morphy@truebalt.cco.caltech.EDU (Jones Maxime Murphy) (10/20/90)
A moderator on this group, Miriam Nadel rejected a post of mine with the comment that "race issues are only of marginal interest to soc.feminism". I have often heard black women complain that the feminist movement is insenstive to their concerns. Is feminism simply a tool for bringing about parity between men and women, while preserving racial inequality? In other words, is the program simply to level the discrimination against white women, leaving blacks behind? I'm particalarly interested in comments from black women on this issue. [Race issues with respect to feminism are appropriate; I did not see the rejected article & so will not comment on its rejection. This is a subject, however, like feminism & abortion or feminism & religion, that easily spins out of the domain of feminism because the second issue is a large concern in its own right. --CLT] Jones Physics Department California Institute of Technology
larryc@poe.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) (10/20/90)
One thing that I and many others have noticed and commented on about feminist activists: most of us are white. Even in LA, which has a large black, Latin, & Oriental population, during my most recent period as a feminist activist (mid-88 - end-89) there were very few non-white activist in our LA chapter of NOW. Part of this I think was due to racism (on the part of the whites who are in AND those non-whites who were out of the organization). However, I believe it has more to do with class differences. All the activists are people who have enough money & time to devote to volunteer activities. This includes unmarried people, married ones being supported by their spouses, childless people or ones whose kids are on their one, gays, the affluent, & students. Of course feminism is a larger movement that includes more people than those who are staunch activists. Not even a fanatic like myself is going to spend all hi/r time as an activist. Many feminists only respond when they are called on to demonstrate. Many more contribute money but no time, even for the occasional demonstration. Even more subscribe to feminist journals or belong to feminist organizations but are never active in an organization. And the largest group are those who have no organizational links but who consider themselves feminists. (Or maybe the largest group are the ones who say "I'm no feminist, but ...."!) To what extent those people are racist I have no way of knowing. I DO know that "feminist" does not equate to "angelic" or even to "liberal." Larry Carroll "Takes-us" (correct pronunciation of Texas) Dancin' Fool
gcf@hombre.masa.COM (10/22/90)
morphy@truebalt.cco.caltech.EDU (Jones Maxime Murphy): >A moderator on this group, Miriam Nadel rejected a post of mine with >the comment that "race issues are only of marginal interest to >soc.feminism". I have often heard black women complain that the >feminist movement is insenstive to their concerns. > >Is feminism simply a tool for bringing about parity between men and >women, while preserving racial inequality? In other words, is the >program simply to level the discrimination against white women, >leaving blacks behind? I'm particalarly interested in comments from >black women on this issue. I doubt if many feminists want to preserve racial discrimination. However, the equal-rights branch of feminism is essentially atomistic, seeing each type of social disparity as independent and requiring a separate movement to combat. Presumably, then, a working-class black lesbian pacifist would have to belong to at least five different organizations to satisfy her political needs. Cultural or radical feminists, on the other hand, see racism as "patriarchal," so those who were fighting racism would be able to count on their support as an inherent part of their feminism -- if they could find any. And if they wanted to. Certain black leaders have not been very supportive of feminism or of gay rights (while others have). There's a certain symmetry in the distribution of the atomistic approach. -- Gordon Fitch | uunet!hombre!mydog!gcf