Race, Feminism, and #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen on Twitter

One thing I write very little about here on the blog is race. Maybe this is something I should change, I don’t know, but I’m as white as you get and I grew up in an upper middle class family in a lily-white community, which means that I am awash in white privilege—and I try to make sure to always bear this in mind. As a result, I’m often hesitant about bringing up race here, because I don’t feel that I’m in a position to appropriately speak to the issue. I don’t want to appropriate others’ experiences or claim more understanding than I have. Instead, I try to close my mouth and listen when people of color, and especially women of color, speak of their experiences and what they need from white allies.

And so with this post, I want to point you, my readers, to the twitter hashtag #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, which women of color have been using today to call out some of the hypocrisies of white feminism. Read, listen, grow. Here are some samples:

#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen when convos about gender pay gap ignore that white women earn higher wages than black, Latino and Native men.

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) August 12, 2013

#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen = fighting against fetal personhood bills and not saying one word about voter ID laws. — Steph Herold (@StephHerold) August 12, 2013

#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen when “sexpositivity” never includes women of color. — SaltedCarmelSouthron (@deluxvivens) August 12, 2013

#solidarityisforwhitewomen when they rant abt the misogyny in hip hop & not the misogyny in country & rock music — The American Negro (@activist_hat) August 12, 2013

#solidarityisforwhitewomen when pink hair, tattoos, and piercings are “quirky” or “alt” on a white woman but “ghetto” on a black one. — Zeba Blay (@zblay) August 12, 2013

When the media covers efforts to recover a young white girl but continues to ignore the missing women of color #solidarityisforwhitewomen — Manny Herrera (@ManFred1701) August 12, 2013

#solidarityisforwhitewomen when conversations about “reproductive justice” are limited to legal access to abortion. — Kristin Rawls (@kristinrawls) August 12, 2013

Read more at #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen.

And finally, one last tweet from another white feminist, with whom I agree completely:

Fellow white feminists: #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen is not for us to defend, explain, protest. It’s time for us to take a damn seat & listen.

— ShelbyKnox (@ShelbyKnox) August 12, 2013