Feminist action against racism

[jeanralphio]

There's a lot of discussion about what feminists can and should be doing to be anti-racist, and I wanted to start a thread to discuss ideas.

This isn't for bashing white feminists, or for arguments that not all white women are like xyz; those are happening on other threads. Nor is it about BLM, the organisation. While I support the movement, not a fan of the organisation. Again, other threads to debate this on.

One suggestion on another board was about white women in positions of hiring power could look for specific opportunities to hire/support BAME women. It's a great starting point, but many of us aren't in this position.

Any thoughts?

My own starting point has been to read. ' Black and British' has been a fascinating book, and will absolutely inform the way I teach (I teach English) looking for texts that aren't like 'Of Mice and Men' where Black people are represented, but primarily as victims and instead include BAME British, female voices that counteract this sort of narrative that kids have been overexposed to for so long.

Few thoughts of mine

1. I don’t want any white knight white women going about promoting/hiring BAME women like me out of a sense of duty or pity or a “look at me I’m not racist” virtue signalling. I want to be offered jobs and promotions because I AM THE BEST CANDIDATE. So, OP, I disagree with the whites in power need to save me because that is the exact reason why BAME suffer from imposter syndrome so much.

2. How can feminist not be racist? By not making false equivalencies and stealing the spotlight when there is an issue that affects BAME women much more deeply. The entire Me Too movement was stolen from poor BAME women who were being forced to give sex in return for keeping their poverty level, survival job. Vulnerable women in factories or cleaning hotels. And yet, next thing we know a bunch of rich white actresses are comparing their experience (oooh met too) of having to provide sex in order to become famous millionaires. It’s not comparable. The BAME women had a choice of starve on the streets and die or give in to sexual predators. These white women could have said no and just kept on as they were- all that would have happened to them is they would not be rich and famous. That’s how feminists can not be racist. By not taking something that isn’t about them and in so doing, erasing the original intent and the plight of the actual victims.