This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by George M. Johnson, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
I highly encourage the reader toThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by George M. Johnson, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
I highly encourage the reader to consume this as an audiobook. This is narrated by the author George M. Johnson with a lively jazz based musical soundtrack. Each chapter we are introduced to another queer Harlem Renaissance artist, and as they are introduced, music plays. If they were a singer its a song of theirs. Mr. Johnson's narration is powerful. The listener can hear the emotion in his voice. This is beautifully done, as much of an experience as it is a book.
I love the Harlem Renaissance. I've studied it since I was school-age. Like the author, Black History Month was my favorite time in school. I love history, and reading about historical Black folks always makes me happy. I'm also queer. I'm older than this author and grew up in a time none of this was discussed or accepted. So I love that resources like this exist for today's young readers. I remember when I found out Josephine Baker was bisexual. I held that detail close to my heart throughout my childhood.
This book also serves as a wonderful introduction to the artists of the Harlem Renaissance. I love that the author pulls no punches and calls in bad behaviors like internalized homophobia, colorism, classism, and misogynoir.
Even if you don't have a young person to suggest this to or purchase this for, consider giving it a listen as an adult. It's short, entertaining, and packed with important facts.
Thank you to George M. Johnson, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
4.5 Stars Rounded Up This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Jacqueline Jones, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley.
This was exc4.5 Stars Rounded Up This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Jacqueline Jones, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley.
This was excellent, respectful, knowledgeable, well-sourced, and interesting. It mostly avoids focusing on the more harrowing aspects of slavery in the Antebellum period. I'd rate this as low as far as slavery trauma focus. Though this does focus on segregation and racism in Boston and the wider Northern states. Perhaps in terms of trauma, this is closer to reading about the Civil Rights Movement than many texts that deal with chattel slavery. I add this to say: don't shy away from this for fear of trauma. That's not the tone or focus.
The main subject matter and focus of this is Black folks' opportunities and everyday lives in Boston in this era. This takes specific individuals and follows their lives and includes some generational information when available. This explores the opportunities available in employment, housing, and personal lives. So this includes marriages, births, relocating even outside of Boston, and what the records reveal about how this person ended their days. This focuses on the basic struggle for even free Black folks during the antebellum era. It's very in-depth and fascinating. Often, the history of this period tends to focus on the few famous Black individuals, but while this did include them, the focus was primarily on regular folks' struggles. This highlighted the differences that Black women faced in finding and maintaining freedom and affording to live. This was a hard and harrowing life for the vast majority of folks. Even more well-known figures like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman really struggled to survive in the available economy. I was really enlightened at the struggle between the established Black Boston community and the immigrant Irish community. Irish folks attacked established Black communities and accused them of taking their jobs and housing. It was wild. I forever think Irish Americans badly bungled this. Imagine the world we would all live in if Irish Americans had made common cause with Black Americans rather than focus on whiteness.
I really liked that this focused on and gave examples of the hypocrisy in white liberals/abolitionists of this era. I mean, it's historically focused but also relevant today. Many wealthy white liberal will march for Black Lives Matter but only so long as those lives stay in their respective red-line restricted communities. This focuses on the fact that white abolitionists were overwhelmingly anti-Black and held very troubling views of Black folks. This isn't a view of white abolitionists that we often see presented this clearly.
White abolitionists were largely in control of the funds raised to help formerly enslaved Black folks, whether escapees or post civil war. They seemed to operate from a fear that Black folks were inherently lazy and needed to be 'encouraged' to work hard. So, almost the same view that enslavers held of Black folks. Their policy was to give funds to aid escape but nothing to help formerly enslaved folks settle in a new place without family. In effect, their attitude reminded me of today's pro-lifers. Pro-life/anti-abortionists are obsessed with halting abortion but don't want to feed, clothe, or house these unplanned babies they insisted be born. If you consider the base wealth of the major white abolitionists, their hypocrisy is glaring. It's the historical version of Kim Kardashian's empty-headed 'Nobody wants to work anymore' nonsense.
