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Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption
Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption | Rafia Zakaria
2 posts | 3 read | 5 to read
Upper-middle-class white women have long been heralded as "experts" on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority. An American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism in Against White Feminism, centering women of color in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism's global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals.Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist savior complex and "the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West" to the condescension of the white feminist-led "aid industrial complex" and the conflation of sexual liberation as the "sum total of empowerment," Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberl Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this staggering, radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront.
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steph_phanie
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book has a lot to unpack and I wish I was in a class or discussion group to truly work through everything. I developed a lengthy list of further reading as well as names and topics to look up.

Overall, I very much appreciated this work. After reading it I realized that many of the critical reviews seem to have come from people who didn't pay attention to it in detail. 🧐

Bonus: it pairs well with the book I started next!

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steph_phanie
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I'm using a pencil a lot with this one - to mark significant passages and new-to-me information, to note sections that recall the work of Audre Lorde and others, and to point out parallels to current events. It's like a discussion with myself.

Some of this is bringing me back to the Eugenic Feminism paper I wrote for Social Movements class in college. That was one of first times I discovered for myself the editing of history.