White womyn's special brand of racism

So white people’s (including white women’s special brand of) racist fear of Black men - and womyn - and children is a mundane fact, carefully fueled and honed to thrive very deep within whites. A fear that basically goes unchecked in our society. Not just unchecked but enhanced, enlarged, treasured, perpetuated by every white individual as well as every institution we have as they ALL have been set up by racist white men to make sure they stay in power over the centuries no matter what. And to guarantee this is a land for white people.

Yes white womyn are willing pawns of that system UNLESS we work hard and consciously increase our awareness of this gross unjust inequality against and domination of people of color and, for goddesses sake, our awareness of this gigantic privilege bestowed on us do to the fact we happened to be born white.

Just because misogyny is the same ugly beast trying to crush womyn doesn't mean white womyn get to ignore this brother beast racism or get some kind of bloody pass on racism because we are suffering from sexism.

We know that oppression in meted out on a continuum in this society rich white males have set up and we have all ‘embraced’. As white womyn are oppressed by misogyny, Black womyn are oppressed by misogyny on steroids as racism gleefully joins in; strate womyn are oppressed by misogyny and racism, lesbians are oppressed by misogyny on triple steroids as homophobia joins in; yet white lesbians face misogyny and homophobia with all the privileges of racism not just to ‘soften’ the blows of oppression but to elevate our standing and employ us as (un)conscious tools of racial oppression. Divide and conquer - the bailiwick of capitalism.

And as oppression is handed out, so is privilege. As all males benefit from sexism, some males benefit much more than others. Strate people need to acknowledge their privilege, able-bodied people, rich people and so on and so on even as they also are targets of other oppressions.

White womyn can know these realities of oppression, these distinctions of privilege and still claim all the oppression due us without the knowledge and acknowledgement of our white privilege detracting from the impact of misogyny on us.

But most of all, when white womyn fight to know and acknowledge our white privilege, to understand and dismantle the brutal weapon of racism we (un)consciously brandish, then we are able to become the human beings created and formed outside of patriarchy. Furthermore we are able to become true sistars to womyn of color.

White womyn: we must ask ourselves do we want to keep carrying this legacy of racism infiltrating our lives making us party to oppressing others or do we want to do the work to truly become human enabling us to be sistars with womyn of color?  

It really is not really all that difficult and the reward is stunning.