I’m not gonna lie y’all.
I’m getting really frustrated with trying to reach out to white feminists and “only love defeats hate” hippy types.
I’ve expressed some cynicism about the women’s march. I haven’t written them off completely and I believe the organizers have their hearts in the right place, but I can’t ignore the complacency and compliance of white feminism and what it means. I know that as a demographic the majority of white women voted for Trump. I also know that once all of these police-hand-shaking white ladies finish taking their cute activism selfies and put their pink pussy hats away in their keepsake boxes, they’ll pat themselves on the back and then they WILL leave the rest of us hanging. Maybe literally. They will retreat into the relative safety that being white and cis and straight gives them and leave trans women and disabled folks and black women and queers and nonbinary folks and sex workers out here flapping in the fucking breeze.
And when I say something about this I have white cisgender women and men who I have considered friends and tried to reach out to telling me that I’m being divisive. “Not all white women voted for Trump” “Black people voted for trump too! Even if it was only 8%...” “If we hadn’t marched, would you be any better off?” “ Black women didn't vote. Wtf good is this tear-down argument you are pushing today? I don't believe calling people out on not connecting the dots between a Trump win and conservative SCOTUS control for half a lifetime is racist.”
Their racism is showing. Their selfishness is showing. I know that the only gods damned reason they marched is that some of their privilege is threatened now. They weren’t marching when it was only brown people and black people and queers and muslims losing their rights. They tell me “love trumps hate” and violence against white supremacists is unjustified because “a single Nazi cabinet member doesn’t mean we’re under Nazi rule.”
I’m trying to stay strong and keep reaching out. I’m trying to gently educate them and make them care about what’s right BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT and not because it just now affects them.
But I am failing.
