Black Feminism in a “White Standard” Society

Everything is whiteness

the art that we call fine art versus the art that we call “ethnic art”

Oluo

Here Oluo is talking about this white standard in our society, which dictates what is appropriate, and what is not…like African American braids and afros being unprofessional, when it is a common hairstyle. She also mentions a standard of race in the art world. In my creative invention class, we also discussed this idea of elitism and classism in art. For example, the Venice Biennale, a huge event in the art world, was infiltrated by a female artist who goes by “Swoon.” She built a raft out of trash found in NYC and sailed it through Venice as a statement. I just thought it was interesting that Oluo mentioned this, as I’m an art major and a person of color. 

As white women ignore their built-in privilege of whiteness and define woman in terms of their own experience alone, then women of Color become “other,” the outsider whose experience and tradition is too “alien” to comprehend

Lord

 This quote points out to me how those in privilege ignore the oppressed, continuing to benefit from the cycle. Rather than joining together for a common cause of women’s rights, Black women are excluded as this “other.” This connects to the idea of the white standard in our readings this week as well as the connection to last week of the idea of intersectionality affecting people even within the same group (women) differently based on race. 

Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors. We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism.

Combahee Statement

What I interpret from this quote is that Black women not only have to face adversity from other white women, but from black men as well. Thus the Black Feminist group, while alienated from who should be allies, seeks for better understanding between the groups as well as joint effort to end systemic racism. 

Connections

While playing Momo Pixel’s Hair Nah, I felt a feeling of disgust as well as being overwhelmed. The hands which kept constantly reaching out in increasing intensity just felt wrong in so many ways. Not to mention, the people saying phrases like “can I touch it?” without waiting for a response just solidified this idea of entitlement and privilege. While researching this topic more, I learned that this act can be considered a micro agression according to Simone Aba Akyianu. She is a lawyer and an educator who wrote in Parents for Diversity. She explains its a micro agression because in wanting to touch this particular hair, it is singling out difference by making it seem as an exotic “other” and dehumanizing them by petting their hair like you would a dog. She also talks about how its a privilege to always be able to walk into salons and have them know how to do your hair, which relates to the white standard of our society. Overall it was an interesting read and if you would like I’ll leave the link here: https://parentsfordiversity.com/touching-black-hair-as-micro-aggression/

Some questions I have left after this are if this phenomenon of exotic hair being touched is common in other parts of the world. I’ve heard for example that blondes travelling to asain countries will get their hair touched. Another question I have is about the Combahee statement. It was a bit difficult for me to read and I’m wondering if anyone else interpreted it the way that I did 🙂

Key Words: Alien, standard, opression, privilege