White feminists appropriated slave suffering to advance their own cause.

Evidence

It did not enhance the cause of oppressed black slaves for white women to make synonymous their plight and the plight of the slave. Despite Abby Kelly’s dramatic statement, there was very little if any similarity between the day-to-day life experiences of white women and the day-to-day experiences of the black slave. Theoretically, the white woman’s legal status under patriarchy may have been that of “property,” but she was in no way subjected to the de-humanization and brutal oppression that was the lot of the slave. When white reformers made synonymous the impact of sexism on their lives, they were not revealing an awareness of or sensitivity to the slave’s lot; they were simply appropriating the horror of the slave experience to enhance their own cause. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 368

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White feminists’ self-victimization rhetoric served their opportunistic interests — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 421; White women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 442; White feminists appropriated feminism while hooks reclaims it for all people — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 564 (+1 more)

Related

• White women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. (similarity 0.92)
• White feminists appropriated feminism while hooks reclaims it for all people (similarity 0.89)
• White feminists’ self-victimization rhetoric served their opportunistic interests (similarity 0.89)
• Some feminists appropriated the movement to serve individual careers rather than collective change (similarity 0.85)
• Adopting feminist rhetoric did not free white feminists from sexist-racist attitudes. (similarity 0.85)
• Feminist ideals were resignified to serve neoliberal market individualism (similarity 0.83)
• White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference (similarity 0.82)
• The women’s movement equated liberation with capitalist economic success (similarity 0.82)
• Enslaved women absorbed anti-woman violence that white women otherwise faced (similarity 0.81)
• White women, not white men, were slavery’s most direct beneficiaries (similarity 0.81)
• White racial imperialism granted white women the right to oppress black women and men. (similarity 0.81)
• White feminists pursued work rights only for white women workers (similarity 0.81)
• White women’s linguistic erasure of black women served their own political interests (similarity 0.81)
• Racial imperialism let white women act as oppressors of black people despite sexism (similarity 0.81)
• A racist and classist feminism merely perpetuates women’s bondage to patriarchy. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• White feminists’ self-victimization rhetoric served their opportunistic interests #corroborates (0.85) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 421
• 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 women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. #corroborates (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 442