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"Women, Women- Whatcha gonna do?" [sung to the tune of "Bad Boys, Bad Boys -whatch gonna do" COPs style]!!
Again, thank you for your in-depth analysis of the "deafeaning sound of silence" perpetrated by "feminists"! I am a Black female[with a PHD in biol/chem/ed] and I have always known that when I experienced any employement rejection, it was based on RACE. This feminist thing never entered my mind!! I'm old enough to remember, that the Gloria Steinems, et al NEVER invited SISTAS to their "TABLE"! But, we always had our own "Table". So thank them very much!!
I'm going to share your article/blog. You are sooo there!!!
THANK YOU!!
Is it NOW? Is it NARAL? Because you would be hard pressed to find any organization that reflects the breadth of feminist thought.
In the blogosphere, there are scores of feminists of color who have crafted feminism(s) to deal with intersectionality.
Just as we would chide someone who thought JC Watts or Al Sharpton represented the breadth of black political thought --- you know, 'black leaders' --- it's erroneous to talk about feminism and feminisms in a way that ignores how dynamic it is/they are.
i would also be very, very careful of associating the rantings of Harriet Christian and her anybody-but-Obama rantings as feminism. They're crying sexism, but that doesn't make them feminists or concerned with social justice.
Anyway, you're right on your points re: MO's media treatment. The whole she's-not-patriotic meme that has caused the Obama campaign to try and give her an 'image relaunch'. This all stems from the 'proud of my country...' thing, which seems pretty flimsy. They really have nothing else to go on, you know?
But it's also really racialized, because a lot of white women (again, i doubt many of those women would identify as feminists) see Obama --- the working mother --- as less like them then Cindy McCain, this insanely wealthy heiress.
That ain't about nothing but white people thinking they have more in common with ANY white person than a black person whose lives are much more like theirs.
Oy.
When will black women realize that the whole feminist movement was about white women, not them! When white women wanted your support, your sisters, any other time, SORRY SISTA!! Just look at how white women act at work. They have NEVER looked out for black women. And a white woman will protect hers before yours ALL DAY LONG!!
You and Ms. Curtis hit the nail on the head!
I'm so glad that Ms. Curtis mentioned the Don Imus vs. Rutgers Women's Basketball Team as an example of Feminist Hypocrisy. You wanna know why Don Imus was fired? BLACK WOMEN It was the black female employees at NBC who said "Enough is Enough!". Not Gloria Steinem, Joan Walsh or Geriatric Ferraro....but SISTAS!
Please forgive this delurker for posting this link (it may be by a jack and jill writer, I'm that much of a newbie not to know) but it too really opened my eyes on some of the painful problems surrounding the feminist movement:
http://55secretstreet.typepad.com/anovelista/2008/01/all-the-women-2.html
Thanks,
Rachel
Rachel,
The above paragraph in the post pretty much sums it up for me. There you have it. She is not one of them. No matter how accomplished she is still an accomplished BLACK woman. This political race is exposed a lot of the ism's that had been forced behind closed doors, including the large schism between Black and White women that has existed forever. That this had opened your eyes and minds says a lot about what has not been said openly and earnestly. As JJP stated, Black women have always been feminist because we HAD to be, there was no choice. To equate feminism with the daily grind that is/was the lives of Black folks is not being honest when white women could always get special privileges not accorded to Black folks.
Thanks again for your post, unfortunately many of your sisters because of willful denial cannot/will not accept that there continues to be a double standard when it comes to Black women. When white women truly want to be inclusive of us in the struggle for equal rights fully will Black women choose to participate, after they realize that we are not to be patted on the head used when convenient and then tossed aside when they get what they want.
Feminism should be a two-way street, which at this point it is not, and I for one choose not to part of it.
Feminists range from anarchist, to radical, to liberal, to separatist etc. and even within those divisions, there were/are more and more divisions and sub divisions.
