Why is it a constant struggle for colored women to feel
excepted by feminism and women issues? As Anthea Butler states, “Women of color
have never had the luxury of simply focusing of women’s issues” (Butler). What
seems to amaze me is that all women are fighting for the same equality but
cannot unit as one and tackle the cause with full force. Why does race and
economic statues have to block women from all working toward the same goal? It
all seems contradicting. White women are fighting for equal rights as me, but
are discriminating against their own gender. How does that make sense? As
Anthea mentioned in her article, why are white women the face of the feminist
movement and all of the colored women having to sit on the bench and watch.
In the article Heartbroken by Rebecca Hurdis she says,
“Feminism is a white woman’s thing…represent privilege, power, and opportunity”
(289). The definition of feminism is, the advocacy of women’s rights on the
ground of political, social, and economic equality of MEN. Feminism doesn’t
mean equality of white women to men or rich women to mean. It states the
equality of ALL WOMEN to men.
I don’t think it is a constant struggle for women of color to feel excepted by feminism and women issues because for a race, group or gender to be excluded is to be ignored. It would be great if all women who call themselves a feminist are focused on common goals but “the fact that racial politics and indeed racism are pervasive factors in our lives” (The Combahee River Collection Statement, paragraph 7) is an issue that compounds the issues and struggles at hand that women of color are dealing with. In the article Athena did not say colored women are sitting on the bench to watch but what I think she is saying is that issues of women of color have been downgraded.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/11/1200971/-Black-Woman-Poses-As-White-Woman-Suddenly-Job-Offers-Come-Tumbling-In-Video#
As we discussed in class, the Feminine Mystique was not inclusive to all of the women. The audience for the book was only white upper class or middle class women. I am actually disturbed by your article because we spent the whole class period talking about how interesectionality is not in feminism. Feminism is known to be a white woman’s problem and not a woman of color problem. As in class, we discussed the Dinner Party and how the women talked about name changing and being in the workforce, but what about the women who can’t get jobs, what about the women who have to deal with discrimination on being considered less than human because they are a woman and they are of color? I am more than just a woman, as you are more than just a man. You take advantage of your privileges. Well with women of color, what privileges do they have? What privileges are being known or recognized for them?
ReplyDelete“White women are fighting for equal rights as me, but are discriminating against their own gender. How does that make sense?” Women of color are not being discriminated against by their white women counterparts they are being excluded. There is a major difference. Discriminating means to acknowledge the difference and be prejudice amongst the difference. White women know they are different but they refuse to discuss or embrace it so women of color have been excluded. Also, it’s not a fight. It’s a disagreement. Women are not going around punching each other or using violence. They are discussing this and having a disagreement. This is what intellectual humans do right?