Darlene Pineda

via Facebook... In a group someone asked why there was a divide with white and black feminism. This is how I answered, and I hope I got it mostly right. Please let me know if I need to correct something... It isn't a "growing" disdain, it's one that's been there while early feminists fought to vote but were publicly racists as well, when black feminists were ignored or co-opted. While white feminists ignore their role of white women in lynchings, which were usually done with the excuse of protecting white womanhood. When white women feminists fight to work, ignoring that black women have always had to work and take care of their families and didn't have the luxury of leaning in or hiring a nanny, since they were the nanny. When white women fight for reproductive justice that means abortion, forgetting that the luxury of not having your child gunned down in the street is also a form of reproductive justice. When white women don't call out the racism of Bill Cosby getting zingers at the awards while Woody Allen got to keep his career. When white women act like white saviors instead of sisters. When they ignore the missing black children and women. When they say #alllivesmatter and #notallwhites instead of putting themselves on the front lines for equality. When white families adopt little foreign babies to "save them" while promoting the economics and politics that lead to a country being torn apart by violence and poverty. When they don't acknowledge their role in white patriarchy and how they benefit from it. Every time a white woman talks about being in a scary neighborhood--which means a black neighborhood--ignoring all the women who live there. If you've ever been afraid when a black man got in the elevator with you? Clutched your purse tighter? That. White women have been complicit in the white supremacy, and any feminism that is not also about that is not black feminism, it's just about the patriarchy. If you go to Google, read some bell hooks, read black feminists, do some research, see what woc fight for, what their reality is... Because it really isn't the same. My feminism includes immigration, knows that poverty and housing and education are all tools of white supremacy used against POC. Knows that a few dead French are worthy of a hashtag and a march of world leaders but 2000+ massacred Nigerians barely get a news blip. That a white shooter is a disturbed and mentally ill young man, a black shooter is a thug and a Muslim shooter is a terrorist. It's a huge, huge divide, and to be a real ally one needs to not assume what others *should* care about or realize, but ask and listen what being treated fairly means to a woc, because it's not necessarily the same thing you have in mind.