Hey, sis.

I have no proof, but my take, as a black woman who lives in a very white area, is it is to ensure women do not unite and take over. If they can ensure we don't identify as a single voice, women, they can tear us apart so much easier. I've got so much more in common with every white woman, than I do with any man.

I absolutely think it is driven by men taking over women's spaces and programs. Have women attack each other, and sit back and smirk.

I realize this is a simplistic, unnuanced response, but I am not an academic, thank heavens.

They target white women because that is where the resources and wealth is (in America & Europe). It's very intentional, and it's meant to separate the movement from those who are best able to fund it.

If we combined the numbers of Black, Latina, and White women with the wealth that is held by upper-class white women, then feminism would be a much more formidable movement.

Look at how the tide is starting to turn just thanks to a single wealthy woman (JKR). Imagine if we had more support from the wealthy corporate heiresses, or from rich celebrities here. Maybe we should focus more on reaching out to prospective financial backers, or to women who are 'un-cancellable.'

Probably when the Intersectionality framework got bastardized into the Oppression Olympics stick. After white men took their beating, they learned the lingo and turned it around on white women. Who then picked up the stick and started gladly self flagellating.

I think another reason why this is so widespread is that white women feed into this. Non-feminist women do not believe in sexism, and liberal women will self deprecate until they transition (and don't believe in sexism either). The amount of white women who believes in sexism / her oppression enough to challenge the dismissals seem to be limited to this site and a handful of others.

EDIT: I also want to point out that it's not like the oppression of non-white women are taken any more seriously. I see WoC being furious about things that affect them, writing articles and thinkpieces and analysis, and then getting a "Yass Queen" and a pat on the head for being so validly oppressed. Please, come to our corporate offices to educate all our employees. No, we won't more than 3 black women outside of the Diversity and Inclusion team.

I wonder if it doesn't also have something to do (at least these days) with men just having to publically hate on someone, but right now you can't fly the woke banner and publically hate on non-white women. If you do, then obviously said men are now racists, so the only group left to hate, is white women.

It might also have something to do with the fact that white men see white women as theirs, to shit on as pleased. Black women belong to black men, Latina women to Latino men, and all that. Men who see other men as worthy opponents (or whatever) don't hurt that worthy opponents' women, just their own. Kind of like a wife beater. A wife beater will often be an absolute gentleman towards his best friend's wife, but then go home and beat the living daylights out of his own wife.

I'm trying to remember, there was this old book with an excerpt along the lines of "white women being the 'default' women, and therefore the abuse hurtled at them is the 'pure' misogyny misogynists feel for all women" or some such. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

I’m sorry I don’t have any sources or know the history here. I do think I can list the main reasons why some people think this way and also argue why it isn’t so simple as the oppressed-oppressor dichotomy makes it out to be -

1. Statistically being a black man is much more dangerous than being a white woman, black men are assaulted / killed at much higher rates. However all men including white men are assaulted and killed at higher rates because men also commit assault and violence at much higher rates than women. That doesn’t make men more socially oppressed than women.

2. Some white women have wrongly accused black men of sexual assault which has lead to the incarceration / assault / murder of innocent black men. These incidents are horrific, but does it point to greater institutional power? Although the vast majority of sexual assaults and assaults in general are not inter-racial, the majority of rapes go unreported and un-convicted. Women aren’t believed most of the time when detailing sexual assault, the fact that occasionally they are because of racism doesn’t point to systemic privilege of white women as much as it just points to systemic anti-black racism prevalent in the US.

3. In the US more black men are living in poverty than white women. But then more white women are living in poverty than Asian women, and that doesn’t mean we rank Asian women as ‘less oppressed’ than white women as we recognise that oppression and discrimination isn’t purely income-based.

The way I see it, black men face unique challenges that white women don’t face and vice versa. We should be able to hold space to talk about different societal oppressions without feeling the need to rank them but a lot of people feel the need to do this especially now the internet killed nuance and being polemical about this kind of stuff online often translates into social capital. Sorry this isn’t really giving any useful info just my thoughts on the subject !

I have nothing insightful to add but this is an interesting topic. I think this article is related enough to warrant a repost. I'm also a Black woman and I've noticed all the things you have. You're not crazy.