ethnocentrism and socialist-feminist theory
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preface This paper, of 1985, was a response to the criticisms by black feminists of white socialist-feminist theory (see Feminist Review issue 17). We assumed that all white feminists would have to re-assess their work in the light of these telling criticisms. Raising our heads above the parapet, we quickly became a target for attacks from several different positions. We felt, given the ferocity and range of these criticisms, the effect was to silence discussion. Our article does not ignore race and racism. It contains a section arguing that black/white racial inequality is crucial. The article tackles our own ethnocentrism, rather than racism in society. We were not trying to defend feminism against the charge of racism, but attempting the limited task of re-assessing our own ideas. Kum–Kum Bhavnani and Margaret Coulson used our article as a peg on which to hang their political criticisms of many variants of modern feminism. But we are no more nor less responsible than they are for the failings of the suffragettes, of radical feminists in the 1970s, or the immigration policies of the British government. We were very reluctant to have this article reprinted; Feminist Review has persuaded us that the climate is now different. Miche`le Barrett and Mary McIntosh May 2005
the political context Until recently most of what has been published in this country as ‘feminist theory’ has been written by white women. Most of these women believe, following the ideas of consciousness-raising, in the importance of personal experience as a basis from which to develop political analysis. Most of these white feminist writers are middle-class intellectual women who are immersed in specifically British traditions of education and political thought, largely left and libertarian. Most of them, however, disadvantaged as they may feel as
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feminist review 80 2005 c 2005 Feminist Review. 0141-7789/05 $30 www.feminist-review.com (64–86)
women, have immense privileges in terms of race and class, which give them access to publishing, the media, teaching, public meetings of various kinds. These privileged white feminists, such as ourselves, have been able to make their voices heard and, to some extent at least, respected. For some time now, black women have been making these points to us, but most of us have not really listened – too absorbed in playing our own role of oppressed womanhood, too committed to our existing positions, too insistent, perhaps, that we should only speak from our own experience. For many feminists like us, the dramatic struggles on Spare Rib in the course of 1983, when ‘women of colour’ castigated the existing collective for its racism, and when women attacking the state of Israel were accused of anti-semitism and those criticizing them were in their turn accused of racism, were so highly charged that we tended to keep our distance. White feminists have found it easier to give support to black sisters in their campaigns than we have to re-examine our own practices. So instead, we might well have subscribed to Out
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