White Feminists Wouldn’t Admit Their Racism
Part of the overwhelming frustration Black women felt within the women’s movement was white feminists’ unwillingness to admit to their racism. This unwillingness comes from the sentiment that those who are oppressed cannot oppress others, according to The Thistle. White women believed that because of their oppression by white men, they were unable to assume the dominant role in the perpetuation of white racism. But it’s clear they have absorbed, supported and advocated racist ideology and have acted individually as racist oppressors. Traditionally, women’s sphere of influence has extended over the home, and it is no coincidence that in 1963, seven times as many women of color (of whom 90 percent were Black) as white women were employed as private household workers. It has been the tendency of white feminists to see men as the “enemy,” rather than themselves, as part of the patriarchal, racist and classist society in which we all live.
