The Failures of White Feminism As Observed by Koa Beck

 I admit that as a white woman myself, I didn't wonder why I never encountered non-white women at the feminist meetings that I attended in the early 1980's.  That's when I broke away from my family and started acting independently.  I wasn't comfortable with all the feminist organizations that I found.  In some cases, I would attend one meeting and never come back.  But yes, all the women were white.  I've just finished White Feminism by Koa Beck, and she told me that this was no accident.

                               

Beck reveals in her book that she is a light skinned person of color who has passed for white.  She charges white feminists with being self-centered in their approach to feminism.  They also don't challenge societal institutions, but treat them as a given.  Their priority is achieving success in the political and economic context that men have established.  Once they have realized this goal, they can sit back, and say "I've got mine."  They benefit from the pervasive racism and classism, and don't question them.  Since they are totally immersed in their myopic perspective,  it doesn't even occur to them that women of color have other needs and priorities.

After discussing the problem that women of color have with obtaining child care, Beck launches into an attempt made by a woman named Priya  to work with white women on the issue of child care.   She proposed cooperative daycare without realizing that this wasn't an issue for these upper middle class white women.  They all had nannies.  They made a presentation to management, but it didn't include Priya's  appeal for childcare.  The white women ended up getting what they wanted which was extended maternal leave after giving birth.  I couldn't believe that they didn't even try to go to bat for what Priya needed.  They didn't care about the issue, so as far as they were concerned it didn't matter.  The colossal arrogance of these women was astounding.  

I do have to say that Beck didn't present the complete picture when she portrays the Pankhursts who fought for women's suffrage in England.  She mentions Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel who confirm Beck's view of white feminists with their upper class snobbery.  Yet Emmeline Pankhurst had another daughter named Sylvia who focused on working class women.  Sylvia Pankhurst was actually a socialist.  See my review of a biography of Sylvia Pankhurst.  There have been exceptions among white feminists. 

 It is often said that exceptions prove the rule.  So even though there may be a contemporary white feminist equivalent of Sylvia Pankhurst who is eager to be a genuine ally with lower class women and women of color, the majority of white feminists probably are as Beck depicts them.  White Feminism is a tongue lashing that its targets richly deserve.