While reading “The Trouble With White Feminism” I learned how social systems of power shape and mold online spaces such as Twitter or discussion forums. For example, a White male scholar (*sniff sniff*, you smell the privilege too right?) was harassing women of color because they “were in the way.” Mikki Kendall, WOC digital activist called not only him out but the white feminist bloggers that stayed quiet as *crickets* when the whole thing went down. Mikki started #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen to bring forth the issues with White feminism and how the lateral violence spreads. Lateral violence is when those of an oppressed group become the oppressors. “The historical antecedents of White feminism are rooted in colonialism.” (p. 43) The problem with White feminism is how it sits complacent while their fellow sisters are struggling due to the social systems of power such as racism, classism, and homophobia.
Examples of how White women shape and mold “the framework of feminism in a digital era” (Noble 56) are Sheryl Sanberg’s Lean In movement, Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising , and The Future of Online Feminism report.
Sanberg’s Lean In movement and book propose a very narrow Liberal feminist approach. An individual approach to mold yourself into the cookie cutter shape society has deemed superior. Although new to the feminist movement, her words really address white, educated, corporate level, married, straight, able women. Nothing is mentioned about Women of Color, or of LGBTQIA+ sisters, or any other social location that isn’t deemed the “norm.”
Eve Ensler’s, a playwright began the One Billion Rising campaign raising money and awareness for sexual violence. She had devoted February 10th as V-Day without addressing V-Day is a day to honor Indigenous and Native Women. She promoted the “incarceration of perpetrators” which is a problem with White feminism as well. Not acknowledging that state violence affects People of Color differently.
The Future of Online Feminism was written by two white feminist bloggers who tried to encompass Women of Color’s point’s of views but really was a report of their own shared experiences. They spoke of ways to have digital feminist blogging a money maker but didn’t hit on how differing social locations, unlike their own, could play certain roles in succeeding.
These three examples shine a light on the problems with White feminism because how it is sits idly by not acknowledging, or being complacent, with social systems of power that benefit themselves and harm others. This lateral violence reveals that, “White feminism is indistinguishable from White supremacy” (Noble 45).
“The Trouble With White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism, and The Intersectional Internet.” The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class and Culture Online, by Safiya Umoja. Noble and Brendesha M.. Tynes, 6th ed., Peter Lang., 2016, pp. 41–60.