I was appalled at the bootstrap rhetoric employed by white abolitionists post Civil War. At the same time, these same white abolitionists largely refused to employ Black folks in their businesses. They'd hire a few favored folks in their home, but they refused to integrate their businesses. Instead, white abolitionists overly focused on Black folks' willingness to work. As if enslaved people were taken care of and not exploited. It's frustrating because historically, white women really struggled post Civil War, and that was behind many of the Jim & Jane Crow era laws requiring Black women to work outside of the home. There were laws forcing Black women into domestic labor because white women were unprepared to care for their own homes, families, and children. As enslaved peoples, Black folks had been providing enough labor to provide for themselves and to enrich an entire white demographic/community/country and enrich Europe in the process. So clearly, they could provide just fine for themselves as they had been since they 'arrived' in the colonies.
This also does an excellent job pointing out what would today be termed 'respectability politics', which was how some Black folks responded, and continue to respond, to racist and eugenicist views common in US society. This behavior isn't directly called out nor a focus of the book, but it is included. This is important because just like the Jim & Jane Crow era racist beliefs that still plague our nation, this also works to increase racism and oppression. Black folks don't need to prove anything to be worthy of basic humanity. This is just a function of internalized racism.
This audiobook is narrated by Leon Nixon. Leon does an excellent job keeping the narrative interesting and from feeling like a very long history lecture. I pretty much binged this, and my attention never waivered.
Thank you to Jacqueline Jones, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Matthew D. Morrison, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated byThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Matthew D. Morrison, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated by the author Matthew D. Morrison. The author's excitement and emotions are evident in his voice and that helps to build excitement for the subject matter. I was deeply appreciative of the choice to have him narrate this, pure perfection!
This was truly interesting on many levels. It helped that as I was reviewing this I was also reviewing a nonfiction audiobook on music as medicine by Daniel J. Levitin. This narrative traces the sounds of Black folks in the Americas from 1800's slavery through the turn of the century during the creation of America's musical sound. This focuses on minstrel shows and how these shows export the first aspect of truly American culture abroad. Minstrel shows directly lead to Jim Crow Laws. This isn't a new idea as Jim Crow is itself a minstrel character from these shows. Early Minstrel players were Irish men and because the Irish claim to whiteness was shaky at that time period, they seek to cement the inferiority of Black folks. I think they thought it would work to add them to the collective idea of whiteness and it did. These minstrel actors specifically wanted white audiences overseas to understand that Black folks were genetically inferior to white folks. Minstrel shows cemented eugenic ideas into American culture at home and Western culture worldwide.
This offers a rich history of US copyright law and procedures. How copyright laws were used to protect white men's intellectual property in a way that specifically disadvantaged Black musicians. This offers so much lost history surrounding Black music traditions. Incredibly detailed and enlightening.
This also tracks the theft of Black sound which includes movement and dance by white minstrel actors. They intentionally wanted to degrade Black folks, they often used their own music with celtic origins but added unique Black aspects to it, such as scat (the singing of nonsense sounds) and the call and repeat pattern that is a hallmark of Black American music. Their shows also offered an offensive and white supremacist revision of Black movement and dance.
Surprisingly modern music is the long arm result of these shows. Of course the minstrel tradition is still practiced today by white artists such as Weird Al Yankovich. Also it could be argued by artists such as Post Malone & Pink, who use Black music to become popular because they failed in their chosen music genre which was created by Black sound but is now dominated by white artists, like America Country music.
I deeply enjoyed reading about historical Black entertainers who were lost to history because white men stole and copyrighted their material. The movement of Juba to tap dance really fascinated me. I watched all the videos I could find on Juba on YouTube. This was just truly an interesting experience. I highly recommend this book to history buffs and music buffs alike.
Much of this history is upsetting, frustrating and demeaning to Black folks specifically. The author/narrator handles this deftly so the reader can enjoy the knowledge as much as possible. This isn't easy to manage with weighty subjects like slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, etc. This is beautifully handled and incredibly interesting.
