Feminism for women of colour...

[AnotherEpisode]

As a black woman, I quite often feel sidelined within feminism.

I don't feel feminism addresses the difficulties faced by women of colour in western societies and quite often I feel I am drawn to race issues over feminist issues because of this.

I absolutely have more difficulties in this society because of the colour of my skin than I do because of my sex.

I feel that the lack of understanding towards racism amongst feminist circles gives me a stance of one over the other in which racism usually wins, which is unfortunate really!

This article, although written in a strong, comical and sometimes rude tone, gives a good insight!

thegrio.com/2015/02/23/patricia-arquette-blacks-gays-white-women/

Not sure why I'm posting but I'm interested in a wider perspective especially people's thoughts on the article!

Black women exist in a weird space where we are hyper sexualised and under desirable.

Here is an AD for a black hair care company. The women being used to front the campaign are all light skinned and two have mixed heritage.

Black women cannot even feature in products aimed at black women.

There is an acceptable type of black which 'reinscribes white beauty through black beauty'

To be fair the company got dragged through the mud for this advert. It was especially egregious.

"Colourless beauty" was the tag line for a hair product pretty much exclusively for black women.

I stopped buying their products, I forgot about them until this thread

Although some of the worst culprits for preferring mixed race women over regular black women are the black community themselves. This is why I keep myself at a distance from community.

Well it might be awful to come out and say this but I've heard the reasoning behind some black men having children with white women is to produce attractive offspring. You know. Without 'nappy hair' and 'dark skin'. Doesn't help really that so many black men go ga ga over long blonde hair or green eyes on a mixed race girl. I've observed these kinds of things since being a teen. It's like sexy black girls are there to gyrate in the music videos and cause amusing drama, but white or light skinned girls are the ones to 'wifey' and breed with so to speak.

Quite frankly it makes me feel a bit sick writing that. I was once racially abused by two black girls on a bus when I was with my boyfriend at the time, light skin Jamaican. I was indignant at the time with what I perceived to be just ignorant prejudice. My bf explained the deeper issue, basically how young black girls see their older black male role models shacking up with whites..and in their view, shunning them. Ahhh I'm waffling I know but like I said, there's a whole load of issues to be addressed here regarding woc.

Oh and to the posters who are asking how to support woc in general and in the context of feminism, in my humble opinion it's all about self education and about seeing things from a different perspective. Easy for us to just think someone's playing the race card isn't it. When the shoe is on the other foot and you're under pressure to relax your hair to get a job interview, life isn't quite so rosy.

But that's the point foxy those girls are so shackled to "not date out" that they are literally scrapping for any black man. Available or not.

The sexism and racism of not dating out is creating the madness. But I think this is less common now. Thexx stats showed that interracial relationships were pretty high for women too.

who drank I also end up in conflict with my family. They think I have a chip on my shoulder because I talk about structural racism.

This weekend my uncle tried to explain away Chelsea fc racism problem

This is why I have preferred feminist spaces to black spaces. The brazen hypocrisy makes me want to scream.

My family like dp too much now that they have learned to put a sock in it.

I haven't read the whole thread (but will) but I completely agree with the sentiments expressed re: Patricia Arquette's speech, and the close up on Meryl Streep punching the air.

Ignorant white privilege with 'good intentions' at its clearest. I work every day with Middle Eastern women who are often subject to racist and Islamophobic abuse. And lots of them cannot be flying fucked with Western feminism as they keep getting told to remove their hijabs/niqabs/burqas or they're not in the club, or should be pitied.

Agreed crescent private school was the best thing my parents ever did for me. I learned to play the game. They also insisted I do a maths based degree. I am so grateful. I always snigger inwardly at the statement "my child can do whatever makes them happy" - said no black parent ever.
Any child I will have will go to private school for precisely that reason.

I won't out myself but I felt at ease at my Russell group university because I had been at private school. That's what my parents wanted for me, to never feel lesser than anyone which is useful in my curent job too. First job was in the city. Never left.

^Agreed crescent private school was the best thing my parents ever did for me. I learned to play the game. They also insisted I do a maths based degree. I am so grateful. I always snigger inwardly at the statement "my child can do whatever makes them happy" - said no black parent ever.
Any child I will have will go to private school for precisely that reason.^

hear! hear! HEAR!

But crescent you know the reasoning behind these feminists is that there is a woc narrative. You aren't following the script. And anyway woc in pain aren't the same as white women in pain so it's ok.

I totally agree, crescentmoon - I see it all the time that 'brown men far away' (eg Iran, Syria) or 'bad brown men' (Rochdale) are dissected infinitely by a group of women who are distinctly less likely to look at the ways white men objectify and abuse women. It's a very comfortable (but completely useless and alienating) way to talk about patriarchy, I think.

mediadiversified.org/2013/08/01/the-symbolic-use-of-women/

That's one of the best articles I've seen about it.

Feminist spaces should be safe places in which to talk about misogyny in your own life without worrying someone is going to use it as fuel for a racist rant 20 minutes later.

fwsablog.org.uk/2014/01/09/asian-suffragettes-women-who-made-a-difference/ And there's nothing new under the sun. There was a buzzfeed post recently with images of 'suffragettes' and nothing about the Indian women who marched for the vote in the UK. We can only acknowledge women of colour within feminism if we're rescuing them, apparently.
Same with labour rights.

I totally agree, crescentmoon - I see it all the time that 'brown men far away' (eg Iran, Syria) or 'bad brown men' (Rochdale) are dissected infinitely by a group of women who are distinctly less likely to look at the ways white men objectify and abuse women. It's a very comfortable (but completely useless and alienating) way to talk about patriarchy, I think

Absolutely, Super! Abso bloody lutely! I've been told on threads on here 'discussing' Islam that I'd better go and ask the Saudi men and women I work with if they're ok with women not driving and why, with capital punishment and why. As if I fucking would. I work in student welfare and my job is to make these students' lives easier, not harder. They're not something to be studied, for fuck's sake. So many people on here can't accept that a female Saudi student can joke away with her classmates of different nationalities, have fun, get a PhD in a science subject because she's from a murky, mysterious, medieval world and she clearly needs white people's help to enter the 21st century.

I volunteer with predominantly Muslim women. I've never met such a bunch of geniuses working so hard for women's liberation. Most wouldn't adopt the title of feminist because of all of the above, which is a shame, but understandable.
And the fact that faux-wahabi laws are in place when they're so shite for women is more or less entirely due to imperialism. But shhh. It's the bad brown men.

(Bloody hell lyndie England still won't apologise!!)

But we all know their is a narrative that has to be adhered to. No matter that its wrong, offensive and unhelpful. It's the thought that counts. And as all woc know its the intentions of the white woman that matter far more than the impact on you. Because they are just devastated and heart broken when the Bs is called out and you know then they get upset and when they are upset they just can't listen because they upset and your tone is too aggressive and threatening. And god you're just too sensitive.

And there wouldn't be any racism without patriarchy. So let's all fight patriarchy together. Without mentioning race. Because white tears.

I hate that coverage of media racism is all about intent, not effect. Like with Giuliana Rancic's stupid comments about Zendaya Coleman's hair.

I dgaf whether she meant to be racist. And also, she meant to be racist.