Rosamund's Reviews > Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot

I was expecting a 5-star book, but ended up underwhelmed. I didn't gel with the writing style. I also think it would have worked better as an anthology featuring Black writers of varying perspectives, i.e. who are actually also trans or disabled or sex workers, exploring how issues brought to light in their own experiences uphold white supremacy in mainstream feminism. Instead, much of it felt like just "telling"; fleshing out statistics and iterating over viral incidents of racial injustice.

Still, I highlighted quite a few moments that gave me much to think about for my own intersectional feminist practice:

'There's nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren't going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community.'

'The idea that poor white people are morally and socially inept, too ignorant to be a part of the wider world, excuses them from the racist systems that they lack the access to create even when they benefit from them. It's that internal oppression that whiteness enacts on itself that helps create a narrative that the world is out to get working-class white people — and that people of color are specifically at fault for their problems.'

'Why is it that we're more inclined to create programs to combat obesity than ones that meaningfully address hunger? Proponents of things like a soda tax hold their plans up proudly, but never talk about why soda is such a staple in homes where food insecurity is a problem.'

'Mainstream feminist engagement with beauty culture often centers on the male gaze and its impact, but that's not the only toxic component. The ways that being white, cis, slim, and able-bodied are valorized must also be addressed.'

'The same fear of the hood that prevents mainstream feminism from entering it without gentrifying it also contributes to the idea that no one needs to care about the scary angry women who live there, unless they can be useful.'

'There's a blithe assumption that low voter turnout is about laziness or a lack of information or motivation. It almost never comes up in political discourse during an election cycle that for those living in decaying neighborhoods, the years of neglect have let the impression that party doesn't matter, that no politician cares enough to try to stem the tide.'

'Despite the idea of freedom and equality for all being a significant part of American ideals, in execution American society relies on anti-Blackness and inequality. After all, despite the significant overlap between activists involved in abolitionism and women's rights, the history of the women's suffrage movement includes a clear goal of maintaining white supremacy by giving white women equal power with white men.'

'The problem was that the theoretically leftist supporters of Sanders felt comfortable calling Black and Brown voters "low-information" for not supporting their preferred candidate.'

'While abortion is seen as a feminist issue, access to healthcare is not necessarily framed that way. Reproductive justice needs to be reframed to include the entire spectrum of choices surrounding every stage of women's health, reproductive and otherwise. [...] It rightfully focuses on preserving the right to choose, but too often advocates center on access to contraception at the expense of communities that are still facing other obstacles. True reproductive justice involves not only access to affordable birth control, abortion, and healthcare, but also providing access to those who are imprisoned, who are in immigration detention centers, who are seen as unworthy of controlling their own lives for a variety of reasons.'

'When a presidential candidate seriously intimates that Mexican immigrants are rapists, and a white feminist comedian makes jokes along those same lines, what's the difference in social impact? Yes, that candidate might promise to make a bunch of laws and build a wall, but the one who makes it sound less racist is the white feminist who normalizes that kind of rhetoric by undermining the seriousness of the racism inherent in it.'

'We find mainstream feminism hunkered down in the Hipster Mommy Wars, where at best the discussion is about the guilt you might feel for leaving your child with a nanny while you go to work. A long, navel-gazing paragraph about the guilt you might feel for not being feminist enough because you choose to stay home might be personally satisfying, but what does it do for marginalized parents?'

'We must understand that any feminist work done in public is supported by the under-recognized, feminized work done by caregivers, sex workers, clerks, and cleaners.'