Radical Feminism is anti racist so we’ve got to unpack our racism

Since we all know hierarchical thinking sustains patriarchy, most of us radical feminists should be able to acknowledge there’s no place for any kind of ”better than you” mentality among women in radical feminism right?

This of course includes racism.

Yet it's a fact that all of us white women who live in Western Patriarchy are inherently racist.

Yep, I said, it's a fact.

This isn't liberal identity politics, racism is a very real, very structural oppression that's endemically embedded in our Western society.

Just like misogyny is a very real, very structural oppression that's deeply embedded in every patriarchal society around the globe.

I know liberals often like to claim radical feminism is “white feminism” but in fact radical feminism must be exactly the opposite.

It can only be vehemently anti-racist. Or it ceases to exist.

So.

Remember when I said all white women were inherently racist?

If we refuse to acknowledge this, as radical feminists, assuming that because we, as a class are advocating for all women, we will be making a grave error.

And we won't be doing radical feminism right at all.

In fact, the term intersectionality was coined by black radical feminist Kimberle Crenshaw back in 1989 specifically to address the problem of racism in the radical feminist movement.

Don't get me wrong, there's racism everywhere, the liberal feminist movement is full of it too.

Everywhere there's white people, in Western Patriarchy, you can bet there’s racism lurking.

And even though white liberal feminists and their white male “allies” often claim to be staunchly anti racist, too often they appropriate the struggle of people of colour so they can virtue signal their progressiveness. All without necessarily doing anything to dismantle the real, structural oppression people of colour face.

Or they enact the infamous “white saviour” role so they can feel fine and dandy and marvellous about themselves, which is just, well gross.

People of colour don't need us white people to save them. They need us to stop voting for politicians that pass laws that impact on them negatively, they need us to stop unfairly targeting them with stop and search, they need us to stop racially abusing them, unjustly firing or not hiring them, shooting them, killing them, and appropriating them, or their struggle.

They generally need us white people to stop being so downright gross and horrifically entitled.

And they need us to stop dismissing racism. And to unpack our own racism.

Even within the radical feminist movement. Especially within the radical feminist movement.

No community in Western culture, where white people are a majority, and still hold the majority positions of power, both politically, and in culture, is immune to racism.

Including in radical feminism.

If we don't learn from the past, when we excluded our sisters of colour, and made them feel margininalised, we will lose our sisters of colour.

Why would they stand with us if we won't acknowledge the many ways we marginalise, dismiss them, or refuse to give them proper credit?

And we can't end this patriarchy thing without them. We just can't. We need our sisters of colour, their voices, their insight, their wisdom, their brilliance, their truth, and their strength. We so desperately need radical feminist warriors like Linda Bellos, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Clare Heuchan.

We also owe our radical sisters of colour an enormous debt. They paved the way for us and contributed a huge amount to our movement, yet still even today, they have not received full credit.

Can we say bell hooks is quoted just as much as Dworkin? Have we all devoured the entire black radical feminist canon with as much enthusiasm as we all consume the latest offering from Sheila Jeffreys or Julie Bindel?

Don't get me wrong, I love me some Jeffreys and some Bindel. And god, don't get me started on my enduring obsession with Dworkin.

But ladies, please. Even I, with my fervoured obsession with Dworkin, and I am a Dworkin accolyte, have to acknowledge it’s hard to top Angela Davis, with her insightful, precise feminist analysis of white and black power relations. Or Audre Lourde and her incisive delination of hierarchical systems of oppression.

It’s hard too to top the revolutionary prose and radical rebellion of Alice Walker’s novel, The Colour Purple, a book that grips you from the first page to the last like someone’s reached inside your chest cavity and squeezed your heart.

My god why haven't these women had more recognition?

From Florynce “Flo” Kennedy to Sister Outrider and every marvellous valuable sister of colour in between, we still, us white women tend to focus mostly on, other white women.

I know we don't mean to but it's subconscious bias see, and its proof of our inner white invader man.

Yep, we, each of us white women have an inner invader man programmed into us practically from as soon as we're born.

Not it’s not some weird new gender identity cult thing, it’s the programming we’ve received from white supremacist society. A society yes, that white men built and benefit from, but that to a lesser degree we white women still benefit from.

I say a lesser degree, because we live in a patriarchy and we all know women don’t benefit from patriarchy.

But here’s the thing. Since we know both racism and sexism are both class oppressions, and since we know racism isn’t radically feminist, at all, we’ve really got to address this.

Not just by saying no racism in radical feminism like meaningless sloganeering.

Not by ignoring the elephant in the room and pretending that just advocating for all women as a class is going to solve all of our problems.