Thank you to Matthew D. Morrison, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator of this audiobooThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator of this audiobook is the author Alexis Pauline Gumbs. She does a wonderful job as narrator. I like that her passion, excitement, respect and inquisitiveness can be heard as the text is narrated. Its a wonderful opportunity for the audiobook listener.
I can not stress enough how much the woman I am today was formed by reading Audre Lorde. I discovered Ms. Lorde's poetry in high school. I was a precocious kid, I read The Color Purple in the 5th grade; My mom set it down, purple was my favorite color and I liked the cover....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated by Soneela Nankani. This is a high quality audio production featuring a calming light musical soundtrack. Ms. Nankani has a soft and cultured voice perfect for this narration.
This is a very important story and is directly about racism and segregation. This is sensitively handled, perfect for grade school age children. This is about Claudette Colvin who was a civil rights activist during the Civil Rights Movement starting in the 50's when she was 15. She refused to give up her bus seat for a white women in Montgomery, Alabama. This gives a kid friendly overview of the case that ended bus segregation in Alabama. Also briefly touches on how that case impacted the national changes that ended segregation nationwide.
Thank you to Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Kellie Carter Jackson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator of this audiobook This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Kellie Carter Jackson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator of this audiobook is Kellie Carter Jackson. I am not usually a fan of authors reading their own nonfiction history books, but this was really well done. The audio quality was crisp and clear. I enjoyed being able to hear the emotion in the authors own voice. Most especially because her statements are so powetful.
"This is a book about the ways Black people in America have responded to white supremacy—including through force. The intrinsic belief in Black humanity is essential to understanding Black resistance to racial terror."
This is an important and powerful historical record. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I started this with extremely high hopes. I'm elated to share that I was not disappointed in the slightest. I was familiar with the basics of this history as both a historian and Black Feminist. Still, I learned so very much. Even the information I was familiar with was presented in a new light and connected to other applicable historical characters and incidents.
I purchased the Kindle copy of this when it was released and so was excited when I saw the audiobook available to review on NetGalley. My quotes in this review and in my updates as I was listening to the audiobook are taken from the digital book, which was published this past June.
This book is right on time as this has important history to remember and keep in mind as our nation heads into a presidential election like no other with extremely high stakes. "Or we can let whiteness drown in the violence of its own making."
Thank you to Kellie Carter Jackson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Annie Reed, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator of this nonfiction history auThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Annie Reed, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator of this nonfiction history audiobook is Kate Udall. Ms. Udall has a voice that conveys a lot of emotion. This works in the listeners favor during this wild history lesson.
This is the sordid and exciting tale of Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age. HBO's The Gilded Age season 2 featured a character named Maud Beaton who it was later revealed to be based on the historical character of Cassie Chadwick. I kept an image of the actress who embodied Maud Beaton on the TV show in my mind while reading this.
Cassie Chadwick is the most well known pseudonym of Elizabeth Bigley, a Canadian con artist during the Gilded Age. Elizabeth was born in Canada West, better known as Ontario, in the 1800's. She was born to a large working class family. Her con's mostly involve knowledge of common banking practices at the time. Through much of the 19th & early 20th century cash money was often in short supply amongst middle class and wealthy folks. They paid bills using IOU's in a complicated system. An IOU could be used as cash to purchase goods and services. This is quickly found out and Elizabeth is reprimanded and returned to her family in Ontario. Ms. Bigley schemes continue, she is occasionally caught and sometimes able to talk her way out of her troubles and sometimes forced to into restitution for her crimes. Along the way she has an annulled marriage, a son born out of wedlock, a bid in prison, and more. Finally Elizabeth lands on her best Con yet, passing herself off as the illegitimate acknowledged daughter of Andrew Carnegie. Pretending to be a wealthy socialite with her fortune locked down beyond her control until a certain date, Elizabeth as Mrs. Cassie Chadwick, a doctors wife, takes on wealthy banks and individuals in Pennsylvania, Boston, Ohio, and Chicago, to name a few.
