efforts to change the workforce so that women would receive equal
pay for equal work.

 
Lesbian feminist thinkers were among the first activists to raise
the issue of class in feminist movement expressing their viewpoints
inan accessible language. They were a group of women who had not
imagined they could depend on husbands to support them. And
they were often much more aware than their straight counterparts of
the difficulties all women would face in the workforce. In the early
"70s anthologies ike Class and Feminism, edited by Charlotte Bunch
and Nancy Myron, published work written by women from diverse
class backgrounds who were confronting the issue in feminist cie-
cles, Each essay emphasized the fact that class was not simply a
question of money. In “The Last Straw,” Rita Mae Brown (who was
nota famous writer at the time) clearly stated:

(Chass is much mote than Marv’s definition of relationship to the

‘means of production, Class involved your behavior, your basic

assumptions, how you are taught t0 behave, what you expect

from yourself and from others, your concept of a future, how you

‘understand problems and solve them, how you think, feel, act.

These women who entered feminist groups made up of diverse
classes were among the first to see that the vision. of a politically
based sisterhood where all females would unite together to fight pa-

triarchy could not emerge until the issue of class was confronted.

Placing class on feminist agendas opened up the space where
the intersections of class and race were made apparent. Within the
institutionalized race, sex, class social system in our society black fe-
males were cleatly at the bottom of the economic totem pole. Ini-
tially, well-educated white women from working-class backgrounds
‘were more visible than black females ofall classes in feminist move-
‘ment. They were a minority within the movement, but theirs was the
voice of experience. They knew better than their privileged- class
comrades of any race the costs of resisting race, class, and gender
domination. They knew what it was like to struggle to change one’s
‘economic situation, Between them and their privileged-class com-
tades there were ongoing conflicts over appropriate behavior, over
the issues that would be presented as fundamental feminist con-
cems. Within feminist movement women from privileged-class
backgrounds who had never before been involved in leftist freedom
fighting learned the concrete politics of class struggle, confronting
challenges made by less privileged women, and also learning in the
process assertiveness skills and constructive ways to cope with con-
flict. Despite constructive intervention many privileged white
 
 
‘women continued to act as though feminism belonged to them, as
though they were in charge.

Mainstream patriarchy reinforced the idea that the concerns of
‘women from privileged-class groups were the only ones worthy of
receiving attention, Feminist reform aimed to gain social equality for
women within the existing structure. Privileged women wanted
‘equality with men of their class. Despite sexism among their class
they would not have wanted to have the lot of working class men.
Feminist efforts to grant women social equality with men of their
class neatly coincided with white supremacist capitalist patriarchal
fears that white power would diminish if nonwhite people gained

  

equal access to economic power and privilege. Supporting what in
effect became white power reformist feminism enabled the main-
stream white supremacist patriarchy to bolster its power while si-
‘multaneously undermining the radical politics of ferhisism.

Only revolutionary feminist thinkers expressed outrage at chis
cooptation of feminist movement. Our critique and outrage gained
a hearing the alternative press. In het collection of essays, The Coming
of Black Genocide, radical white activist Mary Barfoot boldly stated:

‘There are white women, hurt and angry, who believed that the
"70s women's movement meant sisterhood, and who feel be-
‘rayed by escalator women. By women who went back home to
the patriarchy. But the women’s movement never left the father
Dick's side... There was no wat. And there was no liberation, We
got a share of genocide profits and we love it, We are Sisters of
Patriarchy, and true supporters of national and class Oppression,
Pattiarchy in its highest form is Euro-imperialsm on a wood
scale. If we'te Dick’s sister and want what he has gotéen, then in
the end we support that system that he gotit all from,

Indeed, many more feminist women found and find it easier to con-

sider divesting of white supremacist thinking than of their class elitism.
‘As privileged women gained greater access to economic power

with men of their class feminist discussions of class were no longer

‘commonplace, Instead, all women were encouraged to see the eco-

nomic gains of affluent females as a positive sign for all women. In

actuality, these gains rarely changed the lot of poor and work-
ing-class women. And since privileged men did not become equal
caretakers in the domestic houschold, the fretdom of privleged-class
women of all races has required the sustained subordination of
working-class and poor women. In the "90s collusion with the exist-
‘ng social structure was the price of “women’s liberation.” At the
cend of the day class power proved to be mote important than femi-

nism, And this collusion helped destabilize feminist movement.

‘When women acquited greater class status and power without
conducting themselves differently from males feminist politics were
‘undermined. Lots of women felt betrayed. Middle- and lower-middle-
class women who were suddenly compelled by the ethos of femi-
nism to enter the workforce did not feel liberated once they faced
the hard truth that working outside the home did not mean work in
the home would be equally shared with male partners. No-fault di-
vorce proved to be more economically beneficial to men than
‘women. As many black women/women of color saw white women
from privileged classes benefiting economically more than other
‘groups from reformist ferninist gains, from gender being tacked on
to racial affirmative action, it simply reaffirmed their fear that femi-
nism was really about increasing white power. The most profound
betrayal of feminist issues has been the lack of mass-based feminist
protest challenging the government's assault on single mothers and
the dismantling of the welfate system. Privileged women, many of
‘whom call themselves feminists, have simply turned away from the
“ferninization of poverty.”

