Whose Reconciliation?

 It is rare that I have the time to draw, so I am really appreciating that this course is giving me the opportunity to engage in thought-provoking material and process it through art. As a white woman, readings like today's can be a tough pill to swallow. It is easy to praise the white feminists of the past and to follow their mindset. It is easy to believe that we need a female president and more female CEO's, but hood feminism points out that that type of thinking leaves out entire demographics of people. White women in America and, like our readings showcase, all around the world have been silencing WOC for the sake of their activism. They put their desires for advancement above the WOC's beg and plead for survival. I loved how in the Hood Feminism reading she pointed out that she is not a strong Black woman and how harmful that stereotype is. My roommate is a Black woman and we were talking about Disney princesses the other day. She was talking about how for a lot of white feminists, feminism means denouncing a lot of femininity and not being afraid to stand up for ourselves and take on roles of power. Whereas for her, feminism looks like embracing her femininity, because Black women are seldom portrayed as dainty or sweet or feminine. She even pointed out how Disney princesses who are POC all have to face racism and huge oppressions or struggles. She made the joke that sleeping beauty just got to be pretty and sleep and that as backward as it may sound part of her desires that. She wants a guilty pleasure where a character like her just gets to be a woman and embrace their femininity. But white feminists would silence this desire by calling for female empowerment and a character that has no love and overcomes grave obstacles. It was an interesting conversation and this reading helped me better understand and process it. As a white woman, I liked how she pointed out the bootstraps method is stupid and what we need to do is look back and help the people below us until we have a chain. It reminded me of a Rupi Kaur poem that I want to share with you all:

“I stand

on the sacrifices

of a million women before me

thinking

what can I do

to make this mountain taller

so the women after me

can see farther"