California's Women's March cancelled for fear of being "too white"

[Terfing]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6539997/Womens-March-event-canceled-rally-goers-fear-event-overwhelmingly-white.html

Women's March planners in Humboldt County, California, canceled the event because it was 'lacking representation from several perspectives'

Critics decried the decision pointing out that the particular region of California is overwhelmingly white to begin with

I find this quite sad. To cancel the event for this reason just causes further divisions, I feel. I'm not particularly a fan of the Women's March because of their thoughts on gender, but I probably would march if there was one in the UK.

“‘White feminism’ is used sneeringly to shut women up. All discussion of privilege has been rendered useless by the co-opting of it as an exercise to discover the most oppressed person in a situation and ignore everyone else.“

It’s just the logical conclusion to the belief that men are privileged and women are disadvantaged and that equality of outcome is a reasonable goal rather than just equality of opportunity. It’s certainly true that men tend to be (on average) more single minded and driven and end up at the top of companies than women do, but then again men are also more likely to have dangerous jobs and die at work. But once you push the narrative that women = oppressed and men = privileged, which modern feminism has done, and once this line of thinking, thinking about people as members of a group rather than them as individuals and their own individual circumstances, then don’t be surprised when the same logic is applied to other groups and characteristics. The thinking is exactly the same.

I see Paul Elam is handing out day passes again.

White feminism has not been used to belittle white women (certainly if any women feel belittle it would be white women, right). It's interesting how a blanket statement of how women feel is made when clearly the group in question is "white women". We often (maybe always) think that when white women speak about women, they speak about and for all women. We don't because we only selfishly think about our own issues.

White feminism is a fact. The evidence is there (as shown in the demographics of this women's march). The vast majority of feminists events are attended by nearly only white women.

Look at the #metoo movement. It's overwhelming white women being highlighted. I guess non-white women have never faced any such harassment? Their cases are never highlighted.

White feminism is a thing because women of other races clearly feel excluded. I think you'd be hard pressed to find women of other races feeling belittled by the term "white feminism". In fact they would welcome the phrase as it correctly describe the brand of feminism here. It's all about white women and their issues. This is borne out by the evidence because they have been the main beneficiaries. Look around you, women have made huge progress climbing ladders and breaking ceilings but look at the race of these women. White women failed to bring other women along so the top of organisations remain white. In the media white women's issues are highlighted and given loads of column inches. If a white girl or woman goes missing, it will make the need for days on end. Other girls women go missing and not a word. The way the media behaves, you'd think that only white girls or women ever go missing.

It's taken me a long time for my eyes to be opened to this. The Guardian is doing the series on race in Britain. It gave a lot of additional evidence on how skewed things are in our society. I actually found it distressing. My conscience was stricken.

*it will make the news for days on end

But white women on the whole haven't been the main beneficiaries. A small subset have - middle class, educated, already affluent. White working class women have not received the same benefits. They are still disadvantaged - look at reports about the groups most affected by austerity measures, working class women (of all ethnicities) feature heavily. Or look at media and the representation of white working class women as thick, slovenly, feckless, probably single parents to children with unknown fathers. Alternatively, they are depicted as drunken and violent, as illustrated by 'articles' packed with photos of people on nights out.

In addition, this 'white feminism' argument not only serves to divide (and conquer) all women, it also takes agency away from BAME women by suggesting they are not able to speak up for themselves and need white women to do it for them. It smacks of paternalism and colonialism.

Saskia, being white in this country affords a great degree of privilege. To pretend otherwise is being dishonest.

If you think white working class women are disadvantaged, then what does that make BAME working class women.

Have you seen the recent reports that give the stark evidence that the pay gap for BAME women is massive with black women faring far worse. How come the "feminists" movement isn't highlighting this troubling disparity? No, it takes ethnic diversity groups to highlight this. The reason is white feminism was/is only ever concerned with the white pay gap, hiding behind averages when we all know the intersection between race and gender matters. Our excuse used to be "we should focus on one issue and put the impact of race to the side and that it would somehow resolve itself". Our argument amounted to one of "we only have time for the issues that affect us directly (us being white women) and that we would return to other issues at a later stage.

The term white feminism does not divide. It is white women that have not included BAME women. It also does not remove agency from BAME women. BAME women have had to push for their voices to be heard despite being told to hush by white feminists - read Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, and follow some of the issues articulated by Priyamvada Gopal.

