The women-blacks analogy depends on erasing black women’s existence.

Evidence

The most glaring example of their support of the exclusion of black women was revealed when they drew analogies between “women” and “blacks” when what they were really comparing was the social status of white women with that of black people. Like many people in our racist society, white feminists could feel perfectly comfortable writing books or articles on the “woman question” in which they drew analogies between “women” and “blacks.” Since analogies derive their power, their appeal, and their very reason for being from the sense of two disparate phenomena having been brought closer together, for white women to acknowledge the overlap between the terms “blacks” and “women” (that is the existence of black women) would render this analogy unnecessary. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 39

Categorization

• XREF: Parallel critiques of analogy-making appear in identity politics debates. — connects to: The women-and-blacks analogy erased black women by equating women with whites; White feminists excluded black women by analogy rather than overt discrimination — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 420; White male-black female marriage would threaten white patriarchal rule unlike the reverse — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 199

Related

• White feminists excluded black women by analogy rather than overt discrimination (similarity 0.91)
• The women-and-blacks analogy erased black women by equating women with whites (similarity 0.89)
• Using ‘women’ for white women alone perpetuates both racism and sexism. (similarity 0.86)
• White women’s linguistic erasure of black women served their own political interests (similarity 0.85)
• Black women organized separately after white women’s racism barred them (similarity 0.83)
• White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference (similarity 0.81)
• Black women needed a separate feminist intellectual tradition (similarity 0.81)
• White women hold privileges exceeding all US groups except white men. (similarity 0.81)
• White abolitionists opposed slavery but never supported racial equality. (similarity 0.80)
• Racial alliances superseded feminist solidarity between black and white women (similarity 0.80)
• A racist and classist feminism merely perpetuates women’s bondage to patriarchy. (similarity 0.80)
• Adopting feminist rhetoric did not free white feminists from sexist-racist attitudes. (similarity 0.80)
• Black women rejected the movement’s execution, not feminism’s ideology. (similarity 0.80)
• White women feared black women’s perceived immorality threatened their own status (similarity 0.79)
• Both white and black patriarchies framed feminism as opposition to black liberation. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The women-and-blacks analogy erased black women by equating women with whites #expands (0.85)
• White feminists excluded black women by analogy rather than overt discrimination #expands (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 420