Every morning I scroll through Twitter to see the latest news, to wonder, and to learn. I have a great PLN (Professional Learning Network) on Twitter that gives me glimpses into the lives, work, and ideas of people I would not ordinarily come into contact with. I love the way this intersection challenges and broadens my thinking.
For example, this morning, I read the tweet:
I have noticed lot of tweets referring to White woman and our role in promoting racial inequity recently. I have been curious, but this tweet was the one that made me respond:
As I began reading the article, I found that I had to think a bit about my feminist education and roots first. I grew up in a White working class neighborhood where girls were mostly valued for their looks, relationships, and the jobs they did around the house. While my parents wanted me to get a good education, they were more concerned that I find a good husband.
In school, I didn't learn much about feminism or women's rights, and in my home, women were often scorned and ridiculed. Even in college, there was a lot of prejudice towards women and the priority of women's looks was clear as male classmates ranked us on our way to the cafeteria and dismissed our points of view at times.
I didn't think a lot about this mostly because I was very busy working, studying, and spending time with friends. When I really began to think more about feminism was when I became a mother because it was very difficult to raise a family and work full time. I wondered why it was so difficult, and that pointed me to feminism and the reality that women were often paid less and had to do more in society--that summed up my life. I wasn't making a lot of money and I was working around the clock. In some ways, I wished for the life my mother had when we were young--a life when I could fully support my children at home, yet I liked the power that making my own money gave me. I realized that when women went back to work, the feminist movement never thought about who was going to do their job of caring for families and the community. Women in my childhood neighborhood were taking care of everyone and everthing when they were home, and when women went back to work--they still had their old jobs of taking care of the children and neighborhood too. No one ever accounted for that.
So now, I'm curious about the role of feminism as related to racism, and what this means for my future work as a community activist.
This quote at the start of the article excites me:
"To move toward the kind of feminism that Eddo-Lodge envisions, we call for significant reconfiguration of the feminist project, one that is differently grounded ideologically and that is intersectional in focus. If not, we fear the feminist project will remain perpetually encumbered by its limitations."
"To move toward the kind of feminism that Eddo-Lodge envisions, we call for significant reconfiguration of the feminist project, one that is differently grounded ideologically and that is intersectional in focus. If not, we fear the feminist project will remain perpetually encumbered by its limitations."
This quote makes me wonder, "What will be the result of a significant reconfiguration of the feminist project?"
Reading more makes me wonder about the "White racial frame" described as "The frame, as a masterful deflector, makes seeing deep structural racial inequalities difficult even while it provides users a convenient language, rationale, and perspective for maintaining everyday discrimination and related racist practices. 6"
I'm curious how this frame plays out in my life. As I read more, I realized that I need to better understand the stories and realities of women of color. I need to find ways to engage in the dialogue with women of color to gain insight and build coalitions. I also have to audit my own behvior to find out where I employ the "white woman as a victim" trop and where I support White supremacy via actions and words. I want to better understand the microagressions that make up this White racial frame and get rid of those in my own behavior.
I clearly have more to learn, think about, and act on in this regard. Onward.