Rafia Zakaria's collection, Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption, undoubtedly ruffled some (white peoples) feathers. The title alone grabbed the attention of the kind of white women that need to read it most. Unfortunately, many of them won't, but there's not much in terms of respectability politics that can be done to sway them anyway. If they did take a moment to turn a few pages, they would find that Zakaria is very clear in both the very beginning and in the conclusion that there is a huge difference between white women who are feminists and women who practice white feminism- the latter being a sort of white supremacist capitalism that uses womens "empowerment" as a tool to gain profit and power at expense of the most marginalized women.
In some sections, Zakaria details her own experiences dealing with white women practicing white feminism. They are painful to read and I can only imagine how painful they were to experience. They show that tokenism, silencing, casual racism, microaggressions, and more problems can have humiliating, demoralizing, and traumatizing effects. Even though some saw this book as divisive or too angry, I noticed Zakaria self criticizing quite a bit. She would discuss her lack of preparation or experience leading her to make certain decisions that honestly, sounded unavoidable because, had she had the experience, they already would have happened to her.
I am not seen as a white woman in the world much these days, but have most definitely made some mistakes that I thought of, cringing, as I read her experiences. I was luckily not the head of an NGO or a CEO or whatever, but still. I briefly note this to shy away from the thing many people do after their social justice educations- pretend they've always gotten it, eager to show their rage on behalf of others. This book should be read by imperfect white people, too. If you're willing to reckon with that, you will get the most out of it.
I imagine that this book is also quite validating for women of color, though I obviously cannot assume to speak for anyone. Zakaria discusses a lot of international cultural experiences of women throughout the world that aren't often discussed, even when people are discussing the issues with white feminism. There is a toxic tendency for white women practicing white feminism to place themselves in the roles of missionaries to save the women of color from their native cultures. White women often do this without even seeing the colonialist and white supremacist cultures that the white women themselves are coming from and how those affect women across the world.
She also critiques "sex positive" feminism and "choice" feminism at length. Some folks, especially those who think that the only thing produced by the second wave is TERFs, felt this to be too "second wave." But, I will again, disagree. As someone who got involved in feminism during the sex positive wave then later read a ton of radical feminist writings, I found a lot to be gained- and a lot that needed work- from both. I think Zakaria walks this line well. She says something like "if everything is feminist, then nothing is," which really hits to the root of it. Many movements, often started or co-created by the most marginalized of women, are capitalized upon by corporations or highly privileged women who change movements for social change into stories of individual empowerment through climbing ladders and stepping on people below you along the way.
In the end, the message is repeated that has been told time and again, yet not listened to nearly enough: helping women of color will help all women. Helping women at the margins and intersections helps all women. Centering the experiences of white women alone does not. It actively does harm. There is much to be done and much to be learned and this book is part of that.
This was also posted to my goodreads.
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