BAME women have always had agency but like always have to fight their corner to be heard. It has never been made easy for them. They've always been told that their issues are secondary or that they can only find agency through others.

Race matter hugely.

We are adept at evading our responsibility by pointing fingers at some force or group that's trying to divide us. We blame BAME women for playing into the hands of this force or group. Somehow it seems impossible that we have to take some responsibility for the fact that BAME women do not generally attend or identify with our feminism. Fact is they don't - whether they are working class or middle class. They don't. The question is why. The answer is there in the evidence and in what they are saying. Listen to them instead of once again lecturing them that they don't know what they're talking about and that they must fall in line to stop division and gain their agency.

Read Reni Eddo-Lodge's book and follow the Guardian series. It will be an eye opener. Priyamvada Gopal at Cambridge does a lot to highlight these issues.

The term white feminism does not divide.

I would say it can be and is used to divide, although the concept itself is useful and meaningful all the same. Like intersectionality, which is a really valuable way to analyse how different axes of oppression work together and at the same time is a cudgel happily borrowed to silence women under the guise of not being inclusive enough, frequently by people who don't even understand what it means.

I find it very valuable to listen to what BAME women have to say about how feminism represents their concerns. Less valuable to listen to white men who think they've found a criticism-free approach to telling off women for talking by calling it "white feminism".

I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure white feminism isn't a creation of white men. At least in the US, where I'm from originally, women of colour started black feminism in response to white feminism that wasn't addressing any of the issues that were relevant to black women. Black feminism as a thing existed even before I was born. It was even taught about at university as part of my politics course.

It is white feminists that then did all they could to shut and shout it down as being divisive. I used to think and do the same. However, after decades upon decades, we have nothing to show BAME women that we were right. All we have achieved ourselves is division by leaving a large group of disadvantaged women behind. We caused the problem, not white men. We caused the division by focusing only on what mattered to us, in a way that mattered only to us.

Recently a young Asian woman said this to me "throughout my career, it's men, including white men that have been kind to me and helped me make progress on my career, often though not always, white women have been unkind to me or tried to keep me down and I don't know why". In my mentoring experience this theme is something I hear often. We cannot ignore the experiences of BAME women.

That said, there are many, many white men and women who are working to address the injustices. Theresa May and the Guardian have been excellent at bringing this to the fore.

Theresa May?
I always wonder in these discussions whether there is an equivalent critique of anti-racism campaigning for not being inclusive enough of women...

I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure white feminism isn't a creation of white men.

I don't think it's a creation of white men, any more than intersectionality is a creation of white men. I think a significant number of white men have however latched on to a fairly superficial understanding of the term because it's a way to tell women to be quiet which they can then frame as being progressive.

Muttley, clearly you are not aware of the wide ranging review commissioned by Theresa May and the fact that she has made addressing "the burning injustices" in society her number one priority after Brexit.

She is doing a massive amount. Unfortunately this is not picked up by the media. If you listen carefully to her speeches, she almost always mentions that she wants to focus on ensuring that everyone in society is able to achieve to their full potential. It is that agenda on addressing racial inequality that she is referring to.

the fact that she has made addressing "the burning injustices" in society her number one priority after Brexit.

Oh, well if she said she will in a speech then that's totally the same as actually doing anything constructive...

A link to the report is included in this article
amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/11/lack-of-data-hampers-theresa-mays-efforts-on-racial-inequality?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQECAFYAQ%3D%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2018%2Fjun%2F11%2Flack-of-data-hampers-theresa-mays-efforts-on-racial-inequality

This is the race disparity audit: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/686071/Revised_RDA_report_March_2018.pdf

It is a good first step. You need to know what the problem is before you can target policy to address it. But you do actually need to target policy to address it, rather than handwave it off into the future with "we'll get to that after Brexit".

Example: child poverty. We know that poverty affects BAME groups more, and that this is the same for child poverty, so BAME children are more likely to be living in poverty both than white children and than BAME adults. And what's Theresa May's (and Cameron's, and the coalition's) government done to address this? Well, er, not much, in fact it's on the rise again after falling dramatically under New Labour who did actually see it as a policy priority.

53rdWay, that's not altogether true. Very little progress was made even after the MacPherson's report. New Labour achieved no real discernible profess on race disparity and the stark differences in outcomes and experiences of BAME people living in the UK.

Personally, I'm not sure any of the political parties have done much. I am certainly not an authority on any of this. For various reasons I've come to understand a lot more about these issues) racial inequality and racism in Britain) than I ever did before.