‘The voices of “power feminism” tend to be highlighted in mass
‘media far more than the voices of individual feminist women who
have gained class power without betraying our solidarity towards
those groups without class privilege. Being true to feminist politics,
our goals wete and are to become economically self-sufficient and to
find ways to assist other women in their efforts to better themselves
‘economically. Our experiences counter the assumption that women
can only gain economically by acting in collusion with the existing
capitalist patriarchy, All over this nation individual feminists with
class power who support a revolutionaty vision of social change
share resources and use our power to aid reforms that will improve
the lives of women irrespective of class.

‘The only genuine hope of feminist liberation lies with a vision
‘of social change which challenges class elitism. Western women
have gained class power and greater gender inequality because a
global white supremacist patriarchy enslaves and/or subordinates
masses of third-world women. In this country the éombined forces
of booming prison industry and workfare-oriented welfare in con-
junetion with conservative immigration policy create and condone

Il
the conditions for indentured slavery. Ending welfare will create a
new underclass of women and children to be abused and exploited
by the existing structures of domination.

Given the changing realities of class in our nation, widening
_gaps between the tich and poor, and the continued feminization of
poverty, we desperately need a mass-based radical feminist move-
ment that can build on the strength of the past, including the positive
gains generated by reforms, while offering meaningful interrogation
of existing feminist theory that was simply wrongntinded while of-
fering us new strategies. Significantly a visionary movement would
ground its work in the concrete conditions of working-class and
poor women, That means creating a movement that begins education
for critical consciousness where women, feminist women with class
power, need to put in place low-income housing women can own.
‘The creation of housing co-ops with feminist principles would show
the ways feminist struggle is relevant to all women’s lives.

‘When women with class power opportunistically use a feminist

  

 

 

2 patriarchal system that will ultimately re-subordinate them, they do
not just betray feminism; they betray themselves. Returning to a dis-
cussion of class, feminist women and men will restore the condi-
tions needed for solidatity. We will then be better able to envision a
world where resources ate shared and opportunities for personal
growth abound for everyone irrespective of their class.

RACE AND GENDER

(a

No intervention changed the face of American feminism more than
the demand that feminist thinkers acknowledge the reality of race
and racism. All white women in this nation know that their status is
different from that of black women/women of color. They know
this from the time they are litde girls watching television and seeing
only their images, and looking at magazines and seeing obly their im-
‘ages. They know that the only reason nonwhites are absent/invisi
ble is because they are not white. All white women in this nation
know that whiteness is a privileged category. The fact that white fe-
‘ales may choose to repress or deny this knowledge does not mean
they are ignorant: it means that they are in denial. .
No group of white women understood the differences in theit
status and that of black women more than the group of politically
conscious white females who were active in civil rights struggle. Dia-
ties and memoirs ofthis period in American history written by white
women document this knowledge, Yet many of these individuals
‘moved from civil rights into women’s liberation and spearheaded a
feminist movement where they suppressed and denied the aware-
ness of difference they had seen and heard articulated firsthand in
civil rights struggle. Just because they participated in anti-racist
struggle did not mean that they had divested of white supremacy. of
notions that they were superior to black females, more informed,
better educated, more suited to “lead” a movement.

In many ways they were following in the footsteps of their abo-
litionist ancestors who had demanded that everyone (white women
and black people) be given the right to vote, but, when faced with
the possibilty that black males might gain the right to vote while
they were denied it on the basis of gender, they chose to ally them-
selves with men, uniting under the rubric of white supremacy. Con-
temporary white females witnessing the militant demand for more
sights for black people chose that moment to demand more rights
for themselves. Some of these individuals claim that it was working
‘on behalf of civil rights that made them aware of sexism and sexist
oppression. Yet if this was the whole picture one might think their
newfound political awareness of difference would have catried over
into the way they theorized contemporary feminist movement.

“They entered the movement erasing and denying difference,
not playing race alongside gender, but eliminating race from the pic-
tute. Foregrounding gender meant that white women could take
center stage, could claim the movement as theirs, even as they called
‘on all women to join. The utopian vision of sisterhood evoked in a
feminist movement that initially did not take racial difference ot
anti-racist struggle seriously did not capture the imagination of most
black women/women of color. Individual black women who were
active in the movement from its inception for the most part stayed
in thei place. When the feminist movement began racial integration
‘was still rare. Many black people were learning how to interact with
‘whites on the basis of being peers for the frst time in theit lives. No
‘wonder individual black women choosing feminism were reluctant
to introduce theie awareness of race. It must have felt so awesome to
have white women evoke sistethood in a world where they had
mainly experienced white women as exploiters and oppressors.