Feminists are upper class, middle class, working class, poor. They are Jewish, WASP, Catholic, atheist, Wiccan, Italian American, Latina, Native American and yes, "even" African American.
They are heterosexual, Lesbian, bi, queer, transgendered. They are married, single, living in extended families, raising children, not raising children. They are monogomous, they are polyamorous. They are lawyers, doctors, writers, artists, nurses, teachers, students,construction workers, traffic cops, firefighters, on welfare or with trustfunds. Some are brilliant and some are morons. And everything in between. You'd agree with some, you'd disagree with some. Some you'd love, some you'd hate. It's just like that.
Ya just can't say "feminists" and know who you are talking about. You think it's an entity you can hold in your hand, but the minute you reach for it, it shatters into a zillion pieces.
Nobody speaks for feminism. There are no leaders. There are no followers. It isn't even really a movement anymore. Each feminist gets to make up their own definition. For better or for worse.
So, when you say "the feminists" you are not really naming who you are talking about. It's just an easy way to blame the many (women) for the faults of the few.
The people you are talking about may or may not have self defined as feminist, but it's not like there was a movement handbook or leader that said, oh yeah! You, you're one of us. And hey, you over there, you 're out.
And not all feminists even agree that feminism is about equal rights. Or political power. Some do. Some think categories like gender and race are socially constructed categories that need to be unpacked and put away. In mothballs. Forever.
I've been a feminist for thirty years. I'm white, I'm Jewish, I'm Queer and I have been for Obama since the beginning. As have all of the people I consider friends.
I have a few questions to ask whomever:
Have we assumed the position of "wanting" to be invited tot he table?
Should we assume a position that perhaps there are MANY strong, intelligent, professionally powerful women or MEN for that matter who we can ask to speak up in defense of Michelle Obama and skip the likes of Steinhem and her band of myopic racists?
If we have our own table, and I do believe we do, then it is time for us to re-energize, starting writing op eds in every newspaper and ask those of power and those who support the fair treatment of women and condemn racism to speak up.
If we publicly call the major feminists orgs out, they will have to take a stand... But if they do't, we should have others take the reigns (sp?) of defending the best example of feminism that I have personally seen in while, Michelle Obama.
The sexism is still going on, just with Michelle Obama as a target, and all you hear are **crickets** from the same people who made sure to run down any outlet they could to scream about the sexism against Hillary Clinton.
To scream about Obama "brushing his shoulders off" really meaning he was diminishing Hillary Clinton.
To scream about Obama calling the reporter "sweetie."
To scream about Obama calling Hillary Clinton "Annie Oakley."
To scream about Obama saying how Hillary's claws were coming out.
To scream about Obama saying "periodically" to refer to Hillary's menstrual cycle.
No one on this blog (or any other outlet) is saying that "all feminists" are silent. Just the ones who screamed loudest about the sexism when it came to Hillary Clinton.
Where they at?
**crickets**
Still waiting.
I saw the first page of comments at the Washington Post and the majority of the people who justify being silent blame Michelle Obama and her RACE for the reason why they should stay silent. 90% of the comments slamming Michelle claim she is "racist" and "hates white people" and she has a "sista gurl mouth".
Basically the people who were screaming the loudest about the rampant sexism, and are now quiet, feel that Michelle Obama deserves what she gets, and she deserves what she gets, in part, because she's black.
However, I know that this feminism is bereft with problems and many minorities and non-hetero peoples are left out. Luckily I'm sheltered in academia where these blank spots in feminism are exposed for what they are.
Quite simply, the failure of feminism as a mainstream movement isn't new (see: "Ain't I a woman" by Bell Hooks or my favorite "Women race & Class" by Angela Davis). These intersections or race, gender, class, and sexuality are hard enough to discuss in the academy so I've had little faith that they'd be part of mainstream feminism at all.
However, perhaps the silence of this overwhelmingly older, white feminist overclass will open up the eyes of younger people and peoples of color to the damaging privilege and racism in the movement. Or at least one can hope.
