Reddit reviews Women, Race, & Class

Each wave of feminism thus far has been slow to recognize the impact of class structures on women's lives. This is not a new problem. Scholars were lamenting this lack back in the 80s (here's Angela Davis's take on it from 1983(!)). With each successive generation we are seeing an expansion of awareness, but progress remains slow.

It does not help that today's feminism has been co-opted and to some extent corrupted by the entertainment (nee distraction) arm of our modern consumer capitalist state. Corporate feminism has no desire to acknowledge class issues because doing so would require an acknowledgment of privilege and inequality in a society that continues to stubbornly represent itself as "free" and "equal."

Feminism was never, and will never be a perfect articulation of women's experience; it continues to be a work in progress. I hate its lack of progress on the class issue just as much as you do, but that does not make feminist thought and action any less legitimate, just incomplete.

 

Others have mentioned bell hooks (absolutely essential on this subject; here is her epic critique of Sheryl Sandberg/Lean In) and Barbara Ehrenreich (e.g., Nickel And Dimed). Older but very accessible works that address feminism, consumer capitalism, women's production, technology, and class include:

• Where We Stand: Class Matters
  
• More Work For Mother
  
• Black Feminist Thought
  
• Feminism Confronts Technology
  
  Another place to look for work on class issues, feminist or otherwise, is in the field of urban studies. Finally, there are talks by almost every author mentioned above (and many others I'm sure) on youtube, definitely try something from bell hooks or Angela Davis at least.
  
   
  
  Ok I spent way too much time on this but as a working-class woman myself I had to say something after skimming some of the terrible comments in this thread. My best advice to you would be to ignore the flippant responses here and focus on the comments that relate women's personal experiences, or those that offer research. Go offline and try to carve out time in each day for awhile to read some of the more approachable texts on the subject or listen to good talks on youtube. Then use that information to figure out how you want to go forth and make a difference.
  
  edits for formatting

Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour (Critique Influence Change)

Women, Race, & Class

Wages Against
Housework

Bonsoir.

Achete ce bouquin, tu auras toutes tes réponses : https://www.amazon.com/How-Less-Stupid-About-Race/dp/0807050776
Also this : https://www.amazon.com/Aint-Woman-Black-Women-Feminism/dp/1138821519
And this https://www.amazon.com/Women-Race-Class-Angela-Davis/dp/0394713516

> If you're more knowledgeable about this issue, why not nudge the project in the right direction?

I question how many members of this sub recognize the gaps in their knowledge and are sincerely interested in addressing those gaps. For those who ARE interested in learning more, there are better sources of information than me. And maybe most importantly, I'm just not that interested in spending time here.

For those interested in learning more about the basic distinctions between schools of feminist thought, this encyclopedia entry is a decent if brief starting point. For those who want to learn more about the material and socialist feminist philosophies that have informed my particular perspective, the wikipedia entry on socialist feminism isn't the worst place to start. Friedrich Engel's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State is a foundational piece for the movement; Angela Davis' Women, Race, and Class is a classic; Materialist Feminism: A Reader in Class, Difference, and Women's Lives and The Socialist Feminist Project are interesting compilations; and for post-humanists in the crowd, Donna Haraway has some dense but thought-provoking stuff.

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Society at large and groups who control the media decide who to place attention on as victims of oppression, not the oppressed group itself. If every time the media decides to put attention on a black man being shot, efforts were made to point to another story about a woman that got less attention, there would be more attention given to the black woman. However, that attention would quickly fade and the net loss for black efforts would be greater. If our society can't get around to seeing the terrible crime committed against Tamir Rice (and even his sister handcuffed and thrown in the police car), what makes you think they are going to care about a victim we already know they care less about? What good does it do for the entire effort to divert attention to a victim out there they(oppressors) can more easily indict or ignore?

I highly recommend you read Angela Davis' book "Women, Race, and Class". Her exposition on the history will make it embarrassingly obvious who the #1 antagonist is of black womens issues have been. Black men aren't the first or second on the list.

>the reason i said black men are one of our biggest is oppressors is because we've been brainwashed by them to think that our issues don't matter as much.

I can guarantee you've consumed far more media (entertainment, news, all of it) controlled by white men, white women, Asian men, and Asian women, hispanic men and women, about black men than you have from black men.

>i mean like i said in the original post? when was the last time you ever heard a black man talking about black women's issues? its pretty rare

They're either dead or not listened to because they make too much sense so the mass media (controlled by white people) ignore them.

I'll finish with this: a reality in the U.S. is that there is a race that faces greater oppression: Native Americans. Even with so few of them left, many statistics show that Native American life is far shittier than black people. Imprisonment rates, actual genocide, land being taken away, alcoholism, mental issues, and basically all of their women have been raped or sexually assaulted. What would you think if they said "black people need to do better! You all didn't stand for Standing Rock! Black people are one one of our biggest oppressors"?

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