[Feminist work] risks being undone [by] young white privileged women who strive to create a narrative of feminism that recenters the experience of materially privileged white females in ways that deny race and class difference.
—bell hooks, Outlaw Culture (via humanformat)
(Source: newwavefeminism, via mehreenkasana)
This is a conversation that took centuries to begin.
I want the West to understand that my women and men and I will not adhere to every single idea stated from that corner of the world concerning emancipation and progress. I know the men of my culture have committed extreme acts of brutality against their women but it makes you no good when your ancestry points to lineages and more lineages of colonizers who tortured and enslaved both men and women of my culture. I am a feminist but consider the ineffectiveness of a title when sub-titles are added for further clarification, explanation and validation. When I speak on public radio or show up on TV, I have to explain my identity: A multi-cultural, anti-racist, Muslim feminist. Sub-titles are created when the primary title fails to encompass other identities, other voices. This is also why I have no issue with women of color creating their own movements like South Asian Women Equality, Womanism, Muslim Gender Equality, Racial and Gender Liberation, so on and so forth.
So stop forcing me to believe you have purged yourself of racism, of cashing in on my experience and history. Stop telling me feminism is “perfect.” Stop telling me you’re here to “help” and “save” me and my sisters. The only person you need to save is yourself before you turn into a subtle instance of yet another colonizer.
But there are moments when I realize how much a product of the West I am. Should that frighten me? Or should I remain confused? I drank tea this past week with a few old friends, and realized how little one of them knew of her privileges as a white woman. And then I realized, how little do I know of mine?
