Main Post February 9

Audre Lorde argues that the feminist movement has ignored their greatest strength by not embracing the diversity within the masses of women that share the struggles of patriarchy. She thinks that it has been a mistake (and at some points she makes it sound like a strategy thought up by some international governing board of patriarchy) to teach people that everyone is the same, or that race does not exist and should be ignored. Ignoring race, in Lorde’s opinion, is ignoring the benefits of diversity of experience and creativity. Her article takes on a strong “us versus them” attitude toward the end; she claims that contemporary society’s encouragement of women to educate men (about the female situation) is a distraction tactic used by all oppressors. She also argues that this same “tactic” has been used to put distance between white feminism and women of color or poor women. I find this idea to be particularly confusing because that seems to be exactly what Lorde is doing by expressing this frustration at the conference she is speaking about. I think she has some strong points in that understanding and embracing difference should come naturally to the feminist movement and serve to strengthen it. However, I think Lorde’s emotions complicate her outlook and weaken her ideas, at least as they are articulated in this article.

Peggy McIntosh discusses white privilege as it compares to male privilege and the ways that society has prevented people with these privileges from acknowledging their unearned advantages, even if they recognize the disadvantage of others. As a white, Christian male in America, I have no problem admitting to being fully aware of the many advantages that I did not earn. I can (or will, in the future) identify with every advantage that McIntosh lists and more. Reading this article, I couldn’t help but think of Louis CK’s stand up act on being white (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY).

I don’t think it comes as a surprise that people who are in a power position (whites and males) are reluctant to relinquish that power, regardless of their lack of merit or even their willingness to help others. And I don’t think McIntosh does a particularly good job of showing how relinquishing that power is necessary, or how it will help to make significant change for the better. Granted, big things can be done when people in power use that power to support those that are oppressed. And granted, an understanding of one’s unearned privilege can only broaden your mind and open you to a better understanding of self and society. But McIntosh seems to be arguing that we (males and whites) need to give up that power in order to achieve equality…I think it’s more productive to use that power to promote a broader sharing of these privileges.

I think of it in a way reminiscent of “Good Will Hunting,” the film with Matt Damon, Ben Afflec, and Robin Williams. People are all born into life with no more merit than anyone else, but some are born with extra, albeit unfair, privileges (Will Hunting’s is a prolific gift with numbers). Usually, these advantages are non-transferable. So refusing an opportunity such as a powerful job or any other measure of success does not help another individual or group, it only hurts you. And, Ben Afflec’s character would argue that because he works hard hoping for a similar opportunity, turning it down is just a waste and an insult (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOfFkVCdLQo&feature=related). It’s a strange example, and I understand it is different with race and sex, but I think the message is, in some ways, similar. McIntosh makes a serious, and entirely justified attack on the idea of American Dream. Our society is not merit based, but if people began turning down opportunities, I don’t think it would become any more merit based.

The Black Feminist Statement by the Combahee River Collective is an articulation of black feminist’s position in society and their goals to change it. The article pointed out a few strong points about this demographic that I had not considered (because, like McIntosh says, I have the privilege of not being forced to). This collective of black feminists and lesbians assumes that society views them as the lowest of the social movements. Basically, they acknowledge that to liberate black women means to live in a nearly completely equalized world. The struggles they face are complicated because the nature of their multiple identities (as both a racial minority and women) causes them to occasionally compete with or conflict with one another. This is yet another worry that white women do not have. Black women must have solidarity with black men in their fight for racial equality, but they are constantly aware of their female identity and struggling to see change in the entire society including black men. I think it is a wise choice for this group to encourage the “personal as political” because with so many identities struggling for recognition and equality, it is difficult to have a single agenda. They discuss how they must do what the white women’s feminist movement has failed to do by embracing the marginalized and a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds in order to find the crux of how oppression manifests itself toward their multiple identities simultaneously.