Everyone grows up in some sort of bubble, and it is normal to be a product of your environment.
We cannot change the world we are born into. What we can change is how we adjust our perspectives once we become old enough to understand there are other types of people living completely different realities from our own.
I grew up in a very affluent, primarily white area in New Jersey. It was not until I began educating myself — aided by leaving the small town I grew up in for a more diverse city — that I started to explore outside my bubble.
As a white, cisgender woman who has been surrounded by people similar to me, there was a lot for me to learn and unlearn, including the subconscious prejudices and stereotypes that were simply a product of my environment.
My parents are great people who raised me with good values and an open mind, so I am sure I had less learning to do than someone who grew up in a more closed-minded environment. Nonetheless, to an extent, anyone, and especially those with privilege, have self-education to do.
If we fail to consider people from other walks of life, we end up with faux activists and “white feminism.” This term is often used when a feminist only considers the plight of privileged white women as opposed to everyone who needs feminism. It can also be used to perpetuate the oppression of and silence women of color.
If white feminism empowers privileged, cisgender white women, it further harms women of color and transgender women.
Recently, we have seen exactly why all women need feminism and empowerment. The reporting forum Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate found in the past year alone, there were close to 3,800 reported attacks against Asians, and 68% of these attacks were on women.
They also reported the harassment these women faced was both racist and sexist, and the two often accompanied each other.
This is exactly why we need intersectional feminism. Racism and sexism are always tied together, and we cannot address one without the other. Otherwise, we would only be addressing half the problem.
I have a completely different experience as a white woman because I don’t have to deal with both racism and sexism. It can make day-to-day life for people of color even more challenging and, as we have seen, more dangerous.
White feminism fails to acknowledge this intersection even though the proof is in front of us. Some of these dangers aren’t solely harassment, but are also highlighted in societal disparities and risks — for example, Black women in the United States are four times more likely to die during birth than white women are.
Another terrifying reality is Indigenous women go missing far too often and are disproportionately victims of violence. The National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls concluded that in Canada, there are thousands of Indigenous women and girls who have gone missing — the number may exceed 4,000 but there is no clear way to know. They have started calling it a Canadian genocide.
Furthermore, The Human Rights Campaign reported most violent transphobic crimes in 2020 were committed against Black and Latinx transgender women.
These are all groups of people being left out of the white feminist agenda. It is harmful and ignorant to allow horrific realities such as these to continue.
If you claim to be a feminist but you do not fight for every woman out there, then you only look to maintain your own position of power and privilege. Leaving out any group of women automatically invalidates any type of feminism.
If you are a white woman reading this, do not get defensive. Do not try to justify the white feminism you practice.
White tears have been historically weaponized by white women when confronted by people of color. They have been used as a defense mechanism to guilt trip and shift the attention away from their wrongdoings and the criticism they faced.
So, before you get emotional because I’m calling you out, consider the bubble you’re stuck in and how you can break out of it to become an intersectional feminist who fights for every woman — not just the ones who look like you.
