#Solidarityisforwhitewomen and the White American Identity

One of the concepts that struck me most in the Omi & Winant reading was the idea of racial dictatorship in the U.S. and what consequences it has had. The first of three consequences was that it "defined 'American' identity as white, as the negation of racialized 'otherness'" and thus created hegemonic rule in the U.S. ("Racial Formation" 66). This reminded me of a recent event in the feminist blogosphere, when the hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen took over Twitter. Inspired by backlash against white feminists support of Hugo Schwyzer, a white male blogger who had marginalized and targeted women of color, the hashtag quickly came to reflect a larger lack of inclusion in the feminist movement. Despite its efforts for equality, white feminists have often been blinded by their privilege to the existence of this "racial dictatorship" and its effects. For example, one tweet called out the hypocrisy of a NY Times article titled "The New Shades of Feminism" featuring a large picture of the four very white stars of the hit show "Girls." #Solidarityisforwhitewomen was primarily as a response challenging this "otherness" and force white feminists to recognize how the movement has failed to include women of color.

The calling out of this false solidarity also reflects that "racial dictatorship organized ... the 'color line' rendering it the fundamental division in U.S. society" ("Racial Formation" 66). Though Omi & Winant credit the feminist movement for helping their thinking about intersectionality in "Racial Formation Rules," it is clear that the feminist movement needs to continue to challenge itself to overcome this "color line." Even in the aftermath of the hashtag trending, NPR did a roundtable discussion about it to which they invited a well known white feminist rather than the black feminist who started the hashtag to provide an expert opinion. Reflecting on the example from "Racial Formation" of the white students who see acknowledging race as racist, and thus support the color blind approach, compared to the black students who understand racism as a system of power, it seems that this color blind approach may be part of the problem with white feminism. Feminists of color used Twitter to call out this privilege.

(On a related note, this article builds off our conversation in class yesterday about how the census considers race and ethnicity differently: "What It's Like to be a White Woman of Color".