However, she is inevitably brought down by the depth and scope of her long, entangled con. I loved this! I adore folks who get over on the wealthy.
Thank you to Annie Reed, Tantor Audio , and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Mona Chollet, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator is Alix Dunmore. Her voiThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Mona Chollet, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrator is Alix Dunmore. Her voice is rich, full and cultured. Her accent is light and her pronunciation of French & English perfect.
This is an English translation of a French language feminist text focusing on romantic relationships between heterosexual men and women. This touches on inequality in straight relationships in regards to the orgasm gap, household tasks physically and mentally gap, child care gap, etc. I agree with the author that isn't addressed often enough in gender studies/feminism. This fully includes women of color, their differing experiences and how this is often ignored by mainstream feminism. Exceptionally well done.
I'm not straight myself but both my current and previous husband are straight men. I admit that I'm frustrated with the division of equality in both relationships. I mean comparatively I have quite a bit of power and independence in my current marriage but we ain't equals. My current husband is much better than my first husband but that's kind of a given. I agree with the author that women, and marginalized genders in general, married to men would be freer in a society not structured around families. I've even read sci fi novels dealing with what that would look like and how it could function. I also agree with the author that heterosexual couples who have the means for their own living space would be ideal.
This is a feminist text and as such covers domestic violence, sexual assault and femicide in depth. These subjects are discussed in the context of romantic relationships between straight men and women. This is important because these issues are crisis's for women all over the globe. This includes anecdotes about classic Western literature as well as more contemporary films, plays, novels, feminist leaders and television shows. This also serves as almost a love letter to bell hooks and her book, 'All About Love'. Which the author acknowledges as the first feminist tome on love in heterosexual relationships.
Thank you to Mona Chollet, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Robin Bernstein, Brilliance Audio and NetGalley.
The narrator of this nonfiction hiThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Robin Bernstein, Brilliance Audio and NetGalley.
The narrator of this nonfiction history is Shamaan Casey. The narrator added emotion and depth to this sometimes harrowing narrative.
This tackles the unsavory history of the first for profit prison system in the USA. I, like many others, tied for profit prisons to the chain gang system practiced in the post Antebellum south. Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon focuses on the history of incarceration in the south after the fall of the Confederacy. I honestly thought that system was created at that time. I did not realize it was actually a continuation of the Auburn system of for profit prison exploitation. In the early 1800's prisons in the USA in the north were largely run using a Quaker model of solitary confinement known as the Pennsylvania system. Today we understand this system to be torture but at the time it was thought to allow offenders a place of quiet reflection. This system was focused on the idea of Christian based rehabilitation. Labor was part of this system but it was largely for the purpose of rehabilitation. Prison workers often labored for the prison and their own care. The Auburn system, on the other hand, wasn't concerned with prisoners or rehabilitation, its primary concern was profit. This system basically used solitary confinement to prevent the prison laborers from speaking with the free hired laborers. The prisoners are forced to wear the striped prison uniforms today understood as prison uniforms. To keep prisoners in check and force productivity from them, brutal violence was employed via whipping primarily and water torture known as a shower bath. The prison system is explained thoroughly to assist the reader with understanding the situation that William Freeman ultimately rebelled against. William Freeman is 15 when he's sent to Auburn for horse thievery which Freeman insisted was untrue. At the prison he loudly complained about not getting paid for his labors. This led to discipline which left him without hearing in one ear and other possible brain damage. William is also tortured in a device known as a shower bath. After this he's deeply not okay and begins to attack other prisons for small or perceived slights. Serving five years, William was released and left with his brother in law. William is most likely suffering from complex PTSD and a closed head injury. He struggles to read, when he was easily able to before incarceration. Furthermore William is incensed at his stolen labor and stolen time. He maintained that he was innocent of all charges and had been badly used. William later murderers a white family in retaliation for his suffering and it caused condemnation of the Auburn system. This was a fascinating if a bit harrowing read. I learned quite a bit early US prisons and how choices made at this time led directly to today's prison crisis. I am an abolitionists so this was deeply impact full.