I agree that Theresa May is raising a long neglected issue. It is a step in the right direction and I hope real progress can be made. It is no longer tenable and it is a disgrace that such differences in experiences exist because of the colour of people's skin. Evidence is very clear that BAME people across the different categories have high educational achievements and yet occupy the lower rungs of organisations. We know it's not not about ability but unconscious and conscious bias.

I was shocked to also learn from the Guardian series that black women are far more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. Not because cancer affects them differently but because of how this issue is advertised, and the relative differences in the time taken to refer and treat them.

There are also other elements that we avoid tackling because of race. Like women in some cultures feeling pressured to marry first or second cousins resulting in children with severe disabilities.

I guess we have to do whatever we can in our own way. The little I've set myself to do is raise awareness.

You can 'raise awareness' without trying to shame women into being silent about the problems they themselves face.
You havent actually raised awareness of any issues, you've just tried to shame others into silence about their own problems.

The way the media behaves, you'd think that only white girls or women ever go missing.
Stop blaming women for the way the patriarchal media act.

I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure white feminism isn't a creation of white men
It is used as an insult by MRA's to dismiss womens voices. As you yourself have done to working class women.

Women are allowed to speak for ourselves. Shaming and silencing achieve nothing of any value. We don't all have to be silent because someone else has it worse.

Oh yes, we are the victims being shamed. Always the victims. Always turning it around and making it about poor us. We are being shamed. We'll maybe we should be shamed.

The evidence and the voices of minority women speaks to whatever shame you might be feeling. It's not about you and your feelings of shame. It's about those who are constantly disadvantaged whilst you constantly bring attention to your hurt feelings, deflecting attention from the issues they face.

No one is shaming or silencing you. Stop making things up to turn yourself into the "victim", poor you.

53rdWay, that's not altogether true. Very little progress was made even after the MacPherson's report.

The MacPherson report wasn’t about child poverty.

I don’t disagree that mainstream political parties could do a lot more to tackle how racism impacts on public life and public institutions. I don’t think anyone here is disagreeing with you on that. It is staggeringly obvious to anyone looking that there are massive, structural, continuing problems with racism in the UK, and a lot of ground to go until we have reached a better future.

However, I’m really not satisfied with politicians saying “oh yes we take this very seriously” on the one hand, while promoting policies (like austerity) that disproportionately impact on BAME people on the other. Theresa May talked a good talk about her new vision for the Conservatives, but I have yet to see how that translates to real and lasting change. So no, she’s not someone I’d hold up as an exemplar, and I’m confused as to what she’s got to do with “white feminism” in any sense.

This is the Guardian article. Why, if you are a woman with breasts , would you assume breast cancer does not affect you because of your skin colour?

All women in the UK are invited for a mammogram after a certain age.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/21/breast-cancer-awareness-black-women

I feel pretty alienated from much of American feminism. It just seems like a ton of buzzwords and worrying about what is the right word to say etc.

You can’t do right for doing wrong with liberal feminists.

I feel like the message should have been simple.

If you are a woman, or support women's bodily autonomy, come to the march to protest patriarchy / male domination.

Instead we get gobblydegook like I got in my inbox last week:

"Women’s March is a women-led movement providing intersectional education on a diverse range of issues and creating entry points for new grassroots activists & organizers to engage in their local communities through trainings, outreach programs and events. Women’s March is committed to dismantling systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance and building inclusive structures guided by self-determination, dignity and respect."
and

"The Women's March on Washington is a women-led movement bringing together people of all genders, ages, races, cultures, political affiliations, disabilities and backgrounds in our nation’s capital on January 19, 2019, to affirm our shared humanity and pronounce our bold message of resistance and self-determination."

So yeah. There's nothing in there about this organization being about women's rights or specifically against women's oppression. I'd say it's basically about everything else except the sex based oppression of women (please note that the word sex has been omitted, as usual!). And it's impenetrable gobbldeegook written by "queer and gender studies" academics. No wonder that regular every day women of all stripes are turned off.

sigh

I'm curious...what are "white women's issues?"
That phrase keeps being repeated.
The women's issues that mainly concern me are as follows:
The low pay trap of part time work and the way women's jobs are paid less.
The warped perception of female sexuality by porn and liberalised prostitution.
Helping women escape abuse, fighting for crisis services.
General encouragement for girls and women to rise economically on their own terms.
? I don't think any of these issues primarily affect any one racial background!