White men sympathized with black power because shared sexism overrode racism

Evidence

Many white men responded favorably to the demands of black power advocates with their emphasis on restoring black men their lost masculinity precisely because their sexism enabled them to identify sympathetically with this cause. The patriarchal privileges black men demanded in the name of black power were precisely the longings sexist patriarchal white men could empathize with. While white men and women could not identify and sympathize with the black race that they had exploited for economic gain demanding reparations, they could easily relate to the desire of black men to assert their “manhood.” — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 276

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to hooks’s recurring argument that sexism unites men across racial lines while racism divides them (see the following paragraph at 277). — connects to: White feminist organizing surged in reaction to black men gaining rights. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 366; White men set the terms of women’s liberation and exploit inter-group competition — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 454; Liberation modeled on white male power inherently divides women from each other. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 456 (+9 more)
• SEED: Angle: the historical moment when a white male audience could cheer black male patriarchy while opposing racial reparations — a case study in how oppression solidarity is refused but sexist solidarity is granted.

Related

• Shared sexism bonded militant black men and white men across racial divides (similarity 0.91)
• White men created the race-sex hierarchy that black men accept and support. (similarity 0.90)
• The matriarchy myth built white-male and Black-male solidarity on shared sexism (similarity 0.89)
• White women allied with white men on shared racism against Black women (similarity 0.86)
• Black men asserted patriarchy to compensate for losing status to white men (similarity 0.86)
• White women’s rights appeals exploited racism against black men (similarity 0.85)
• White men set the terms of women’s liberation and exploit inter-group competition (similarity 0.85)
• Liberation modeled on white male power inherently divides women from each other. (similarity 0.84)
• White male brutality toward Black women stemmed from patriarchal misogyny, not racism alone (similarity 0.84)
• Black male leaders treated gender equality as secondary to racial struggle (similarity 0.84)
• Attributing black relationship problems to racism alone masks sexism’s impact (similarity 0.84)
• Sexism and racism together intensified black women’s oppression beyond black men’s. (similarity 0.83)
• Douglass and black male activists allied with white patriarchs through shared sexism. (similarity 0.83)
• White women’s racism targeted black women more intensely than black men (similarity 0.83)
• Black men asserted dominance over women to compensate for losing to white men (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Sexism unites black and white men across the racial divide that racism creates #corroborates (0.95)
• White men created the race-sex hierarchy that black men accept and support. #expands (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 336