The Charleston Imperative: Why Feminism and Antiracism Must Be Linked
The Charleston Imperative: Why Feminism and Antiracism Must Be Linked
This petition letter was reprinted with permission from the African American Policy Forum. Read the original here.
As we grieve for the nine African Americans who were murdered in their house of worship on June 17, those of us who answer the call of feminism and antiracism must confront anew how the evils of racism and patriarchy continue to endanger all black bodies, regardless of gender.
As antiracists, we know that the struggle against racial terror is older than the Republic itself. In particular we remember the work of Ida B. Wells, who risked everything to debunk the lies of lynchers over 100 years ago. Today, we see that fierce determination in Bree Newsome, who scaled the 30-foot flagpole at the South Carolina state Capitol and brought down the Confederate flag. As feminists, we recognize how racism has been—and is still—gendered. Patriarchy continues to be foundational to racial terrorism in the U.S., both in specious claims that justify the torture of black men in defense of white womanhood, and in its brutal treatment of black women and girls. We also recognize that while patriarchy and racism are clearly intertwined, all too often, our struggles against them are not.
If the reaction to the Charleston massacre is to be realized as something beyond a singular moment of redemptive mourning, then neither the intersectional dynamics of racism and patriarchy—which produced this hateful crime—nor the inept rhetorical politics that sustain the separation of feminism from antiracism, can be allowed to continue.
As antiracist feminists of every color, we refute the patriarchal, racist practices that endanger black people across the nation. In so doing, we also insist that the extremism of South Carolina shooter Dylann Roof’s declaration that black people “must go” because they are “taking over our country” and “raping our women” should not obscure how anti-black racial logics are embedded in the routine decisions made by millions of people every day. Decisions about where to live, how to identify a “safe neighborhood” or a “good school,” whom to police, and to whom police are to be accountable, also rest on a long-standing demonization of black bodies. These choices, grounded in ideologies of black threat, frame separation from blackness as a rational choice. The narratives that routinely diminish the life chances of African Americans are not yesterday’s problems. Roof was born in 1994, yet murdered nine black people having thoroughly consumed narratives that continue to denigrate black people over half a century after the supposed fall of white supremacy. The continued assault on black churches—several which have been burned to the ground since the Charleston Massacre—tells us that even the most extreme expressions of this denigration are not isolated.
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/07/14/the-charleston-imperative-why-feminism-and-antiracism-must-be-linked/
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