Thank you to Robin Bernstein, Brilliance Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Darrin Bell, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrators of this audiobook are BrThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Darrin Bell, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
The narrators of this audiobook are Brittany Bradford, Darrin Bell, Emyree Zazu Bell, and William DeMerrit. This is an extremely high quality audio production of this graphic novel. With multiple narrators this felt really respectful of the subject matter. This could appeal to older grade school aged children.
The beginning of this audiobook is haunting, "For Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin,...." each name read by a separate narrator or in a different voice. What a beautiful homage to those we've lost to police and other white supremacist violence.
This is an example of how Black parents and guardians in the US speak to their children about race. I'm sure this is replicated by other cultures but I myself received this talk from my Black father. I had this talk with my own Black daughter. I've had versions of this talk with my 2 oldest grandkids, aged 8 & 7. This must be discussed early and often especially if you live in primarily white areas.
The author remembers when his mother had the talk with him around a water gun she purchased him. He's now an adult and a father himself trying to decide if his son is old enough for the talk. This is heavy, important but weighty.
Sometimes it feels like books like this aren't for Black folks. These books feel like they're written for white folks so they can understand the stress of living under racism on Black folks. I don't think this type of narrative fights racism. This puts me in mind of Stokely Carmichael's quote, "Dr. King's policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for Black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That's very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none."
This type of narrative requires the reader to care about Black children. We already know that not even liberals really care about our kids. We have open policies in states to protect the feelings of white children. These folks are not going to care about this book beyond it being banned from their children's access. So I feel like this almost falls under Black violence porn. It doesn't move the mark on the fight against racism for the same reason systemic racism exists, white folks aren't going to be guilted out of harming us.
So we're just gonna have to force change. After which white folks will pat themselves on the backs congratulating themselves on solving the problem they caused in the first place. Totally ignoring that we forced the issue at great cost to ourselves and our communities. These are the same folks who want police at Pride because they don't know the original Pride was a fight against police. History just has to march right over these folks without bothering to appeal to their nonexistent conscience. The use of the term 'folks' in this review refers to US folks.
Thank you to Darrin Bell, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This audiobook narrator was perfect for this nonfiction text. HThis audiobook was made available to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This audiobook narrator was perfect for this nonfiction text. Her voice was full of compassion and richly lyrical. This is a heavy read, with heavy themes. I personally find nonfiction books with serious themes like this best consumed via audiobook over other formats. I love the feel of a heavy tome in my hands, but I never lose myself in nonfiction text the same. A narrative in which I'm given the opportunity to experience firsthand accounts of prisoners' experiences, in their own words, is greatly enhanced in audiobook format. I felt like the narrator was a perfect guide for this journey.
My political view is abolition, so this fits nicely into my views. What I love about this, though, is that the text doesn't assume the reader is a well-versed abolitionist. The book cleverly utilized multiple formats to enhance the reader's understanding of these crucial issues. There's direct quotes from incarcerated individuals, research done by the author, and essays on the topic all mixed in with the author's stunning original poetry. A full media experience, especially on audiobook.
Another highlight of this book is the focus on Canadian prison reform. Often, when prison reform is brought up, even in Canada, the focus is on US style prisons. I was not very familiar with Canadian prisons before this book. I'm a Statie, as I was called in Ontario, married to a Canadian. I lived in Ontario for almost 14 years. A member of my husband's family trained to be a prison counselor and assured me that Canadian prison was focused on reform and nothing like the US system. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Dr. Eddie L. Fields-Black, RB Media, and NetGalley.
This i5 full enthusiastic stars
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Dr. Eddie L. Fields-Black, RB Media, and NetGalley.
This is so much more than a history of the Combahee River Raid. This covers the history of the area from colonization until 1863 and beyond. It also goes over the basic laws that governed the Transatlantic Slave Trade and how that functioned on the West African coast as well as in English colonies and later the United States. To label this as 'thorough' does not do it justice. This is unbelievably meticulous. Dr. Fields-Black outdid herself with this. I'm blown away.
