I have a lot of activists on my friends list who care about natural birth, breastfeeding rights, and ending circumcision. I generally refer to these folks as my birthy friends. Theres a lot of you and thats great. But I also notice these movements are overwhelmingly white, and many of you stay silent when it comes to the other issues. How can you claim to want to shift the cultural paradigm about natural birth, for example, if you are unwilling to take note of how racist medical practices routinely single out women of color for unnecessary Cesareans? You cannot truly be committed to the idea of natural birth for all women if you are not willing to acknowledge how structural racism makes such an option virtually impossible for women who arent white. How can you claim to be dedicated to raising awareness about breastfeeding hurdles if you never speak a word about the racial conditioning that leaves the world believing black women dont breastfeed in the first place? Intersectionality is not just something bored Feminists invented to demand inclusion; its something which has to exist in every movement for true social progression. Otherwise, you are not actually interested in securing the rights of your cause for all women, because you are deliberately and willfully ignoring the dynamics which have made your cause inaccessible to all women the first place. Yes, we white women have problems to contend with too, but Feminism has been working for us for a couple of decades now, and its our turn to give back to the groups who helped get us here with half the recognition and none of the rights.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 17:55:08 +0000
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