White women’s burden
Take up the white woman’s burden
Screech “oppression” from your neocolonial soapbox
All the world’s women are yours to save
From their own people.
Fly in on the back of a drone
Or maybe the white horse of military intervention,
Smiling benevolently,
Offering your “sisterhood” with one hand
As you hold the white man’s hand with the other.
Reduce them to the “veil”
And then try to yank it off.
Shower them with birth control,
Little pills of “emancipation”,
While their homelands are showered with your bombs.
Women should have the choice, right?
(But only the one’s we give them)
Whisper in their ears, the problem is your Islam
Your fathers, your brothers, your husbands,
Your country, your culture,
you.
The problem is you.
Not this treacherous sisterhood,
This fake solidarity,
Not this “War on Terror” that liberates women
by turning their bodies into
COLLATERAL DAMAGE.
Not violence. Not silence.
The problem is you.
Divide and conquer
The colonizers knew it well, so do the
White liberal feminists.
But in the end, even they don’t win —
Empire does.
where dem loud ass White Feminists now that...
Charlie Sheen has been given another TV show. And a Fiat commercial. Both of which he flaunts his blatant disrespect of women by asking in the fiat commercial, what do i get for good behavior? (inferring to his house arrest) to the model he is pressed on. And then in his new TV show, which i forget the name of, something about men, bullshit. He says, EVERYBODY DESERVES A 24TH CHANCE. UHHH… WHAT?!?!
i find it amusing that all these whiny white feminist women came out to condemn chris brown getting invited to perform in the grammy’s and then actually win a grammy. i wasn’t too pleased either. however, we should be hearing this outrage about other well known woman abusers and disrespecters as well. and charlie sheen is white male privileged misogyny at it’s finest. this man shoots a woman and gets millions of dollars after and then continues to be misogynistic and now he has a new TV show, mum is the word. white feminists colluding with white male privilege and power again. and let me be clear, WHITE WOMEN DON’T EVEN GET 24 CHANCES. if a public figure white woman made the types of mistakes that charlie sheen did, the times she did, it would not be rewarded with more spotlight. nope. even someone like paris hilton, who has the money and power to have many things cleaned up behind the scenes, still faces a type of gendered ridicule for behaviors white men with money and some w/o have long gotten away with.
so again, where is this White Feminist rage? they are quick to cry about a black man making wealth and money and being in the spotlight after their involvement in misogyny and abuse. but white men, it’s totally cool i guess. your silence is complacency equals tacit consent in this case cause you know what, your mind and your priorities speak volumes. no word on charlie. plenty of rage for chris. i am not giving chris any pass, at all. but i just see what this is and it’s racist as fuck.
In which I vent about STFU Hypocrisy being a fucking hypocrite
White feminists: you have privilege. You will probably, at some point, say something racist. You will fuck up and you will be ignorant to the concerns and struggles of WoC. However, the key to being a good person and a good feminist is accepting that you have privilege and educating yourself beyond it.
So that means not agreeing with people who say that violent hip-hop and rap stars are inevitable because of the misogyny and homophobia within said genres, then calling PoC “hateful” when they take offence to such a ridiculously ignorant and racist view (1)
It means accepting your racial bias, and not acting like the victim when people point it out (2)
It means not using the “oh I didn’t know” excuse and educating yourself instead (3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - wow, a lot of willfull ignorance)
It means not being sarcastic or condescending when PoC raise perfectly valid points (8, 9)
It means not acting like a victim when PoC point out your ignorance, because racism extends far, far beyond you and, frankly, your white fee-fees are not the most important thing in this discussion (10, 11, 12)
Basically, it means not being a fuck.
Its funny how white women can come out in droves to scream about how 'not racist' they are
But the minute you tell them to focus on an issue that includes dismantling and re-evaluating their status as privileged due to them being white?
*crickets*
See: SlutWalk NYC.
See: Hugo Schwyzer’s ass being kissed by white feminists.
See: The appropriation of the Black stereotype Jezebel for a website that has been co-opted by white ‘feminists.’
See: The reaction to Lena Dunham’s fuckery.
I could fucking go on and on.
But they’d just flail and call me all sorts of names.
“All too frequently in the women’s movement it was assumed one could be free of sexist thinking by simply adopting the appropriate feminist rhetoric; it was further assumed that identifying oneself as oppressed freed one from being an oppressor. To a very great extent such thinking prevented white feminists from understanding and overcoming their own sexist-racist attitudes toward black women. They could pay lip-service to the idea of sisterhood and solidarity between women but at the same time ignore black women.”
—bell hooks
Dear White Feminists
You’re smart people. I appreciate you. I’m glad you’re attempting to fight the good fight. But, for the love of all that is holy:
CHECK. YOUR. PRIVILEGE.