This offers a fascinating look at Harriet Tubman and her family, of course. Also, other Black folks of this era and beyond are discussed: Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth come immediately to mind. This isn't a biography of Tubman. There already exist at least two very thorough biographies of her, as the author herself points out. This does give some biographical information on other participants in the Combahee River Raid. This really offers a tremendous education not only on this particular Raid but also how chattel slavery functioned during the Antebellum period full stop.
I pre-ordered this in book form as soon as I read about it, though this review is based on the audiobook. After listening to this, I also ordered a copy from Audible. I look forward to rereading this. This is information dense, and I need to return to it to see what it can add to my own personal studies of US chattel slavery. The information is organized in logical ways, and the narrative flows smoothly. I highly recommend this for my abolitionist friends as well as my history friends. This offers something for everyone. Harriet Tubman was amazing. She has been a personal hero of mine my entire life. May she rest in power♥️
The narrator of this history book is Machelle Williams. Her voice is crisp, educated, and relaxed. Her skill with narration makes this feel not at all long or like a history lecture. Well done.
Thank you to Dr. Eddie L. Fields-Black, RBMedia, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This is a biography but artsy. I really loved it. I learned many facts about my favorite author and enjoyed the connecting poetry. I listened to this on This is a biography but artsy. I really loved it. I learned many facts about my favorite author and enjoyed the connecting poetry. I listened to this on audio and would suggest it. This is short and worth the effort to consume....more
I quite liked this. I'd give this 4 stars I rounded it up to 5 to counteract the white supremacist reviews this seems to be causing. This gives a nice hiI quite liked this. I'd give this 4 stars I rounded it up to 5 to counteract the white supremacist reviews this seems to be causing. This gives a nice history of the problems with white feminism historically and today. Also gives you historical white feminist figures in all their problematic glory and introduces their less well known POC Feminist. I liked the format and it works.
“Across the decades, white feminists’ overwhelming insistence that sex oppression is the most prominent and widespread form of oppression ironically enshrines the identity of Woman as the sine qua non of feminism while minimizing the force of sexism itself. White feminist politics produces the fantasy of a common, even uniform, identity of Woman, a morally upright creature whose full participation in the capitalist, white supremacist status quo will allegedly absolve it of its sins. The individual obscures the structure.
Under white feminism, the goal of gender justice shrinks to defending women’s qualities and identities. The agenda today becomes empowering individual women to own their voice, refuse to be mansplained to, and embrace their right to equality with men. These are fine practices on their own, but they do not convey the devastating nature of sexism, nor do they offer realistic methods of demolishing it. In fact, fetishizing the identity of Woman as the basis of feminist politics actually makes it more difficult to recognize sexism as a structure of exploitation and extraction. For sexism is not merely the silencing, interrupting, and overlooking of women. Sexism is the use of the male/female binary as an instrument to monopolize social, political, and economic power—and those assigned female at birth are not its only victims.
Consistently, white feminism wins more rights and opportunities for white women through further dispossessing the most marginalized. It seeks to install women at the helm of the systems that have brought the planet to the brink of ecological collapse and to declare the battle won, cleansed by their tears. White feminism has supported the denial of suffrage to men of color, the eradication of Native ties to land and community, eugenics, homophobia, transphobia, and neoliberal capitalism. Today, it comprises the delusions that Girl Power will solve inequality, that if the investment bank Lehman Brothers were instead Lehman Sisters we would have a better kind of capitalism, and that putting a woman in the White House will necessarily create a more moral empire. While seemingly ignoring non-middle-class white women, white feminism actually raids more marginalized groups in order to shore up its own political power. White feminism is theft disguised as liberation.
Yet while white feminists attempt to win their rights and opportunities through fighting for inclusion within fundamentally unequal systems, those benefits are largely mythical, even for women as wealthy as Sheryl Sandberg. Sexism is so fully interwoven within structures of domination that the single-axis fight to support women is itself a delusion: patriarchy threads through all forms of inequality. Eradicating sexism requires unravelling the entire system.”~ Kyla Schuller, The Trouble With White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism...more
Loading...
