It can be said that Laura Smith made a generalization in saying that racism and white supremacy are most commonly associated with men in her article, "The Truth about Women and White Supremacy," however, I believe that she was safe in making this claim. Growing up, the classroom lecture on slavery and segregation was always focused on the black man vs. the white man. Whether it was from a textbook or a history lesson from a teacher, as I can remember the discussion of this topic was always quick and surface level. We strayed away from digging deeper into the alternate conflicts and relationships that existed during and prior to the civil rights movement, and in return lost out on a great deal of knowledge because of it. I attended a predominantly white school and lived in a predominately white town, with very little diversity, and this makes me question if the lack of I depth discussion of this topic was out of an existence of white fragility. Because of this, Smith's article served as a reminder to me of the fact that the roots of this strife did reach much further then just white man vs. black man feud. She did this with her recognition of the role that women played in all of it.
      Focusing on the theme that, "Racist ideologies are nurtured in communities -not in isolation- and woven into a society's very fabric," she used examples of women participating in white supremacist groups to reinforce the fact that despite the significant existence of patriarchy and despite the common association with men, women did in fact generate a great deal of xenophobia and white supremacy on their own as well. More importantly though, together, the white men and women made up the communities in which racist ideologies not only existed, but dominated.
      Keeping towards the same subject matter of white supremacy, Karen L. Cox composed an article on the continuation of white supremacy, almost as a fast forward a few decades into the future from the timeframe discussed by Smith. In her article, Cox touches on the current issues regarding Confederate monuments. White supremacy is a major issue in our nation, and has been such for far too long. Those who are defending these monuments are "more invested in mythology that has attached itself to these sentinels of white supremacy, because it serves their cause" (Cox 1). Supremacy has changed over the time, but its existence has not. I firmly believe that until it is truly addressed, and fragility is overcome, our nation will struggle and unity will be impossible.
     

Comments

  1. MESSeptember 13, 2017 at 10:03 AM

    Remember your name so I can give you credit! You raise useful points here about why we might not learn these histories. Might this also be another effect of our tendency to erase women from history?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Gaga Wave

Image
Halberstam talks about the shortcomings of feminist Susan Faludi during her speech at a panel discussion and brings up an important point: Faludi’s theory feminism was out of date and restricted. Faludi’s conception of feminism did not include any mention of queer challenges and Halberstam points out that she makes no distinction between class or race. Faludi’s restricted and incomplete view of feminism contributes to the oppression of a majority of the people in our society. However, this being said I don’t think it is progressive for feminism communities to condemn feminist theories if they do not agree. While I think it is important that Halberstam brings attention to the shortcomings in Faludi’s feminist theory, I also believe that Halberstam’s criticism is not always constructive. In order to be successful as a movement, all feminist communities and theorists have to come together and acknowledge each other’s differences, not force one regime of feminist theory and deem it as the
Read more

RAGE

Image
In my high school being a person of color meant you were a part of the majority. Being a black person meant you were the majority. In my high school it was rare to ever walk the halls and see a white male or female, staff included. However, since coming to this campus that's all I see. It's different and it makes me realize that even though I once felt like I was a part of a majority race that in actuality I am a minority. I feel like I was in a little bubble oblivious to all harms the world aimed at me. I understood racism still existed but it was hard to encounter in an area where everyone was a person of color. I used to think the main thing standing in the way of my equality was men. Coming to this campus popped my bubble. I learned that racism and racial hatred still is a huge problem in this country, more so than I thought. I learned that not only do women of color have to fight for rights equal to men but to fight for rights based on their race, as well. I come to r
Read more

Terror and Cultural Framing

Image
This piece of artwork of a toddler peering over the U.S-Mexico border was created by renowned French artist JR. This image means something different to each local, but above all it calls for attention that the locals exist as people and as one local said in a video about this piece of artwork: "hey look I exist and I'm not a terrorist".           We have to work as a nation to fight not only for women’s rights, but also human rights. It comes as no surprise that the militarization of the U.S-Mexico border is reinforced by violent tactics attempting to keep people from crossing as described in Falcon’s article. Those who do cross the border and are caught face beatings, harassment, sexual assault, and rape. Falcon’s connection to militarization with the need to dominate and control connects to Bunch’s article and the Bush administration’s desire to dominate and instill fear in other countries. This brute domination reminds me of the sexual assault documentary we rece
Read more