Abby brought up in her post the idea of the oppressed being oppressors themselves. I too was thinking of how the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s set aside women and first focused on race. The white feminist 3rd Wave movement seems to be acting with the same intentions of the Civil Rights movement. The white feminists seem to be thinking “sure we will include some black women in our campaign and some lesbians, but really our goal is first for white women. Then once we get equality we will fight for you all”. The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 I believe. About fifty years later women are still fighting for equality and to be viewed as equals. I understand Lorde’s complaint with the white feminist movement. The white feminist movement might be successful for white women, however when will it be successful for black women or lesbians? Lorde clearly believes the whit feminist movement should be modified to a simple feminist movement including all women.
McIntosh’s excerpt on white privilege raised awareness of exactly what Lorde is calling for. Women want men to acknowledge their male privilege and not support it. But when black women call on women to acknowledge their white privilege, they brush it off and most do not understand their white privilege. Just like white women, who are not conscious of their white privilege, men are unaware of their privilege as well. It is extremely hard to consciously be aware of something that does not affect you. For example, if I was one of two final candidates for a job and got the job over a black woman I personally would not feel I got it because I was white. On the contrary, if the black women got the job I would not think I did not get it because I was white. I would imagine this situation to be extremely different in regards to how a black woman may feel if I got the job over her. This article was relevant to the article we read last time on patriarchy. Men are not consciously thinking of their male privilege because the system, patriarchy, allows them to be unconscious. This is the same with white women. The patriarchy system involved in the world of race allows white women to be unconscious of their privilege. This cycle seems to point at the problem of patriarchy. Somehow, as a society, it is our duty to raise consciousness of the people who are generally unconscious of their privilege. Clearly, from Johnson’s chapter on patriarchy, it is extremely difficult to question the system.
I think Whitney brought up a lot of very good points. The third wave of feminism seems to be making some of the same mistakes that their predecessors made. I think it is very understandable that Lorde is sick of waiting around for equality, from society as a woman and from the feminist movement as a black woman. She has waited for years to be accepted for who she is from society and the fact that the very women who should be supporting her are the ones making her feel inferior would be very aggravating. I also think that by including a more diverse group of women in the feminist movement, more support would come. The more people you have involved with a group, the more support there is. So really the feminist movement should openly welcome everyone who wants to help, not judge them on something as arbitrary as race (or gender).
ReplyDeleteWhitney brings up a interesting idea when she talks about if she got a job (when she was against a black women) she would not think she received the job because she is white. I think some people (myself included) would definitely agree with Whitney, but I think others would disagree. I had a friend in high school who applied to Cornell, along with another girl from my school. My friend was white, and the other girl was Indian. The other girl got accepted to Cornell, while my friend did not. They had pretty much all the same scores, with my friend just a little higher. When she did not get in, my friend based it off the fact that she was not accepted because she was white. My friend blamed her rejection not herself, but on her lack of diversity. I knew a couple of people who did the same thing, and I think it is interesting that people do this. It says a lot about society and how some people view minorities as having special privileges. The juxtaposition to this is McIntosh when she lists all the ways that she is privileged because she is the majority race.