Me and White Supremacy - Days 22/23: White Feminism and White Leaders

Resource: Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Day 22: White Feminism

Very broadly, feminism is defined as “a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the genders.” White feminism refers to “feminist theories that focus on the struggles of white women without addressing the distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority women and women lacking other privileges.” Mainstream feminist movements have left out Black, Indigenous, Women of Color (BIWOC) from the start. In these movements, white women hold the expectation that BIWOC should stand in solidarity under shared experience of gender discrimination while ignoring how race and other identity intersections impact this discrimination. However, BIWOC cannot separate their identities or experiences of race and gender, and to take this into account intersectionality (the framework, coined by Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, that helps explore the dynamic between coexisting identities and systems of oppression, particularly as it relates to gender and race of Black women) needs to be taken into account.

White feminism shows up by:

• White feminists talking about pay gap between men and women without referencing pay gap between white women and BIPOC

• White feminists telling BIWOC that talking about race is “divisive” and that we should focus first on being united under gender

• White feminist spirituality culturally appropriating and whitewashing BIPOC spirituality

• White feminists showing up for 2017 Women’s march but now showing up in similar numbers for Black women at BLM marches

• White feminism largely ignoring US Black maternal health crisis because it does not affect white women

• White feminism centering white women leaders while undermining BIWOC leaders

• White feminism ignoring works of Black and other non-white feminist leaders

• White feminism not believing that Muslim feminists who choose to wear hijab are real feminists

Reflection: To what extent has your idea of feminism been under the issue of gender only?

I didn’t really know what feminism or the feminism movement was until after college (most of my classes were hard sciences or french classes), and I still am not well-versed in it. I just bought my first book by bell hooks a few weeks ago, and I’ve never really learned about the ideas of the movement as a whole. Around the same time I was learning about feminism, I was also learning about racial equity, and so these are things that I have seen as connected since I’ve really become aware of them, even if I haven’t spent much time learning about them. I would say before a few years ago, I did only think about gender and not race when I heard the word feminism.

Day 23: White Leaders

White leaders are people with white privilege in positions of leadership, authority, and power who you come in contact with, including teachers, coaches, authors, public figures, work leaders, community leaders, politicians, etc. (also yourself if in a leadership position). People with white privilege in leadership positions have a greater impact on BIPOC and how they are treated. The more you do anti racism work, the more you can influence leaders to do the work themselves.

Reflection: How aware have you been of whether white leaders you follow are doing deeper antiracism work? How much of a priority has it been for you to push them to go beyond the visual effect of diversity? If you are in a leadership position, how do you plan to respond to your own behaviors going forward?

For me, the leadership that is most prominent in my life are the leaders I encounter at work. I’ve been lucky that in my most recent workplace, anti-racism work is the norm (which definitely pushed me to actually do it), although before being steeped in it like that, I was not aware at all of how the white leaders I followed did or did not do anti-racism work. And looking back, I am assuming that most of them were not. Equipped with a new awareness and new knowledge, this is something I will definitely push leaders at work on in my next job and beyond. I have been having a lot of job interviews, and I have been able to bring up the work I am doing, and I always ask about how diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity show up in their organization.

I am hoping to be in some sort of a leadership position in my next job, and I know that I have a responsibility to make sure that the work I do is anti-racist and equitable. I want to be able to influence programs and curriculum in a way that privileges many voices, work with educator to make their own practice equitable, and help create a culture that prioritizes anti racism work and equity. It seems like the organizations I have interviewed for are committed to anti-racism, but are still new along the journey, and I look forward to (hopefully, as in hopefully one of them will hire me) holding them to those commitments and growing with them.