Moreover, I was appalled at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 when the women's causus was all about abortion rights and glass ceilings. I was like damn it, we are so worried about the glass cieling what about all our sisters who aren't even on the sidewalk to to building with the glass ceiling.
So of course, upper class white women don't get it. They don't get the racism that Michelle faes, and they don't get the classism that both Black and White women face every single day.
Which is why I was never sympathtic to Hillary's struggles- she came from an middle class family and benifeted from every single civil rights stuggle and since she was White she got more doors open to her.. so hers isn't exactly the ideal story.
You talk about not wanting to be separate from our men, no one is asking you to be. But separation (fear and hate and blame etc.) has not helped progress in anyway, that includes separation of black women from white women.
www.gbminnyc.blogspot.com
---------------
IMO, this is putting the blame for the separation of black and white women on black women. This may not be your intention but that's how I read it. I'm not seeing trying to set a place at the table for black women, or Asian women or Latino women. Or even poor white women. I've always seen it as "you can come to the dinner but you have to sit at the kids' table over there," and the only time WOC are allowed at the table is to clean it off and make it look pretty.
I think it goes both ways. Just as there are black women who don't desire to sit at the table, there are white women who don't want us in the dining room to begin with. And I think that needs to be addressed and rectified and if that can't happen then WOC need to sit at our own tables.
All that being said, I'd like to echo some commenters here that have noted that there have been really strong feminist WOC voices in the blogosphere and that even when I don't think all bloggers/commenters are on the same page on blogs run by younger feminists (like Feministing), they certainly haven't ignored Michelle Obama's treatment.
This is not to say that racism doesn't pervade the ranks of feminism like it does other parts of life, but I think dismissing sexism in this election is like the (predominantly) older and white feminists dismissing racism. Both are real and both affect us and both are horrible.
The thing is, these divisions are hardening, in large part because this political race has put the issues in our face. A recent article by Linda Hirshman sent waves through the feminist blogosphere with her assertion that mainstream feminism OUGHT to ignore the issues of non-white, non-professional, or non-middle-class women. In essence, she said that middle-class white women shouldn't be concerned about the well-being of anyone else until they get . . . well, I don't know what they really don't have at this point other than a presidential office.
It is interesting to me that so many of these mainstream feminists seem absolutely baffled that other women don't automatically support them. The big question in my feminist classes was why black women put their black identity before their feminine identity, as if race is a non-issue.
They are actual feminism too -- and one of those forms of feminism was LOUD in support of Hillary Clinton and running all sorts of racism during the primary.
IMO naming complexities should not erase the ugly reality that is actually part of them.
I guess we can't defend Laura Bush either, since she's been on many a "Today" show and was on the cover of "Ladies Home Journal."
@ annaarcturus:
I think a lot of people just want to be heard. I don't know how to answer your question but to say, "Please just listen." I think some white feminists want WOC to sit at the table but only if they're quiet and don't say anything or only if they back them up. Just listen. I guess that's the only answer I could give you.
Michelle Obama: Ain't She A Woman?
by Gary L. Flowers
NNPA Columnist
Originally posted 6/24/2008
Sororal treatment has linked Sojourner Truth and Michelle Obama in history.
In 1843, a domestic servant in up-state New York whose given name was Isabella Van Wagenen changed her birth name to one that would reflect her mission in life - Sojourner Truth.
Her life's journey would lead her to be revered for her stature, intellect, and fearlessness. Like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth was one the first Black feminists to publicly assert that Black women should be viewed as total human beings.
In other words, within the Black community there are women; and within the feminist movement, there are Black women.
As an abolitionist and an itinerant Pentecostal preacher, Ms. Truth was invited to the 1851 Women's Conference in Akron, Ohio. According to Frances Gage, a White abolitionist and president of the conference, as Sojourner Truth rose to approach the stage, White women whispered, ''For God''s sake, Mrs. Gage, don't let her speak.''
