Black and White Feminism, a Post-Colonial Visión
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Black and White Feminism, a Post-Colonial Visión MiREILLE Hutchjson* ¡l^e ¿ave e/jo.Krt each olhcranH l/ie ed¿e of each other's ballki, tht ¡varis ihe ¡ame if we hse. Same daj women's bhod willangea! upan a tieadplanel if m win ¡¿en ¿s noUüag weseekb^ndhistoej Jbr o new and more postibk metliag Bctnice Joluison Reagon Abstract. This artickwill ana^^t ihe differtnces helwem the onefeminist theory? And, is diere a hopetowards a needs of all numen in the Nort/jandin ihe Soutb. lí mU United House? examine Üje exclusión of coloreá women in Westernfeminism, This árdele is situated in tlic perspective of tiie althoiigh not all-weslem mmen arewhite. ¡t will ana^sf tome Post-Colonial studies and will only try to point domination issues mtbin thefeminisl movement, its reasons, and ouf part of the deconstrucdng and reconstructing thepossibilities, Mtljin the conlext of Post Colonial Slndies. process regarding riie issue of a new paradigm in die context of a possible global feminism. InCroductioo I. Development The Post Colonia] literature had clearly two schools of thoughts or rwo distinct theories regardingmost studied ChandraMolíantysuggests that the first project is topics, since history seems to have drown differences in oneof deconstructingand dismantíing, diesecond the Black and Wltite communities, and time has not one of building and constructing and hopefully necessanlybeen the best factor to narrow this gap. uniting- These two projeccs appear to be contra- The available feminist literature is not exempted from dictory but unless weaddcess diemsimultaneously, these two distinct theones ortwo schools of tliou^ts, that Tliird Worid feminism run the riskof maiginaliza- is related to the Black feminism and to tlie White feminism. tion or ghetroization from botli right and left and Why? Is their histotyso different and canone speakabout from Western feminist disecarse. what one dees not know? Can one speak for a group or Arun Mukherjee reckons that groups of women just for one person? Is diere a real reason or excuse to who identify diemselves as women of Color, have ignored one ancther or dominated a group as in the Native women, Third Worid women, African case of American feminism? American women and Black women attacked At the IV Forum on Women, in Beijing, China, 1995, tlieoretical constructions of theWhiteAmglo-American and tfie discussions and panels were divided into geographic, White Frencli feminist theory as being imperialist, racist, historical or cultural groups ratlier than themes! Should Eurocentric and exclusionary. However not all White this suggest ro us tiiat women from different regionshave feminists seem to be aware of tliis crisis of legitimization, differentneeds, representations and sources of oppression neither all Western feminists are white or middle ciass and domination therefore different concerns and strategies? ñor forgot the oppression caused by class or racism. Finally, in a Post-Colonialist period, are diere still die Therefore, tiiis arricie will onlyanalyses the differencesof colonized people and the privileged ones? Or can we die two categories of feminism, considering mainly class. considerdiatpeoplearenai-rowing thegapbetween women from the Third Worid and Western women, in order to readi * Vahersily of OlMwa, B-mnii mirei//e@aix¡.¡iól¡aiva.úi CiENCIA EROO SUM 249 racism and gender. Terms like women's oppression, almost be extended to a complete village like it is often representation of women, sexual differences or gender the case in Africa, is mostly unknown from White subjectivity raised the objections bywomen of color as an feminists, or at the most not conrpletely understood. exclusionary attention to middle-class White women. "...Black women as the least oppressive institution conrmonly experience the family; radrer, it functions as a II. White Feminism and Black Feminism site for shelter and resistance" (Stasiulis, 1991: 284). Another criticism from the Black feminists is the According to Stasiulis, the criticism of Wliite feminism concept of female financia! dependence on male wage by Black feminists is based on the experience of native earners, which they regard as racially and culturally bound. migrant, and racial minority women in the Canadian More often tiran VCdrite women they have had the solé context. These two labels are a sign of the diversity of responsibility for earning income and supporting class analysis and other social categorías. The omission dependants. In the West, women seem to be either of analysis of racism in feminist historiography and so workingoutside their honre, or to be so called modrers at cial science undermines their potential fot building home which is a temporary unpaid position, In many of