Empathy toward women of color requires white women accepting racist complicity.

Evidence

One white woman said that she starts from the standpoint of accepting and acknowledging that “white people always have racist assumptions that we have to deal with.” Readiness to deal with these assumptions certainly makes forming ties with nonwhite women easier. She suggests that the degree to which a white woman can accept the truth of racist oppression— of white female complicity, of the privileges white women receive in a racist structure— determines the extent to which they can be empathic with women of color. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 202

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Honest anger catharsis must precede interracial feminist alliance building — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 205; White feminists must forfeit group privilege to earn black women’s trust; White women’s delayed acknowledgment of racism left black women feeling betrayed (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• White women allied with white men on shared racism against Black women #expands (0.78) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 119
• White women historically invoked racial superiority to assert sexual agency against patriarchal control. #complicates (0.76) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1287
• Post-emancipation white women worked harder to enforce racial superiority through degrading stereotypes #corroborates (0.75) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 189