Despite the whispers, she was reported to have famously said, ''I have borne children and seen most of them sold into slavery, and when cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?''
One hundred and sixty-five years after Sojourner Truth assumed the national stage comes Michelle Robinson Obama. Like Truth, Mrs. Obama stands 5' 11'' tall and possesses a commanding, yet feminine presence. Raised by parents who instilled in young Michelle and her brother, Craig, a thirst to succeed despite racial oppression in the world, the potential First Lady of the White House is gifted and grounded.
Ivy-League educated at Princeton and Harvard, the wife, mother, lawyer, and woman is worthy of respect. Yet, like Mrs. Truth, Mrs. Obama has had to succeed amidst the whispering campaigns of negativity.
She is said to be ''angry'' and ''the baby mama of Obama''. Maureen Dowd suggested that many Americans believe Michelle Obama to be ''emasculating'' to her candidate husband. Likewise, the blogesphere is rife with the modern version of whispered insults and innuendo.
For example, a recent posting on the Daily Kos revealed an image of a wrist-bound Michelle Obama about to be burned on the back by Ku Klux Klansmen, with the title ''Our New Hi Tech Southern Strategy'' sponsored by the David Duke Fan Club.
Whether 1851 or 2008, fear-mongers and the ignorant that use race as a dividing wedge are not surprising. What is alarming is the lack of defense for Mrs. Obama that is afforded to others. If Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who once was First Lady in the White House deserved - as she did - defending by leading White feminists from stereotypically sexist attacks on the campaign trail such as hecklers yelling ''Hillary: Iron my shirt'', than surely Mrs. Obama as a potential First Lady in the White House deserves the same. One set of defense rules. The only leading voice I have heard has been National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy who is ''watching'' for sexist attacks on Michelle Obama. And this is a good start.
But where are the famous names in feminism now that Mrs. Obama is under attack?
Metaphorically, the cultural chasm between Helen Reddy's ''I am Woman'' (1972) and Chaka Khan's ''I am Every Woman'' (1992) must be closed to open a new paradigm of equal defense for equal offense.
Appearing on the television show, ''The View'', last week, Mrs. Obama was poised and personal; elegant and electric. As she fielded questions, Michelle Obama did so with a sense of genuine openness, which seemingly connected with the viewers of ''The View''.
But why did she have to appear in the first place? Sojourner Truth's words still instruct us:
''If the first woman God ever made [Eve] was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right-side up again.'' Together, we are one.
Gary Flowers is executive director and CEO of the Black Leadership Forum.
Mine is not a sisterhood with the racist white women that constitute so much of what so many of you call "mainstream feminists". They are neither-- mainstream, nor feminist. They're privileged white women with outsized entitlement pathologies. You couldn't find one of those biyotches for years (a woman claiming she's 'feminist'), until Monster falsely claimed it by campaigning on her skank husband's resume.
Take a harder look at what we say to each other and how it's said. There is not a goddammed thing wrong with a black woman claiming- demanding equality. There is everything wrong with our serial slandering, libel, murders, rapes, and denials of its impact.
My sisterhood is with brothers. You're not my brother if you believe the casual blackwoman hate in so many cultural mores is acceptable to you.
This thread is one of the least informed I've ever seen here.
Republicans aren't the problem here. So-called Democrats and so-called Feminists are. One expects slings and arrows from one's enemies --
the real test is where one's 'friends' are. And those 'friends' are absent.
Angela, thank you for the column. Town, WORD to both of your posts. Required reading. Jed, you don't want to see, so there's no opening your eyes until you open them yourself. NMP, remember what Malcolm said about that type of thing?
Sara, intensity is everything -- and it just ain't there for Michelle, as it continues to be for Hillary.
One of the reasons I dedicated a few of my blogs to the cofounding way the media treats her. I can tell that either majority of these white pundits have no educated black woman friends or are just oblivious to other race perceptions.