política! solidarity. As, finally, in the opinión of tliewriter, dre Third World countries, women go outside to work tlie only possible solution and hope is to build política] whether or not they are mothers and regardless of the solidarity, after dismantling and getting discarding the number or age of dre children, in that sense the term histórica] prejudices. mothers at home does not apply in the context ñor their White feminism means mainiy Western feminists, culture. As M. Devault explains in her arricie on Talktng aitiiough not ah of them are white, who have ignored or andListeningfrom Women'sStandpoint, language can exelude undermined race and etlinicity in tiie social divisions and certain categories drerefore we have to use words with identities of tlie definition of Woman. Bycontrast Black greater imagination, in order to intégrate radrer than to feminism means a growing literature, everywhere, diat exelude. conveys and conceptualizes tire histórica] circumstances It may be considered a failure from the White feminists of Black women and other women ofcolor (Stasiulis, 1991: to define immigrarion and cirizenship as Women's issues. 282). The omission of women ofcolor from White feminist The imnrigration policies havehad a destructive influence analysis has in itself been regarded as reflective of tire racism in disallowing drepreservationof fanrily forms odrer thair and ethnic exclusively of the White women's movement. dre nuclear families. Although it is difficult to draw the PorMinh-Ha, thelabels of racial differences amongwomen line between serious problenrs due to heavy an inhuman such as Western, non-Western or Third Wbrld takes the bureaucracy and puré sexism. dominant group as reference, and they reflect strongly Aboriginalwomen in Cairadahave echoed many Black the ideology of dominance. So tire V(Tiite feminists may feminists by sayingdrat racism, rather dran sexism, is the have to come to terms with the complexities and primary source of oppression and drerefore that racism contradictions of powerrelations involving tire intersection comesfirst. Although in Cañada, likein manyodrerplaces, of gender,class,and race, while they might be at tire same aboriginal people,men and women, have been receiving time privileged and oppressed (Stasiulis, 1991: 283). It unfair treatments, and therefore it would not be correct seems to becontradictory, butithas been possible tobelong to assume drat all drose bad treatments, as often cirizens to a privileged class and to still be oppressed in another of secüird class, are necessary due to a sexist or racist category.Several White middle class women, well educated, policy. can relate to experiences of oppression while tliey accept These debates about race and class reflectone aspectof living in privileged conditions. drecrisis in Marxism, as it has focused on producrion and Black feminists have criticized the Wlrite feminists class relation. Debates among Marxistsand Marxists focus coming to generalizo all women from their experiences. on dre relationship between racism aird dre development They reject the claims to universality of the central of capitalism.The relationshipbetween raceand class,and categories and assumptions of Wlrite feministanalyses. between racism and capitalism has received in dre past Also Black feminists criticize tire treatmentof tire family many divergent answers. The new era of new social byWhitefeminists. The family andwomen's roles as wives developments provided finally drepolirical contextfor the and motlrers within it, are central to feminist theory. The development of Blackfeminism and feminism of women role of women as performing domestic labor, especially of Color. SinceDevelopment followed Colonization, and tire bearing and raisingof children is more problematic now Partrrership is replacingDevelopment, tire doorisopen for Black feminists and definitely culturally bound. The for a Nortir and Soudr dialogue and therefore for a new idea of family, and specially family at large,which could definition ofglobal feminism. 250 CIENCIA ERGO SUM Voi 5 NUHC Black and White Feminism PosT-CoLONiAL Visión III. Disconstructíng and Dismantling areas witli which they had no experience witli, tiieycame out looking only more racist (Muklterjee,1992: 168).The In tliis process of disconstructingand dismantling, severa! hierardiical patternof race and sexrelationship in American aspects have ro be assessed. The term WesUrnFeminist\\'M society merely took a differentformunder feminism, which come from the fact that many scholars have codified. has to be considered, I think, in this section ofdismantling Others as non-western and therefore themselves as process. NX'éstern. The term Coloni-::;ation\vAS> come to denote a variety The hierardiical pattern of race and sex relationship of phenomena in recent