Uplift and Listen: Intersectional Feminism
Story by Presley Frank, collage by Mallika Sunder, cover photos by Mindful Media, Henri Voton, Jacob Blund
Feminism has long been identified as the term that signifies advocating for all women’s rights, but feminism was created for white women by white women. White Feminism is the term to describe feminism that only applies to white women, but feminism and white feminism connect very deeply. Feminism is centered around what white women need. It is meant to be a movement encompassing all women, but disregards any issues that don't affect white women.
Although some things that are fought for within feminism can support non-white women’s rights, there is almost no coverage over racial issues within feminism. There cannot be any equity for all women if racial issues are still prevalent. This also applies to many other women with intersectional identities such as LGBTQ+ women, disabled women, etc. If we want “equality for all”, then why are we centering our work on only white people? We cannot make any progress in addressing social issues if the only issues we choose to invest our funds, time, and energy into are issues that only can support white people.
Since there is a lack of representation for women of color within feminism, new terms have been created. They identify women who center onto issues that apply to women of color such as intersectional feminist and womanist. These terms are significant because they center on the deeper issues within discrimination against women, and without working on issues that affect different smaller groups we cannot see any equality for all.
Womanism was a term created by Alice Walker who recognized how frequently feminism disregarded issues of race and class. Womanism is described to be family-oriented, where feminism is women-oriented. Womanism emphasizes black women issues, and is a term which black women can use to identify with. Feminism, throughout its usage as a term, has never benefited black women in the ways that it has white women.
Some examples of toxic white feminism are; spiritual bypassing (“a tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved issues”), being overly defensive about simple questions, tone policing (“the action or practice of criticizing the angry or emotional manner in which a person has expressed a point of view, rather than addressing the substance of the point itself.”), and much more. These examples go to show that many times, white people attempt to push away their privilege and use phrases like, “I don’t see color”, to disregard POC identities when having conversations about racism. This is also deeply rooted in white fragility. More examples of white feminism excluding POC identity include the fact that in the first wave of feminism, black women were seen as a liability when fighting for women's issues, and were therefore excluded. In the second wave of feminism, Black and Latinx women were neglected again, and the issues in which they faced were dismissed. In recent years we have seen improvement in the inclusion of women with different sexualites, genders, ethnicities, races and classes but not enough progress has been made.
The ideas behind intersectional feminism do not disregard the impact that the feminist movement has made, but it should broaden your thinking to where you can begin to recognize how feminism needs to be altered to focus on issues for all women, and not just white women. Participating in toxic feminism and focusing solely on white issues is extremely harmful to the experiences of women from different backgrounds. Always check yourself when advocating for women’s rights and take steps every day to educate yourself on what you can do to uplift and listen to women of color and make an impact.
https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/womanist
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a22717725/what-is-toxic-white-feminism/
https://indiversecompany.com/white-feminism-how-feminist-movements-failed-to-be-inclusive/