Acknowledge that as a white person, you have A LOT of it. Race will always be just a “race issue” to you that you can - and do, on WAY TOO MANY occasions - ignore on a daily basis. For women of color and for ALL people of color, race is not an issue; it is our constant state of being. Women of color are oppressed daily, hourly, by the minute because of it. Being told we must fit a certain stereotype, being told we are inferior, being shown that we are not fit to be seen by the masses on TV and in movies, being fetishized and marginalized and beaten and killed because of who we are.
I refuse to just be a woman for the sake of the feminist movement because I am not just a woman. I am a woman of color. I will not put being just a woman first and foremost above everything else that I am. I refuse to put my race aside because women as a whole have “bigger problems to deal with.” I will not shut up about the lack of racial diversity in The Hunger Games, Girls, and all the other TV shows and movies and books out there that erase me just because you like them. I will not stop including race in the discussion of gender based violence and sexual violence against women of color because race deserves to be included in that dialogue. My identity is intersectional and my feminism is intersectional. If yours is not, it is bullshit. White feminists are not exempt from criticism.
When women of color talk about racism- real oppression with real consequences and feelings attached to them, and you feel the need to raise your hand and tell us about how we’re making a big deal out of nothing, here is what you need to do:
1. Put your hand down.
2. Shut up.
3. LISTEN.
Because you will never know or understand what being a woman of color feels like. We are slowly dying from a thousand little papercuts from people who are supposed to be on our team. We have to hear things like “Why are you being so sensitive?” “This isn’t a race issue.” “Making a big deal about racial diversity self sabotages the entire feminist movement.” You know what self sabotages the movement? Refusing to include or even ACKNOWLEDGE the struggles of women of color. Refusing to prioritize us alongside you at the forefront of the movement. You treat us the way that patriarchy treats you, and you are trying my patience.
With friends like you, we don’t need enemies.
But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Listen to us, learn from us, acknowledge our existence. Pick up a book. Follow a blog. Stop being an asshole. Don’t shout us down when we talk about our oppression. Quit trying to equate white women’s struggles with WOC struggles because they are not and never will be the same. Understand that this movement is not solely about you. It is equally about us. Our arguments and experiences are just as real and valid as yours.
White women do not get to be put first. White women are not the default omni-feminist representatives for all women. Progress for white women alone is not progress for the entire movement. It is not “a step in the right direction.” It is a step forward for you and a step backward for us.
And, while we’re on the topic of intersectionality, when it comes to other “issues” that don’t apply to you including but not limited to ableism, heterosexism, cissexism, and sizeism?
Same shit goes- put your hand down, shut up, and listen.
All oppressed people have things to say and you do not get to dominate the floor.
Love, Lauren
Black women have had very good reasons to defend men who have hurt them, especially when the accusations come from the white establishment. Because black women face racist misogyny, their resistance to patriarchy often looks, from the perspective of white feminism, irrational or un-feminist.And, as Angela Davisrepeatedly demonstrates in her book on the blues, black female singers often use lyrics that superficially portray their victimization to critique the very racist misogyny that would victimize them. Why aren’t people at least granting the possibility that Rihanna is participating in this tradition?
Boom, intersectionality.
I’ve given up on talking about Rihanna ages ago but have (somewhat) silently sat by and watched white women (people) write/co-sign dumb shit like this without even a hint of self-awareness. Without even a tiny bit of speculation that maybe their “good intentions” and concern shaming is capital-B bullshit, or that no one on the face of this Earth, much less Rihanna, really gives a fuck about what white people have to say.
In Rihanna’s interview with Oprah, she cried and talked about how bad she felt re: Chris Brown’s reputation after the incident. Everyone threw up their hands and wrote her off and didn’t for a second try to legitimize her voice. This is the woman you’re trying to (quote unquote) help, and you can’t even listen to her? No, what y’all wanted her to do was write Chris Brown off, to demonize him and pester him and spit shit at him on Twitter until he had one (or two) (or twenty) meltdown/s. When she didn’t, white feminists couldn’t fucking believe it, so they came for her.
THAT’S WHAT THE FUCK I AM FIGHTING AGAINST. That shit right there. That refusal to believe that maybe, maybe a black woman has a better understanding of her world than you do, that she can still love and fight and exist in parameters that are not your own AND HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU. White women have the hardest time on the fucking planet believing that they don’t and can’t speak for all women. It perplexes the shit out of me.
People don’t get why I stan for Rihanna sometimes, but come on. She’s smart as fuck. You think she doesn’t hear you? You think she doesn’t know what you’re saying? She knows, and she doesn’t care. Stay the fuck up out of her grill, man.
white feminists, y'all have been out of line for fucking decades.
Dear White feminists,
It’s time we had a talk.
Because as a queer woman of color, I’m getting sick of something that y’all have a tendency to do.