Advocating for women as a class as great, and vital, and it’s absolutely core radical feminist praxis. But we are doing a big, a huge, a massive disservice to our sisters of colour if we don’t also examine and unpack our racism.

How do we do that?

By decolonising and purging our inner white invader man.

And how to do this?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers to this and to be honest, our sisters of colour are far more knowledgeable than I on the matters of white people and the many, many ways we are racist.

However, I will share what I believe are some important fundamental steps to undoing or at least challenging the racism that all of us white people have.

Caveat, I'm no expert on this you understand, I'm just your average white person who's trying to undo the years of racist programming I've been taught.

Okay, so the first step is to recognise and accept the fact that racism is real, that every white person, including you, including me,are racist.

Yes, you, me, we are all racist.

There are no exceptions.

I know it's uncomfortable but if you really want to be radically feminist, you have to accept that fact.

So get comfortable with it.

Now, with that fact firmly accepted I want you to realise this truth.

We have all of us white women been taught we are “better than” our sisters of colour.

We are not better than.

But in order to sustain the whole white supremacist system, it was vital we were taught we were better than.

And so we learned to believe it.

We still believe it.

You do too.

We're not better than. There is no fucking logical reason to this gross belief.

There never has been.

This belief only exists to sustain a system of privilege that wants to deny resources, spaces, and places at the table to a whole group of people based on just one characteristic. Sometimes, too often, this belief has existed to excuse or condone outright cruelty and downright sadistic actions, which if, they were committed to white people would have us all up in arms.

Why do we, white people, even if we are not American, cry more for the victims of 9/11 but not for the thousands and thousands dying of famine right now in the Yemen?

Why do we act like the Las Vegas shooting was the worst tragedy in the world when every day black people are murdered so routinely by the US police that the cruelty should make our hearts break?

Are we psychopathic us white people?

I don't want to believe that.

I really don't.

But if we don't unpack our racism, all of us collectively, I think that diagnosis is pretty apt actually.

And why do we continue to justify this psychopathy?

Back to that better than belief again.

Let's examine that.

What is that based upon.

Less than half a teaspoon of melanin.

Sometimes even less than that.

Yep, the only difference between us white radical feminists and our sisters of colour is less than half a teaspoon of fucking melanin?

That's what we believe makes us better.

How sad. How deluded we are.

Oh yes, you better believe we believe it. If you think this doesn't apply to you, you are very wrong.

The Western world doesn't get to be so racist for so long without us white people all believing that.

A KKK dog whistler like Trump doesn't get elected without us white people all believing that. Don't tell me you didn't vote for him.

It doesn't matter.

We weren't out on the streets day and night continually protesting after he got elected were we?

Sure there were some protests. But then us white folk all went home.

And now he’s threatening to repeal the 14th Amendment, you know, the Act that ensured Roe vs Wade got passed, that one that led to access for abortion, and also fundamentally underpins the protections guaranteed to every American citizen.

Yeah, it’s the 14th Amendment that states every American citizen must receive equal treatment, including, especially, ethnic minorities.

I know in America this rarely plays out in actuality, but still, it’s kind of fundamentally important to have this law in place dontcha think?

So hrrm yeah, Trumpy announces this and us white folk, where are we? Oh right, yeah, we're still at home. We're still chill.

Nice.

We're “very fine people” I'm sure.

But we're not racist right? You and I, we’re not racist right?

Rightttt.

Anyhow, if we're really going to stay at home, sipping our coffee comfortably with our feet up on our sofas knowing full well, we'll probably be okay, because well, we’re white, don't you think that at very least we could do a couple of things for people of colour?

If we’re American, obvs, VOTE, FUCKING VOTE. Blue of course.

And the other thing?

Well the very least we can do is try to unpack our racism.

So let me repeat.

Less than a half a teaspoon of melanin separates us from our sisters of colour. And this is why we believe we’re “better than”.

Yes, really. It really is that insane.

You know how men have for centuries pushed the idea that because we’re women we must innately all pop out of the womb desperate to start baking cakes and knitting and pandering to men’s needs.

We can all understand how ludicrous that is right?

Racism works the same way.

It's even more insane in fact because while there are observable differences between biological women and men, and over 6500 genetic differences, the only thing that separates us white women from our sisters of colour is less than a half a teaspoon of melanin.

So with that in mind, can you tell me why we still believe we're better?

We aren't better by the way. Just a reminder. But you still think you are.

Right so, now, we've established both those facts the next thing is how we enact those in the world.

And the thing is nearly every day, we all of us white people uphold the racist system in so many ways.

One way is in our frame of reference. We typically relate to white people, and white problems more why?

We tend to have more empathy for white people why?

Why the hell even when those white people and white problems are completely unrelated to us, or any of our experiences, do we still typically relate to white people more?

