If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve seen most of these. For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter1, I highly recommend reading the following, if you haven’t already (most are not recent posts):
Feminist Parenting: Teaching History
I’ve never had any thought of telling her about [Elizabeth Cady] Stanton thru rose colored glasses. Far from it. I guess I didn’t think she’d bring up the equality question. But I should have known better.
Anti-racist parenting: It’s for everyone
Now, I have several anti-racist parenting allies who are the white parents of white children, but far more of my white friends and acquaintances see racism mainly as a function of the past. … They “don’t see color” and neither, they insist, will their children.
White Noise: White adults raising white children to resist white supremacy Long, but worth it. The comment thread is illuminating too.
Thandeka in her book, “Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America,” states that the first act of child abuse directed towards all white children is that the minute they come out of the womb, they are being taught to be racist. So the game has already started, whether or not we ever directly address race and whiteness in our family.
The last two are not explicitly parenting-related, but are nevertheless important for those of us tempted (by virtue of our whiteness) to consider oppression “only” through gender — which really means through gender and whiteness:
What’s great about how our beauty oppression operates is white women can still feel like feminists when they engage in hand wringing about their looks being picked apart by men without once having to examine their race privilege or acknowledge the way in which their status as highly valued hurts and oppresses marginalized women.
What If Black Women Were White Women?
What if suddenly, instantly, the power of white femininity were transferred to black women?
The answer is clear: Black women would represent value, purity; and based on their natural traits would be worthy of protection and instantly become the objects of universal desire. White women would represent the opposite.
“Beauty tar potion” would become globally popular to get the “black look.” “Dove” would be replaced with a black soap called “Raven” to help exfoliate the skin and bring out subtle hints of melanin.
I have posts bubbling away in the back of my brain — threatening to boil over if not attended to soon — but at this moment, I am out of fuel to address them adequately. Tomorrow, though: watch this space!
- Why on Earth not? You’re missing out on so much, like play-by-plays of Doctor Who, what I wore to the re-release of the Star Wars Trilogies – a black cloak and “Vader’s Lover” scrawled on my cheek — and endless urgings to go vote for Lesbian/Bisexual Woman of the Decade. By the way: go vote. Yes, again. ↩
Thanks for the links. “Don’t see color” is code for “examining my own privilege is really hard work and I don’t wanna do it.” It IS hard work, but we GOTTA do it.
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