Inequality and the Feminist Identity

The female experience is one that a male cannot understand. The black experience is one that a white person cannot understand. The lower-class experience is one that an upper-class person cannot understand. The combination of all three is something that only black women can understand. As the authors discuss, separating race, class, gender, and sexual orientation in an unequal and oppressive society such as ours is impossible. Due to the intertwined nature of oppression, no single group can be free from domination unless all groups are free. If women we somehow granted equal personhood, black women would still be trapped in the vortex of racism. If both racism and sexism were eradicated, people in the LGBT community would still experience oppression.

If we can recognize the inherently interconnected web of oppression, then why does racism/ sexism/ heterosexism still exist within the different minority groups? How can anyone stand up and claim to be fighting for equality when they marginalize a different minority? It is necessary to come together, regardless of differences, to fight against oppression for all. Yet, we still witness minority groups hating other minority groups. The solution seems painfully obvious yet it is somehow impossible in our society.

Another issue brought up in the reading was that of the difficulty to simply “announce in certain contexts that we are black feminists” (67). The challenge of pronouncing oneself as a feminist is still a blatant issue. It is devastatingly obvious how few teenaged and young adult women are willing to identify as feminists. Several semesters ago, I took SWMS 301: Intro to Feminist Theory. On the first day of class, the professor asked everyone in the class to raise their hands if they consider themselves to be feminists. In a roughly thirty-person class, only two people raised their hands. It was shocking to me that in a room of bright and educated students, only a boy and I identified as feminists. It’s not that the other students hate women, loathe equal rights, and endorse patriarchal domination; they just simply did not view themselves as feminists. This was shocking and sad to me. How is it that in today’s world “feminist” is still such a dirty word? It is just striking to me that I am the only one of my friends who embrace and embody the term feminist. The fight for equality is far from over, yet how do we fight for our rights if the majority of us shy away from the feminist label? We have so far to go.