It seems like everything I read acknowledges that the feminist movement and the anti-racism movement aren’t going to get anywhere unless they combine in a more meaningful way. When we talked about this in my philosophy of race class, though, the professor said that this statement assumes the movements want different things to begin with. But I don’t think it’s insane to say that the feminist movement isn’t always working explicitly for the liberation of people of color or that the anti-racism movement isn’t always working explicitly for the liberation of women. And as far as I can tell, there is a lot written about how a narrow focus on the liberation of women will always fail women of color. So far, I haven’t read anything that really explores what this means. If the two movements need to combine, what would that even look like? It seems to me like it would need an entirely new name if it were truly a combined movement. And then I worry that it would need to be a name that is much broader, like “anti-oppression” which is meaningful, but loses some of the power that “feminism,” “anti-racism,” and “black power” carry. And it would surely shift priorities of both movements around. Furthermore, if we increase the scope of the movement, the magnitude of the task becomes overwhelming (as if they aren’t overwhelming enough on their own). But if we don’t, then we end up just devoting ourselves to the liberation of white women.
At this point I feel like I should take advantage of the spike in readership and ask for recommendations – who addresses these questions? I’ve read some hooks, Collins, Crenshaw, and a significant amount of standpoint theory at this point, and so far I haven’t figured out what is being proposed. What are some of the options? And if I’m missing something, where am I going wrong?
this raises a whole bunch of thoughts for me… and i’m sad to report i have absolutely no idea, but i’m hoping to see a dialogue unfold here…
this is something that has been a source of frustration for me in the lefty activist community for some years now… men that claim to be feminists but still want to relegate women to more secretarial types of positions within different groups. these men are soooo radical, yet. and it’s interesting to see women completely cave to it.
i don’t know why – but i also thought of a bit i read in my ‘women in american social movements’ course that completely knocked the wind out of me and haunts me to this day… apparently, during the freedom summers in the south, the women that went down to help organize and register voters found themselves fucking black men in order to “prove themselves worthy and equal.” ?! wasn’t there any other way to do that?
honestly, though – i think that new names might be a great place to start. the “old ones” carry such a defined (often massly), misunderstood meaning at this point. i think it may be time for something new all the way around. time keeps getting away from us, yet nothing is really progressing or changing… or maybe it’s just me…
As a male that identifies with radical feminism, I could not agree more.
this is something that has been troubling me for years, and something that we can look and see that happened as long ago as the very beginings of the first wave.
I have allways wondered why after Women were such an important part of the abolitionist movement, why when men of color had the Vote they chose to cast their votes overwhelmingly *against* women’s sufferage.
I have one answer. raise the children feminist, from the time they are born. Pound it into their heads, men constructed as they are now, are traitors and will remain so until they have a completely different epistemology.
hmmmm…very interesting!
Thanks google