Yet, strangely enough, we are perfectly able to relate to our sisters of colour when we want to. When we need to.

You know, like when we're discussing things that affect all us women, or we're all really angry about something.

Like when we’re pissed off with Drumpf attempting to take away our abortion rights. Or with men being porn addled asshole jerkbags, or rapey entitled douches?

We relate when we're lovers, when we care, when we're invested in our sisters of colour romantically, as partners.

So why do we always seem to consistently relate to white women but only relate to our sisters of colour when it seems to suit our needs?

We all say Believe women don't we? Remember Kavanaugh?

Why, then, on some occasions when our sisters of colour tell us they are experiencing racism, within our movement, do we dismiss them?

Why do we sometimes not believe them?

And why are we still so desperate to cling to the belief we are not racist?

Why do we not relate or have as much empathy for the problems that uniquely or mostly affect our sisters of colour?

Like female genital mutilation. Or racial aggression from the police. Or the myriad ways in which our sisters of colour are still not given the credit or platform they deserve in culture, in the media, or in our radical feminist movement.

Why is it still so easy to gloss over all that in our minds?

Why do we not read as many books written by people of colour, or watch as many shows about people of colour, when there are endless shows all about white people everywhere, all the time.

Our culture doesn't cater to people of colour, it’s like we’re saying people of colour are just expected to watch those shows, read those books.

Now, I personally believe that all of us people, white, or of colour, should be able to relate to everyone all of the time.

But there is a serious problem though, because at the moment we white people keep picking white people, keep trusting white people, keep reading and watching and listening to white people.

Even when they are psychopaths like Donald fucking Trump.

What is with that?

Do me a favour, next time you choose a book, show, media, think about watching some Spike Lee (he's a cinematic genius by the way), or reading some Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Then read the poems of Ntozake Shange and all the works of Maya Angelou and read The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas and go search out more and more transcendent works by people of colour, and particularly sisters of colour. Keep doing this. Make it a priority to do this.

And if you're a radical feminist, and I'm guessing you are if you're reading this, read the award winning blog of the deeply rad Sister Outrider, and then read bell hooks, Angela Davis, Michele Wallace, Toni Morrison, and Patricia Hill Collins.

Because we don't do this on the whole, consistently, do we, us white people?

Even us radical feminists.

And because we don't do this, we keep making the same mistakes.

Another thing, and this is important.

You know that believe women thing?

When a radical sister of colour tells you she is experiencing racism, believe her.

Don't justify it.

We're talking about racism here, and we’re talking about our radical sisters.

Racism is something our sisters of colour have intimate knowledge of by the way.

They are experts. You and I don't get to decide what is racist, particularly not when a radical sister of colour is telling you us experiencing racism.

Believe women. Action that hashtag.

Next thing, when you next have an interaction with a sister of colour, please do consider everything you've read here.

Remember that you believe you are better than even if you think you don't believe that, and also know, how less than that actually makes you. Because it's fundamentally illogical and stupid and ignorant.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to destroy your self esteem. I love women, I’m a radical lesbian feminist for goddesses sake.

But that means I love all women. And that includes my sisters of colour.

And I love our radical feminist movement too.

I want to at least try and fix this problem, at least within our movement.

It's a good place to start right?

And yes, I know, white “male” feminists love to conveniently skip over their own culpability and forget they built the whole shit pile in the first place, so they can hate on white women by telling us how to do feminism.

Not because they care about our sisters of colour but because they hate women. This way, at least, they get to hate on some women. When really they should start owning their own racism and their own misogyny.

But this is not about white men, and this is not about that. I am not a white man, I am a white woman.

And I am telling you this thing.

So please can we can start here at least.

Next time you have an interaction with a sister of colour, remember that you think you are better than even if you think.you don't.

Remember that if you are a white woman this fact has been programmed into you practically from birth, no exceptions.

No matter what work you have done for women, marvellous as that might be, even no matter what anti racist work you might have done.

You still think you are better than.

Remember that you are not.

Remember that the only, the only difference between you and I our sisters of colour is less than half a teaspoon of melanin.

Take that forward. It's really that simple.

I know liberals like to make whole complicated lists of rules of do’s and don’ts but I am not a liberal.

And I have found that when you go around with this knowledge in your head certain things begin hit you like a smack in the face.

Like just how racist our world is.

And even how racist our movement can be at times.

Let's change that. Within our movement at least, let's rip that toxic racist weed right out.

Because we are a movement that's all about the liberation of all women from male control.

I know we are and I know we, as radical feminists love women, and want liberation for all women so much.

I know this because I do.

Genuinely.

So very much.

And yet we're still racist.

So please, let's try and change that.