Welcome to white noise!

First, BIG thanks to Maia for the idea of this blog as a place where white radical feminists can talk about our white privilege and its implications (oppression and racism). As radical feminists, we are in a great position to do this work, since race privilege/race oppression fits neatly into the corresponding template of sex privilege/sex oppression that we strive so fiercely to suvbert and usurp. There are many white-privileged feminists who have paved the way for us, but we haven’t been attending to them, in a focused way, as we have needed to. Hence, this space.

When women of color have a problem with Gloria Steinem’s recent op-ed, which white feminists are praising, it highlights the huge divide among us, among feminists. Though this divide has been largely invisible to white women, no highlighting is needed for women of color, because they say they have been experiencing it almost every time they interact with us–white feminists. This (I think) is why some have started identifying as womanists, and not feminists.

I hope that we will be able to come to a more accurate understanding of what’s happening among us, and in the larger world, too, insofar as our privilege goes–and its flip side, oppression. Understanding should lead to action. We already understand how power works; we can support each other as we move toward justice.

So, let’s talk!