INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM SERIES

The Intersection Where Race Meets Feminism: The Unfinished Conversation

If I told you since feminism began, but more vividly during the second wave of feminism (1963–1980), there was one conversation that was started but never finished — would you be willing to finish it in this fourth wave of feminism that we’re having now?

After the experiences that led me to write Why White Feminists Need To Understand Ellen Pence’s 1982 Essay, I realised that conversations about diverse women’s experiences of oppression are still very much needed. “Why so? No, they’re not; we’re having conversations about this every day,” the white female advocate for women’s rights might say. The minority or brown one might roll her eyes, while the black one may side glance the group as she tries to work out why no one noticed that most talk of oppression (for her) has been focused on the men in her community.

After my interaction with the feminist who was the main inspiration for my story, I thought of my mum’s experience. She was around for the the second, third, and fourth wave of feminism up to a few years ago. For Mum, it was the second wave (1963–1980) that impacted her the most. As a working, married woman, and also an immigrant from the Caribbean islands to the UK (she was referred to as a Third World Woman back then), intersectional oppression and discrimination in the world of work and generally in life held her back — via both gender and race. It wasn’t just the racial oppression that my father as an immigrant from the islands may have experienced that impacted her quality of life, or was key to women like her. Or me for that matter, all these years later.

As a working, married woman, and also an immigrant from the Caribbean islands to the UK… intersectional oppression and discrimination in the world of work and generally in life held her back — via both gender and race.

I started to think about how racism is learned, and how that has/can cause exclusion and lack of recognition of black, brown, and minority women in a women’s movement. Some might say, “That’s the past history of feminism.” Yes, that’s true. But that said, we’re in 2023 and based on some of my interactions, and maybe yours, there can at times still be a block in communication between women of different races around their experiences of oppression. I had a comment on my last essay that stuck with me: “We’re all women, let’s unite there first.”

Finishing the conversation could help us to do that.

Let’s Look At How Racism Is Learned

What would you say if I told you that three-year-old white children are likely to choose any race of child to befriend. But by the time they reach age four or five, they are more likely to choose a child of the same race. This is according to a study done in 2023 by the American Psychological Association cited in their report on raising anti-racist children. The psychologists there were researching how children become aware of race, then go on to be a racist themselves as adults, and how that can be prevented. They found that:

“Racism is learned early on in development, and children receive many messages about race and racism from a young age.”

So it’s a learned behaviour, not necessarily just due to a person’s environment. Meaning that, “I never grew up around people of different races” is not a logical argument for racism, since studies have shown that toddlers aren’t inherently racist; it is learned behaviour.

The study also stated:

“We learn racism very easily through our society,” said Sarah Gaither, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. “But we are malleable. No one is born racist.”

Racism is a learned behaviour, not necessarily just due to a person’s environment. Meaning that, “I never grew up around people of different races” is not a logical argument for racism.

If racism is learned through society, it would be reasonable to conclude that society has to change in order to unlearn racism. And if the women in the fourth wave of the women’s movement are advocating for women’s rights, and for the lifting of other and all kinds of oppression, then they especially need to unlearn this.

The Quiet Part Out Loud: The Impact of Racism

If we look at the impact this learned behaviour can have on black, brown, or minority children, who go on to live adult lives having internalised their experiences of learned racism, we understand the magnitude of the problem. The sociologist and psychologist Kenneth. B. Clark and Mammie Clark, in their study Racial Identification and Preference In Negro Children(1947) conducted tests on a sample of two hundred and fifty three children aged three to seven who would have been identified as “negro” at the time.

After giving them a set of dolls, one black and one white, the children were asked, ‘what doll would you like to play with?’

• One hundred and sixty nine of them (67%) requested the white doll.

When asked, ‘who is the nice doll?’

• One hundred and fifty of them (59%) responded the white doll.

When asked, ‘who is the bad doll?

• One hundred and forty nine (roughly 59%) responded the black doll.

When asked, ‘who has a nice colour?’

• One hundred and sixty one (60%) of them responded the white doll.

As shown in table five on the link above, more than fifty percent of the children preferred a doll that did not look like them, or thought it was better. What’s also interesting from table six is that as the children got older, they were more likely to respond more positively to the white doll, than the black or “coloured” one. So their internalised racism only got worse with age.

