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{ Team StarKid } A Very Nerdy Nerd: The Top Five Ways That White Feminists Continue To Discredit Women of Color - ::QUEER HAIRY VAGINA::
A Very Nerdy Nerd: The Top Five Ways That White Feminists Continue To Discredit Women of Color

Click on the URL for full details of the top 5 ways. I’m gonna just post a short summary of some bits and bold my own personal commentary :)

  1. 1) Say we are too “involved” or biased in regards to the subject, and claim that you are more “objective”

Academia is famous for this.  Why are there white upper-class men teaching Women’s studies, white upper-class women teaching African or Latin American  The claim is that people of color and women are not “objective”. Especially in regards to religion, this is frequently thrown out there when discussing “Eastern” religions like Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism; 

[This is very true when it comes to the subject of Islamic women; the people who are given the most attention when they talk about Islamic women- are not Islamic women. We only hear one side about how oppressed by their religion Islamic women are- by people who don’t live their lives]

2) Say we are ignorant of the subject, even though the subject is our own life, history, culture or religion, because we have dared to speak to our own story and question the way outsiders have portrayed it. This includes questioning our academic background (or lack of), our writing style/ability, and whether or not we cite “accepted” texts to prove our points.

 The blogging world, for example, is full of people who think they know about something because they read it on-line or have a friend of a friend who experienced xyz, and then they use this as a means to say that this is the only version that is valid. Rarely are women of color allowed to speak to our own experience, to say that we were mistreated or discriminated against without someone else claiming that we are “reading too much into it”.

[Its difficult sometimes to talk about feminist issues because the response is usually ‘well it has nothing to do with gender or feminism, just stick to what we are talking about’.   But feminism includes race, weight, disability, class etc. for a lot of women and it can be very frustrating/limiting when told your personal experience does not count because it does not fit into the neat little mold of what the ‘experts’ have agreed Feminism should be about.  This is where a person must check on their privilege- are you dismissing this woman’s experience because it will never affect you personally?]

3) Speak condescendingly towards us. Tell us we are too young or too old, naïve or bitter, and that we are angry or emotional, etc.

This is one of the most offensive things done by other women. We all recognize it when done by men but some of us experience it more frequently from our fellow women. Rather than accepting the opinions of a woman that differ, it is said that she is too cynical because of past experience and therefore not giving the new guard a chance. Act as though you are protecting us, mentoring us, looking out for our good – basically patting us on the head and telling us to pipe down.

[It’s annoying when a dude does this.  It’s discouraging when a woman does this as well]

4) Pull out your “credentials” to show that you have more support and legitimacy than we do.

If writing for a large feminist blog, the offending woman will say that the size of the blog is proof of her legitimacy. She will claim to have many followers, and her followers can’t be wrong, so she must be saying something right. She will point to a woman of color’s blog and say that it is small, or accuse her of the bad grammar, unprofessional writing, and “hating” to show that her blog and writing is more appropriate, thereby her ideas must also be more correct. If the white feminist has been published in magazines she will point to these as further proof of her credentials and acceptance from the larger society, mocking the woman of color who has not attained this sort of approval even if the woman of color doesn’t want to be published.

5) Say we are hurting the cause of feminism, or that we aren’t really feminist at all.

This one is perhaps the most damaging of all. First, it presumes that we consider ourselves “feminist” at all and thereby implies that there is something wrong with us if we don’t. Then it attempts to define what feminism is, what counts as feminism, and tells us that we aren’t really part of it, while trying to shame us and discount anything we have to say because it is “not feminist”. It does not allow that feminism could have different forms and faces, but limits it to what serves the white woman and nothing more. If, as women, we cannot set our own goals, speak to our own needs, and create our own agenda, then how “feminist” are you? Ignoring us, pushing our concerns to the back, this is what is really hurting the “Movement”. It is arrogant for certain women to sit in judgment of other women and whether or not they should be allowed into the ranks or allowed to use a label. But then, that’s probably why so many women of color are throwing away the label of our own accord. We don’t want to be confined to your self-serving definition.

(Source: laborreguitina)

804 notes
Posted on Monday, 16 January
Tagged as: feminism   women of color   white feminist   black feminists   gender politics   race politics   blogging  
Reblogged from: fuckyeahfeminists
Posted by: laborreguitina
  1. joulupuuro reblogged this from anotherfeminist
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    Top 5 Ways That White Women Continue to Discredit Women of Color 1) Say we are too “involved” or biased in regards to...
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    Everyone could learn from this. Well written!
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    Top 5 Ways That White Women Continue to Discredit Women of Color
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  11. gennell reblogged this from speaktruth2life and added:
    Anali I love you even more than I normally do for posting this.
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    Number 5… holy crap. I did actually have someone tell me recently that the “Shit White Women Say To ___” videos are...
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