Adopting feminist rhetoric did not free white feminists from sexist-racist attitudes.

Evidence

All too frequently in the women’s movement it was assumed one could be free of sexist thinking by simply adopting the appropriate feminist rhetoric; it was further assumed that identifying oneself as oppressed freed one from being an oppressor. To a very grave extent such thinking prevented white feminists from understanding and overcoming their own sexist-racist attitudes toward black women. They could pay lip-service to the idea of sisterhood and solidarity between women but at the same time dismiss black women. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 39

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White suffragists opposed black male suffrage out of racial hierarchy concerns. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 369; The women’s rights movement exposed white women’s refusal to surrender white supremacy. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 404; White feminists’ self-victimization rhetoric served their opportunistic interests — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 421 (+12 more)

Related

• The women’s rights movement exposed white women’s refusal to surrender white supremacy. (similarity 0.90)
• White feminists appropriated feminism while hooks reclaims it for all people (similarity 0.89)
• White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference (similarity 0.88)
• White dominance in feminism reflects racial imperialism, not black disinterest (similarity 0.87)
• White women’s linguistic erasure of black women served their own political interests (similarity 0.87)
• A racist and classist feminism merely perpetuates women’s bondage to patriarchy. (similarity 0.87)
• Black women rejected the movement’s execution, not feminism’s ideology. (similarity 0.86)
• White feminists dismissed race talk to preserve a unified sisterhood (similarity 0.86)
• White feminists excluded black women by analogy rather than overt discrimination (similarity 0.85)
• White women’s rights appeals exploited racism against black men (similarity 0.85)
• White abolitionists opposed slavery but never supported racial equality. (similarity 0.85)
• Black women organized separately after white women’s racism barred them (similarity 0.85)
• White feminists appropriated slave suffering to advance their own cause. (similarity 0.85)
• White feminists pursued work rights only for white women workers (similarity 0.85)
• Black women needed a separate feminist intellectual tradition (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference #exemplifies (0.70)
• White women’s linguistic erasure of black women served their own political interests #exemplifies (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 416
• Racial imperialism let white women act as oppressors of black people despite sexism #exemplifies (0.65)
• The women-and-blacks analogy erased black women by equating women with whites #exemplifies (0.65)
• White female abolitionists were motivated by saving white men’s souls, not black women’s welfare. #exemplifies (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 80
• White women’s racism targeted black women more intensely than black men #exemplifies (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 383