White feminists’ self-victimization rhetoric served their opportunistic interests

Evidence

It was not in the opportunistic interests of white middle and upper class participants in the women’s movement to draw attention to the plight of poor women, or the specific plight of black women. A white woman professor who wants the public to see her as victimized and oppressed because she is denied tenure is not about to evoke images of poor women working as domestics receiving less than the minimum wage struggling to raise a family single-handed. Instead it is far more likely she will receive attention and sympathy if she says, “I’m a nigger in the eyes of my white male colleagues.” — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 421

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘I’m a nigger in the eyes of my colleagues’ appropriation example could anchor an essay on how privileged groups borrow oppressed identities rhetorically.
• XREF: connects to: White feminists appropriated slave suffering to advance their own cause. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 368; White women feared black women’s perceived immorality threatened their own status — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 384; White feminists pursued work rights only for white women workers — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 387 (+9 more)

Related

• White feminists appropriated slave suffering to advance their own cause. (similarity 0.89)
• White feminists appropriated feminism while hooks reclaims it for all people (similarity 0.86)
• Some feminists appropriated the movement to serve individual careers rather than collective change (similarity 0.84)
• White women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. (similarity 0.84)
• Adopting feminist rhetoric did not free white feminists from sexist-racist attitudes. (similarity 0.84)
• White feminists pursued work rights only for white women workers (similarity 0.82)
• White women’s linguistic erasure of black women served their own political interests (similarity 0.82)
• White dominance in feminism reflects racial imperialism, not black disinterest (similarity 0.79)
• White women feared black women’s perceived immorality threatened their own status (similarity 0.78)
• Feminist ideals were resignified to serve neoliberal market individualism (similarity 0.78)
• A racist and classist feminism merely perpetuates women’s bondage to patriarchy. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Feminist rhetoric can function as a tool of imperial and nationalist agendas #expands (0.80)
• White women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. #exemplifies (0.80) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 442
• White feminists appropriated feminism while hooks reclaims it for all people #expands (0.75) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 564
• White feminists dismissed race talk to preserve a unified sisterhood #exemplifies (0.75) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 16
• Adopting feminist rhetoric did not free white feminists from sexist-racist attitudes. #corroborates (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 39
• American women perpetuate the very racism and sexism that oppress them #expands (0.65)