What is white feminism and how does it harm women of colour?

Even though a lot has been written about white feminism over the past few years, it still seems to be viewed and (mis)understood as a loaded term, particularly by white women. I know I’ve had difficult conversations with people that elicit reactions of defensiveness or accusations of racism when talking about white feminism and its harms. But why? And what exactly is white feminism?

White or liberal feminism refers to a type of feminism that focuses exclusively on white middle class women and prioritises issues that primarily affect them. It’s also often referred to as "girlboss feminism" as the focus tends to be on equality and empowerment gained through capitalist means, for example, calling for an increase in the number of female CEOs and the growing "hustle culture" trend. It’s a feminism that prioritises achieving equality for white women, insisting that their equality will open up doors for all other women.

White feminism is also closely related to white fragility and the structure of innocence, where a person may feel a sense of discomfort or defensiveness when confronted with issues around racism. When viewing the world through the prism of white feminism, many women may not even be actively aware that the feminism they’ve subscribed to is exclusionary to so many others. However, to truly understand how and why white feminism is harmful, it’s necessary to break it down to its origins and how exactly it excludes whole communities of women.

Writer and academic Rachel Elizabeth Cargle describes white feminism as a "type of behaviour that rests under the guise of feminism only as long as it is comfortable, only as long it is personally rewarding, only as long as it keeps 'on brand.'" It’s an exclusionary feminism that does not consider the intersectionality of women, ignoring how misogyny intertwines with racism, Islamophobia, and ableism, for example. It assumes that white women experience misogyny in the same way all women experience misogyny. And that is simply not the case.

There are countless examples of white feminism in action – including in the days of the suffragette movement and fighting for (white) women to vote – but a notable example in recent years is the #MeToo movement. This was a movement that became headline news in Hollywood in 2017 after allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein began to emerge, but the prominent voices in this movement were famous, privileged white actors. And on top of this, #MeToo wasn’t even a new movement, it was actually started all the way back in 2006 by a Black woman named Tarana Burke – who was rarely mentioned in the conversation and wasn’t even included when the women of #MeToo were named TIME's person of the year.

The relationship between white feminism and white supremacy

Another hugely significant part of the structure and strategy of white feminism is its roots in white supremacy. Koa Beck, author of White Feminism, explains to Mashable how white supremacy is one of the main elements of white feminism, with both overlapping in viewing the experiences of white cis-women as the primary goal of feminism. "White feminism acts to homogenise feminism: to assert mainstream dominant feminism as The Feminism, which is not true; this is an act of white supremacy," says Beck. She goes on to say that "this dynamic often means that where the needs of women of colour, transgender women, disabled women, or Muslim women conflict with that of white supremacy, their needs will be dismissed or subjugated." And this is a dynamic that occurs both on a structural level and on a more individual basis: "the one Black woman in the ‘feminist’ meeting has her ideas dismissed because they are ‘too niche’ (i.e. only for non-white women)," Beck explains.

It’s a type of feminism that’s also closely intertwined with the white saviour complex. This is a common trope held by white people with the mindset that people of colour, or any group who is considered ‘non-white’, are submissive and helpless. They need white people to come into their world and save them. This is the central feature of the white saviour mentality, and it’s a mentality that has deep roots in colonialism. It is exactly how white colonisers framed their violent invasions of people’s lands, by claiming that these were barbaric and unintelligent peoples that didn’t know any better and needed to be taught how to live a more ‘civilised’ life. Civilised like the West. And so, through war and violence, the coloniser’s culture and lifestyle were imposed upon a huge proportion of the Global South. The white saviour mentality was used to justify the slave trade, as well as the countless Western nations that colonised vast areas of Africa, Asia, and South America for many centuries.

How does white feminism harm women of colour?

While white women do experience misogyny and oppression, they still benefit from the structures of white supremacy and wield more power than any other group of women. In Hood Feminism, Mikki Kendall explains how white feminists embolden a "feminism that could ignore police brutality killing women of colour, that could ignore the steady disenfranchisement and abuse in local and national politics of some women based on race and religion, wasn’t about equality or equity for all women; it was about benefiting white women at the expense of all others."

Women of colour are continuously harmed by white feminism, in a number of ways. If it’s tone policing, white women centring themselves in conversations, 'whitesplaining,' or them getting defensive around topics related to race – women of colour have to navigate these types of situations on a regular basis. In her book Innocent Subjects, independent feminist scholar and editor Terese Jonsson writes that "white feminists, generally committed to progressive politics and ending (gender) oppression, have a particularly deep investment in being ‘good’ white people" and their feminism is rooted in the connection between whiteness and innocence. And this white feminist innocence is "prioritised in order to maintain and legitimate the continued centring of white women within feminist movements."

White feminism doesn’t meet women of colour where they are, but expects them to "aspire to be seen" instead and "blames women of colour, queer women, incarcerated women, and poor women for not achieving certain 'feminist wins' (such as balancing motherhood with a career or home ownership) and doesn’t reconsider the structure that disenfranchises those who do not have lofty resources or capabilities." It’s a feminism that tells us that the issues that are important to us – which may include areas such as economic realities, access to childcare, affordable housing, and immigration policies – are not "'feminist enough' because the white feminist ideology doesn’t centre them," says Beck.

In White Tears Brown Scars, Ruby Hamad writes about how white women and their feminism uphold the structures of white supremacy, which can also be found in the context of Islamophobia. The banning of the hijab across several European countries or a world leader (such as Boris Johnson) making Islamophobic comments would likely have not happened without white feminism propping up the needed structures in law, policy, and institutional mindsets that allow it to happen with minimal public criticism or outrage. White feminist thinking provides the moral justification — through notions of equality and women’s rights — needed to implement discriminatory and violent practices that support white supremacy, whilst calling it a moral act that will help Muslim women.

Why the term ‘white feminism’ is not racist

As the author and activist, Françoise Verges, writes in A Decolonial Feminism, "White women do not like to be told they are white. To be white is to be constructed as being so ordinary, so devoid of characteristics, so normal, so meaningless that… it is practically impossible to make a white woman recognize that she is white."

But an important thing to note about the term ‘white feminism’ is that it’s not referring to a particular group of people but rather acknowledges a particular system and ideology in place in the world of feminism. Beck tells Mashable that she’s faced her work and writing being dubbed ‘racist’ by some critics but says that white feminism can be "practised and asserted by anyone regardless of their racial identity. I cite a number of women of colour in my book who demonstrate white feminist politics. Having said that, I intentionally chose the term ‘white feminism’ for my argument because this is an approach to gender equality that ultimately asks you to aspire to whiteness and not equal rights."

And so, the more we can all break it down and understand the ins and outs of white feminism and the harms it can cause to so many communities, the more we can focus our energies on women’s liberation as a collective that prioritises care and compassion for all.

You can support Shahed Ezaydi’s book The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women through Unbound.