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!

curadicalreading.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/cherrc3ade-moraga-gloria-anzaldc3baa-this-bridge-called-my-back-writings-by-radical-women-of-color.pdf

I just found this as pdf and thought I'd leave it here.

Crescentmoon I first came across nazir afzal's name in your posts on Rotherham and Rochdale threads - I had seen no mention of him in news articles (though that could well have been me not looking properly)

More Muslim men speaking out against MVAW.

It's really disturbing once you can see the dominant narratives just how biased the mainstream media is.

I hadn't thought about Nafissatou Diallo in a while but was v conscious of her at the time she was in the news and yes - prime example of how women are on trial as rape victims and how women of colour are disadvantaged - in this case her migration status also made her very vulnerable.

Those were really interesting links crescent.

I did know afzal was the lead prosecutor but I didn't appreciate he was so senior and had been championing this for so long.

My one thought about this media tendency to downplay/ignore muslim men and women leading their own in house push back is that while it makes for a continuation of the normal narratives of white saviours. For the Muslim women suffering it is just prolonging their problems by suggesting that their own community is condoning what is going on. Which although is obviously not true when you are in distress it is hard to be level headed and logical.

I never really understood why the DSK case collapsed in nyc. That was truly shocking and I am irritated that she was critiqued like that.

"Were you clean enough to rape" is now imprinted into my mind and I can now understand the pervasive disadvantages woc face and also why Muslim women were always treated as a separate subset. I feel angrier now about the likes of Jezebel and mainstream feminism playing along than I did before this thread.

Lovely minimising going on here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2320398-To-think-the-Uk-Standards-of-beauty-are-suited-to-White-people?

Read that thread on beauty and white standards and decided not to comment. I didnt feel like patiently, reasonably, nicely explaining historical perspectives or the power structures at play in the world that mean white = beautiful. I feel exhausted and angry just thinking about it.

I thought the thread was summed up by but why are white women tanning and getting bum implants in the first few posts.

Ffs.

Oh that thread ...

Nice move linking here though.

www.buzzfeed.com/beckycatherineharris/the-beauty-of-women-all-around-the-world#.csbBJ34r0 Did anyone see this? The woman who took the photos has a women with a wide range of facial features on her website, but buzzfeed basically went through and picked out women with slim noses, light skin, straight hair etc for the video.

It seems like it might be good to think about shadism on that thread, or external pressures informing things like skin lightening.

Tangentially, this has been an interesting discussion since Selma came out - deadline.com/2014/12/selma-bradford-young-black-cinematography-1201338543/ - how to ensure Black people are filmed well, and who's doing a good job of it.

Is that what it's called super, shadism?
I wanted to weep when beyonce (for black ladies) and Freida Pinto (for south Asians) was brought up.

I'm familiar with skin lightening. My mum used a lightening cream for years. She complained that the foundation that perfectly matched my skin was too dark and I should have picked a lighter shade.

Those links are really interesting. I have to take the kids to the in laws for lunch but I'll have a proper read through when I get back.

I think it's more usually called shadeism if you want to google after lunch.

Reni Eddo-Lodge talks about it here renieddolodge.co.uk/2013/09/29/dark-girls-rise-shadeism-and-internalised-racism/
and the programme is still online here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bpsx6

It's often discussed as something within Black communities but you can also see it in the celebrities that are permissable in the mainstream media, Beyonce being a case in point.

Shadeism is very deep, very entrenched and there are lots of levels to it. It affects all women of colour.

There is the obvious (to me!) 'white is better than black/light skinned black is better than dark skinned black' thing.

There is also 'being the right kind of light'. My DD is mixed and isnt the right 'caramel skin, shiny ringlets, narrow nose' kind of light. She is as white as snow with a blonde afro and very African features. I have had several black women express pity for her/me because of her 'spread out nose' and 'tough hair' and 'no colour'. Its all so entrenched and internalised.

The objectification of the light skinned black female is depressing to me because not only does it send the message that dark skinned women arent attractive, but also that light skinned women are just sex objects. As usual, all women of colour lose out and are set up against each other.

I had a black male colleague say to me once 'I prefer light skin women for casual dating/sex, but I'd only marry a dark skinned woman'. This was an educated, 'pro-black' man.

And bleaching...urgh...still rife.

I stopped shopping in an afro hair shop recently because they insisted on having a huge display of 'lightening' creams on their counter.

I also attended a Nigerian colleague's party last year and was shocked by how many women had light faces and dark hands / burn marks on their face from bleaching.