We Need to Talk About White Feminism Part III—Solutions

During the last couple of months, we have talked about what the term white feminism means—in short, an exclusionary type of activism that only looks at the experiences of white, straight, able-bodied, cisgender, middle- and upper-class women. Part II of this series exposed some of the ways in which white feminism is disguised as actual feminism. At this point, you must be asking yourself what the solution against the shortcomings of white feminism is. 

As you’ve probably heard before, the very first step to solve a problem is to recognize there is one. White feminism is not an exception. But recognizing the problem does not only mean calling out other people’s white feminist practices or denouncing approaches like carceral or corporate feminism—it also means recognizing your own biases, and calling out the white feminist within you. 

You are not exempt from this work. We all need to do it, even if we are not racist and even if we are not white, rich or straight. And that is because of a sneaky thing called implicit bias. 

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, implicit bias is when we “act on the basis of prejudice and stereotypes without intending to do so.” In other words, you don’t have to be racist to be unconsciously guided by racist impulses.  

Jennifer Eberhardt, a psychology professor at Stanford University and author of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See Think and Do, said that unconscious prejudice “can affect everyone, even a black child,” referring to an instance when her son worried that a fellow black passenger would blow up a plane.

“We’re living in a society where we’re absorbing images and ideas all the time and it takes over who we are and how we see the world.” Eberhardt said. 

This process of socialization also affects how we develop our feminist thinking. If we are not cautious, the “default” and mainstream approaches of feminism—often in the form of white feminism—might influence our actions. 

If you are still convinced you are immune to this, I highly recommend taking the Implicit Association Test. As Mahzarin Banaji, a Harvard University psychologist and one of the creators of the test said: "Think of implicit bias as the thumbprint of the culture on our brain." 

So, what can we do to avoid our implicit biases?

We can start by self-reflecting and educating ourselves on issues that don’t affect us directly. Keeping an open mind when others talk about the issues that they face is also a must to remind ourselves that our individual experiences don’t represent the diversity of experiences of all women. We can only grow and learn as feminists when we make the effort to get to know women from different backgrounds. Ultimately, we must acknowledge and fight against our implicit biases by listening to, connecting with and learning from a diverse range of voices. 

After acknowledging our implicit biases and learning about gender issues that we have no direct contact with, we can embrace intersectional feminism.

If you never heard the term, don’t be intimidated, it sounds complicated but once you have a good grasp of what it means it will become second nature in how you see gender. 

Intersectionality is a term coined in 1989 by American law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to highlight how racial and gender prejudice simultaneously impact the lives of black women.

Intersectional feminism is basically the opposite of white feminism. It is “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other” Crenshaw said. That is, intersectionality, as opposed to white feminism, understands how class, gender, race and other identities overlap with one another.

“We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts,” Crenshaw said.

An intersectional approach, therefore, requires centering on the voices of those experiencing the greatest number of overlapping forms of oppression. Not to create a “contest of who is more oppressed,” or to conflate disadvantages with moral superiority, like some critics say. But to acknowledge how interconnected these issues are, and to understand how they impact the lives of those most oppressed in society. Again, the first step to solve a problem is to recognize there is one. 

According to the UN, using an intersectional lens also means “recognizing the historical contexts surrounding an issue. Long histories of violence and systematic discrimination have created deep inequities that disadvantage some from the outset.”

That is, the impact of intersecting inequalities extends across generations; they are systemic. That means one’s individual “willpower” is not enough to overcome them. Intersectionality helps us separate the individual from the collective—the anecdotal example from the systemic nature of social issues. 

In 2020, from the disproportionate impact of the pandemic in communities of color, to the global uprising against police violence, it has been made clear that we, as a society, are not close to achieving anything resembling equality or justice. Women’s issues are inserted in this context. 

It is challenging to think about a myriad of issues simultaneously. After all, isn’t patriarchy bad enough in and of itself? Also, most of us are already overwhelmed with an economic crisis, a pandemic and a high-stakes U.S. presidential election. There is, however, no better time to educate ourselves on intersectionality, and to revise our feminism. This crisis has exposed injustices in such obvious ways that it gives all of us, no matter our background, the chance to turn this moment as a catalyst for reflection. 

I hope that this series helped you recognize the power of your voice. Feminism is nothing but a group of people coming together to demand equality—you get to choose the direction that the movement takes.