“The focus on individuals as racists is a dangerous distraction from the real systemic problem of racism”

This whole post including the title is basically swiped from Feministe. Except the lolcats which I is inkluded for gigguls. Ahem. In this “gotcha!” post, Holly lists sixteen (er, nineteen since I swiped another three from the comments section) behaviours that white people use to deny racism or white privilege and avoid responding to the [...]

Mothering as credibility: a cross-post

I initially posted this a few weeks ago on my personal blog. Struggling to reconcile my nice white lady identity with my messy insides, I ended up posting there instead of here. Based on my new commitment to personal honesty, I give you: some mess.  I would like to distance myself from women who use [...]

Prioritising our selves

[This is a joint post by Secondwaver and Maia.] We have been talking. We’ve been finding it pretty hard, trying to fight white male supremacy within the ranks of feminism. We’re not surprised it’s hard, but DAMN! it is hard, for us both. We started this blog as a way to confront white privilege, our [...]

Skating over surfaces

First, a little awareness. There are two little-girl fears that drive me. In truth, you cannot understand the first thing about me as a human being without knowing these two fears. I don’t pretend that they are unique – far from it – but they are mine and I own them. They have much to [...]

Buffalo soldiers

This is a part of American history of which I was entirely ignorant before today. For fellow non-US readers (and for US readers who aren’t up on their history!) here is a potted version: after white men “freed” the black people they had enslaved, they enlisted many black men into the white army (in segregated [...]

First Carnival of White Noise (Black History Month)

white noise presents: the first carnival of our very own! As previously trailed, this is a retrospective on Black History Month, February 2008. What is Black History Month? In 1926 Carter G Woodson and his organisation (then known as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, later known as the Association for [...]