Femme-fights: ‘Feminists, Womanists’ Battle Across Racial Lines

“It’s alienating as a feminist woman to have a White person accuse a non-White woman “kind of doing the same thing”, when the same thing is systematic racism. It’s alienating that White feminist women are aware of the double-consciousness of gender but oblivious to the double-consciousness of race. Non-White bloggers are hyper-aware that they are writing for White people, and all non-White people spend their lives working – consciously and unconsciously – to understand White people in order to get by in a culture that defines them as intrinsically an other….The content of these blogs may be diverse, but the discourse certainly isn’t. “

I’m going to have to come out on Renee’s side on this one.  The comments above illustrate why it can be difficult for women of color to feel like they truly belong in certain publications. Pointing out the fact that a few women of color write for mainstream feminist publications and therefore, these publications represent women of color, is like claiming you can’t be racist because you have some non-white friends. Renee’s point is not that voices of minority women never get featured in these publications. Instead, what matters is that the dominant discourse is a white one. For the record, I’d call myself a feminist and a womanist and sometimes neither – I’m not sure the labels are nearly as important as the values here.

The reaction to this post is one of the reasons I hate reading anything on race is mainstream publication.  When black women say that mainstream publications don’t represent us, it goes deeper than there not being enough pictures of or articles by women of color. It’s about the larger “ethos” of the publication – and yes, I know that may read like a vague cop-out. Let me put it this way: I sometimes read Glamour magazine, I even sometimes like it but I don’t feel like I am the “Glamour woman.”

Terrible social construct that it is, race does affect the way men and women of color see the world. It means that a black woman may sometimes wonder if she’s being passed over by a mate because of her race and an Asian woman may wonder if she’s being considered because of her race (see this and this).  When women of color try to explain the experiences that shape our views and get defensiveness back in return, we either retreat or bite back harshly – neither reaction bode well for talking our way to “post-racial” bliss.

In their defense, I understand that some of the white readers are also playing out frustration with the difficulty talking about race.  From the comments of the Jezebel post, it would apear that readers think Renee is accusing them, since they’re feminists, of being racists when she is actually attacking the construct of feminism. It’s the difference between saying white people are racists versus the construct of whiteness is racist.

Lest we think this is a solely American problem, a similar dynamic plays out when it comes to feminism in other countries. An article in the BBC last week discussed pending restrictions in France against wearing the niqab.  The story quotes Elizabeth Badinter who is described as “a leading femnist philosopher,” and who says the veil  “is totally contrary to the three principles of the French Republic” and violates the principles of equality:

“She who hides her face is in a position superior to mine… she sees me but she refuses to reciprocate.” A Muslim woman interviewed for the story has a very different take on the veil and the republic. To her, “liberty means freedom of conscience, of expression.”

Whether it’s restricting how Muslim women can express their faith in France or in insisting that black American women feel adequately represented by mainstream publications, a false choice is presented: accept the majority’s values and your “minority” status or continue living as separatists.  Identity is fluid – I’m always black, a woman, Nigerian, and American.  But at any given moment, I may identify more with one or more of those things.  Ultimately, if black women like Renee Martin chose not to identify with feminism, the truly freedom-enhancing and “feminist” thing to do is to leave them be or, at least, try to win them over.

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