B
4

‘A younger generation of black females/women of color in the
late "70s and eatly 80s challenged white female racisea. Unlike our
older black women allies we had for the most part been educated in
predominantly white settings, Most of us had never been in a subor-
inated position in relation to a white female, Most of us had not
been in the workforce. We had never been in our place. We were
better positioned to critique racism and white supremacy within the
women’s movement. Individual white women who had attempted
to organize the movement around the banner of common oppres-
sion evoking the notion that women constituted a sexual class/caste
‘were the most reluctant to acknowledge differences among women,
differences that overshadowed all the commdn experiences female
shared. Race was the most obvious difference.

Inthe "70s I wrote the first draft of Ain't a Woman: Black Women
and Feminism, Las 19 years old. had never worked a full-time job. I
had come from a racially segregated small town in the south to Stan-
ford University. While I had grown up resisting patriarchal thinking,
college was the place where I embraced feminist politics, It was
there as the only black female present in feminist classrooms, in
consciousness-raising, that I began to engage race and gender theo-
tetically. Itwas there that I began to demand recognition of the way
in which racist biases were shaping feminist thinking and call for
change. At other locations individual black women/women of color
‘were making the same critique.

In those days white women who were unwilling to face the real-
ity of racism and racial difference accused us of being traitors by
introducing race. Wrongly they saw us as deflecting focus away from
‘gender. In reality, we were demanding that we look at the status of fe-
‘males realistically, and that realistic understanding serve as the foun
dation for a real feminist politic. Out intent was not to diminish the
vision of sisteshood. We sought to putin place a concrete polities of soi-
daity that would make genuine sistethood possible. We knew that
there could no real sisterhood between white women and women of
color if white women were not able to divest of white supremacy, if
feminist movement were not fundamentally anti-racist.

CCitical interventions around race did not destroy the women’s
movement; it became stronger. Breaking through denial about race
helped women face the realty of difference on all levels. And we
were finally putting in place a movement that did not place the class
interests of privileged women, especially white women, over that of
allother women. We put in place a vision of sisterhood where all our
realities could be spoken. There has been no contemporary move-
‘ment for social justice where individual participants engaged in the
dialectical exchange that occurred among feminist thinkers about
race which led to the re-thinking of much feminist theory and prac-
tice. The fact that participants in the feminist movement could face
critique and challenge while still remaining wholeheartedly committed
to avvision of justice, of liberation, isa testament to the movement's
strength and power. It shows us that no matter how misguided femi-
nist thinkers have been in the past, the will to change, the will 0 cre-
ate the context for struggle and liberation, remains stronger than the
need to hold on to wrong beliefs and assumptions.

For years I witnessed the reluctance of white feminist thinkers
to acknowledge the importance of race. I witnessed their refusal to
divest of white supremacy, theit unwillingness to acknowledge that
an anti-racist feminist movement was the only political foundation
that would make sisterhood be a realty. And I witnessed the revolu-
tion in consciousness that occurred as individual women began to
break free of denial, o break free of white supremacist thinking.
‘These awesome changes restore my faith in feminist movement and
strengthen the solidarity I feel towards all women.

Overall feminist thinking and feminist theory has benefited
from all critical interventions on the issue of race. ‘The only prob-
Jematic arena bas been that of translating theory into practice. While
individual white women have incorporated an analysis of race into
‘much feminist scholarship, these insights have not had as much im-
pact on the day to day relations between white women and women
of color. Anti-tacist interactions between women are difficult in 2
society that remains racially segregated. Despite diverse work set-
tings a vast majority of folks still socialize only with people of their
‘own group. Racism and sexism combined create harmful barriers
between women. So far feminist strategies to change this have not
been very useful.

Individual white women and women of color who have worked
through difficulties to make the space where bonds of love and po-
litical solidatity can emerge need to share the methods and strategies
that we have successfully employed. Almost no attention is given
the relationship between gitls of different races. Biased feminist
scholarship which attempts to show that white girls are somehow
mote vulnerable to sexist conditioning than gitls of color simply

1s
perpetuates the white supremacist assumption that white females
require and deserve more attention to their concerns and ills than
other groups. Indeed while girs of color may express different be-
havior than their white counterparts they are not only internalizing
sexist conditioning, they are far more likely to be victimized by sex-
ism in ways that are irreparable.

Feminist movement, especially the work of visionary black ac-
tivists, paved the way for a ceconsideration of race and racism that
has had positive impact on our society as a whole. Rarely do main-
stream social critiques acknowledge this fact. As a feminist theorist
‘who has written extensively about the issue of race and racism
within feminist movement, I know that there remains much that
reeds to be challenged and changed, but it is equally important to

celebrate the enormous changes that have occurred. That celebra-
tion, understanding our triumphs and using them as models, means
that they can become the sound foundation for the building of a
mass-based anti-racist feminist movement.
 
         

wees, KK PExe
SKA