Include Black Women in Your Women’s Month Celebration and Feminism
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To build a feminism movement that is truly intersectional and inclusive, we must support, honor, and listen to Black women.
There is something to be said about Black History Month and Women’s History Month occurring in consecutive months. Both groups' histories intersect; however, we do not hear enough about Black women during Women’s History Month, a month that is supposedly dedicated to the celebration of all women.
This exclusion of Black women can also be found in the history of the feminist movement. While many people look to Susan B. Anthony as a pioneer of the American suffrage movement, she clearly fought solely for white women. She even stated, “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman.” What she either failed or refused to realize is that those terms are far from mutually exclusive. Black women exist, and to fight for one type of woman but not the other does nothing for anyone. To me, Anthony is a pioneer of the mainstream white feminist movement.
White feminism is a form of feminism that prioritizes the struggles of white women and ignores the intersectional oppression faced by women of color and other marginalized women. While this article focuses on Black feminism, any woman that is not straight, white, cis, able-bodied, skinny, or upper class is disenfranchised by white-centric feminism. In this form of feminism, its followers try to erase intersectionality and refuse to accept that white women still hold privilege in our society. White women play a significant role in perpetuating oppressive systems in our society, and women who belong to other minority groups face different and worse oppression than their white counterparts.
White feminist spaces tell Black women that they are “too loud,” or “too aggresive,” or “too polarizing.” They ask why women cannot focus on one problem at a time, but for Black women, specifically, misogyny and racism are interconnected and cannot be uncoupled. This phenomenon is referred to as misogynoir: the specific intersection of oppressions that Black women face where both racism and misogyny play a part.
Misogynoir is not something that Black women only face at the hands of white women as Black men are also some of its biggest perpetrators. From the erasure of influential female civil rights leaders to everyday Twitter discourse, it is evident that many Black men’s idea of racial liberation is a society where instead of abolishing the systems that keep Black people down, they replace white men at the top, leaving Black women behind. For example, in 1867, Sojourner Truth asserted, “...if colored men get their rights, and colored women not theirs, the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.” Similar to white feminists, many Black men in the community ask Black women to put their womanhood and gender justice advocacy aside and fight wholeheartedly for racial justice although these issues are very much interconnected.
For these reasons, many Black women find themselves in a strange relationship with feminism. Obviously, they support the equality of the sexes, but do not want to be a part of a movement that wants nothing to do with them. We see white women make commercials about being told they “throw like a girl,” which is wrong, but Black women get ignored when we talk about our higher rates of mortality during childbirth. We see rich white women take on positions of political power and are supposed to be inspiring; however, those same women implement policies that oppress the communities in which Black women interact and live. We see the same white women who call us by the names of other Black women in the office or classroom preach girl power. We see people bastardize this movement to advocate for more female imperialists and landlords and CEOs in the name of “equality.” Oftentimes, it seems that white feminists want only to be able to oppress others in the way that white men do.
Luckily, as intersectionality gains mainstream recognition, it has become easier for many Black women to reclaim the label of feminist. People like Mikki Kendall, a recent Upper School assembly speaker, give me hope that one day feminism can truly provide support for all women, even the incarcerated ones, the mean ones, the ones who aren’t feminine, the ones who are hyper-feminine, and everyone in between. She showed me that there are unapologetic Black women fighting for intersectional, inclusive feminism and that they have the platform to do so. If you really want to be a feminist, put Black women and other marginalized women at the forefront. Revere people like Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Sylvia Rivera, and Marsha P. Johnson the same way you honor white suffragettes. Listen to and support the Black women in your life, no matter how “strong” you think they are.