Next, the Clarks broke down their analysis based on the skin tones of the “negro children” they classed as “light, medium, and dark.” They found the darker the child, the more likely they would respond better to the white doll. What the Clarks concluded from their social study into the racial perception of black children — including preferences, identification, and awareness in children aged three to seven years old — was that racial oppression, negative treatment, and/or exclusion had a significant impact on black children from a young age. Clearly this internalised racism would stay with them into adulthood. This study was the foundational research that went on to help end segregation in schools in the USA; the legal battle cited the work of the Clarks. Dr. Clark went on to say in an interview about the civil rights movement that:

“The Dolls Test was an attempt on the part of my wife and me to study the development of the sense of self-esteem in children.”

The Unfinished Conversation, You Ready?

So how does all this relate to intersectionality in 2023, when race meets the fight for women’s rights, meaning all women? Based on the data shown, the history of feminism, and social studies on the damage racism can do, it could be suggested that people advocating for lifting women’s oppression need to unlearn past behaviours. And these behaviours might go all the way back to childhood, as the sociologists Kenneth and Mammie Clark found. This process of unlearning racism could be suggested for white, black, and minority women — all of us. And this unlearning needs to happen for intersectional fourth wave feminism to occur.

While it is clear what kind of unlearning the traditional “gatekeepers” of the women’s movement need to do, for black, brown, and minority women, it might not seem as clear. If the white advocate unlearns her bias against and ignorance towards darker women’s struggles, then the black, brown, or minority woman must unlearn her feeling of “I’m not worthy or should not take part and talk about how I am oppressed by the men in my community, or in any other way.” Because trust me, you should! Collectively there still needs to be some deep reflection done.

This process of unlearning racism could be suggested for white, black, and minority women — all of us. And this unlearning needs to happen for intersectional fourth wave feminism to occur.

Fourth Wave Feminism

Today in the fourth wave of feminism, we have the Internet as a tool to collectively do this. For an example of how this could look, on the 4th of April 1979, the four black women who founded the Combahee River Collective, whom I spoke about in Is The CRC’s Approach To Fighting For Black And Brown Women’s Right’s Needed Today, started to meet with white “mainstream” feminists. They did what they called “consciousness raising” to integrate black, brown, and minority women into the mainstream white women’s feminist movement. (They used the term “Third World Women” and meant women who are impacted by oppression internationally also.) The full details can be found in the essay Face-to-Face, Day-to-Day Racism Consciousness Raising (1979), which is in second edition of All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Were Brave (1982).

The purpose of the collective gathering of women was to discuss openly things that related to race, class, views, and experiences, to gain an understanding of the intersection black, brown, and minority women face as women when it comes to also being a racial minority, and/or of a lower class.

How well this went over with the mainstream white feminists is another story, Ellen Pence ( 1948–2012) gave her reflections on her experience as a white woman in her essay, Race — A White Issue (1982), which I have broken down in Why White Feminists Need To Understand Ellen Pence’s 1982 Essay (2023). But today, there is a chance to revisit “consciousness raising” from the comfort of your own sofa! We have the Internet and while there are writers speaking on intersectionality in limited venues, this is a chance for us all to participate. It’s also a chance for those who have not really, truly, and honestly looked at the history of white mainstream feminism to learn how black, brown, and minority women have had to fight against it as another form of oppression. This knowledge is necessary for the fourth wave to work.

Regardless of your racial identity, consider this:

• What do you think oppression looks like for the women who do not look like you?
• Could you name one way you think a woman from a different racial or cultural background is oppressed by the men in her community?
• How do you think in today’s society discrimination, exclusion, or marginalisation happens on a day-to-day basis for women who do not look like you?
• When, where, or how did you become aware of racism?
• What was your first experience or realisation of racism?
• What has your experience been of integration with other races?
• Have you ever had any bias or negative opinions about women or people of other races? Why and how? Where and when did this start?
• What did you learn from your parents/primary carer as a child or teenager about other races?

Part of the consciousness raising the four women did with mainstream white feminists looked a little like this: an open discussion and reflection so that they could share experiences. In the essay written by Tia Cross, Freda Kelin, Barbra and Beverley Smith, they share the questions they actually discussed in the meetings. Regardless of what was said and asked in 1979, the approach is what’s needed today, and more of it, if we are to get anywhere and intersectionality is to really work.

Consider the above points seriously; share with the community in the comments if you wish your reflections, responses, and views on the above points. Talk to your fellow women’s right’s advocates about what women who do not look like you (regardless of your racial identity) face. Women from black and minority backgrounds should also feel welcomed and free to express their experiences, views, needs, and wants when it comes to oppression without being shut down.

When race meets feminism, different conversations are needed; unlearning and learning are both necessary; and we must finish that unfinished conversation if we are to get anywhere.

Thanks for your readership, I hope my writing gave you something to think about. If I’ve caught you in a good mood or you’re feeling kind, you can buy me a coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MeAndMyMuse

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Further reading