It’s the same song every time: White feminists do something offensive, disregard the experiences of women of color, refuse to acknowledge that women of color’s lived experiences are different and generally much more difficult due to the doubling of oppressions, etc. Feminist WoC call white feminists out. UH OH! Can’t have that. Outrage sparks against feminist woc because “How dare you call what I said/what I did/me a racist!” Somewhere along the line, men rush in to protect the white feminist from the brutal attacks they’re facing from the big, bad, meanie WoC. And the white feminists, safe and sound now that the men have arrived, watch the WoC get lambasted with a sense of relief. All the men agree with her; therefore, she was in the right! Right?
Wrong. That’s some bullshit.
That’s some bullshit.
White feminists, you disregard the experiences, except for when it will benefit you and make you look good (read: like saints) ; you ignore us, you tell us we’re “taking away from the cause,” you tell us how oppressed we must be because of our differences in culture, you call our embracing of different values “playing into misogyny”, and often try to present us as things we aren’t. And as soon as you get called out for saying something racist, as soon as you get told something about your privilege, as soon as you get reminded that you, cis white women aren’t the only women in existence, as soon as you get told that you are demonstrating oppressive behaviors towards other women…..
you suddenly turn into the damsel in distress.
Oh god, the women of color are being meanies who are calling you racist! And that’s ridiculous, and just cruel because you, white feminist, you’re far too sweet and precious and saintly and innocent to say or do something racist! You’re much too delicate to even touch something as pearl clutchingly awful as racism. You’re far too innocent to be oppressive!
You cry. You whine. You drop to the floor, plug your ears, and scream, “LALALA CAN’T HEAR YOU!” with tears streaming down your cheeks. And you keep it up until the men come rushing to your defense. And while your precious defender tears into us for daring speak up about your treatment of us (which is, quite frankly, shitty as all get out), you sit back, relieved and grateful that someone is on your side, and thank them with all of your heart for seeing your side of things and coming to your defense, never once thinking to examine your privilege; never once realizing that you, a feminist woman, have power over other women due to this little thing called intersectionality.
Let me make that more clear: Rather than examine your own privilege as white women, and how it affects your views versus the views of women who happen to also be of color, you will suddenly turn around and embrace the patriarchy, because you can use it to protect yourself.
As far as bullshit goes, this one really takes the god damn cake (or at least a generous slice of it). You know why? Because in playing the damsel in distress who can’t fight her own battles and needs to be rescued from the situation, you are yielding to the same patriarchal values that you fight against! Why? Because even though patriarchal systems oppresses you, you can still benefit from them in certain ways when you are white.
White feminists, you’ve done this to protect yourselves, and you have a long ass track record of doing this in order to throw people of color, men included, under the fucking bus while simultaneously erasing us. You do this shit whenever it is convenient for you.
You aren’t interested in equality for all women. You want equality for white women. You want to be able to have equal footing with those who have privilege over you, while simultaneously being able to step on everyone else. You want white men to examine their privilege over you, while never being willing to examine your privilege over WoC. You want men of color to examine the privilege they have over you as males, while straight up refusing to examine the fact that you have privilege over them as white people. You want to eliminate patriarchal values, but you want to keep the patriarchal values that can be manipulated to work for your benefit.
And you don’t want to be called out for any of it. You will utilize patriarchy to prevent that.
But guess what, white feminists? You can’t claim to fight against the patriarchy but turn around and play into it when it’s convenient for you. You can’t even call yourself a feminist if you do that. The definition of feminism talks about women’s rights. Not only white women. ALL women. When you try to step on the collective necks of one group of women in order to benefit yourself as another type of women? You aren’t a feminist. You’re for all women…until you get reminded that “all women” includes women who are not white.
And that shit ain’t cute.
And then on top of that, when WoC get tired of your bullshit and create our own spaces dedicated to empowering ourselves as women of color, you get mad and want to cry that we’re not being inclusive? Bump that!
Examine yourselves critically under a microscope. I don’t care if this hurts your precious, precious white fee fees. I don’t care if you think I’m being mean. I don’t care if this makes you uncomfortable. I only have one fuck to give, and you’ll find it between my index and ring finger.
Sincerely,
A Woman of Color
P.S. While I was talking strictly about white feminists regarding race, you best believe that y’all do the same thing to people who face other oppressions while being a woman. And you need to fix that shit too. Just check yourselves all around.
Note: I spoke about this regarding race because that’s the primary lens through which I navigate my life on a daily basis.
Note 2: By “woman” I mean anybody who identifies as a woman.
I love how for white feminists their biggest problems are Disney movies and the princesses in them and how they were fed sexist bullshit from when they were little and felt SO HEARTBROKEN at the tender fucking age of 21 when they realized how much shit there was in the movies. I realized this at age 10 or so because I never identified with white princesses and their idea of love and liberation.
Wow. If these folks liked these movies as kids, let alone liked them at 21, go re evaluate your damn life.
