The Connection of Race and Class to Activism

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Black Women in Slavery and Relationship
Feminists’ Backgrounds
Women and War
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Throughout its history, feminist activism has undergone many long periods of evolution. With women suffering through different kinds of oppression, feminism’s core ideas developed to better accommodate all the collected experiences. Women suffered the most under racism and became some of its most vocal opponents. They suffered from wars relegating them to objects of male violence and started fighting for peace. Working-class women suffered under capitalism, and their fight for women’s rights became an integral part of socialist campaigns. In all of these cases, women suffered from sexual abuse, and the movement of #MeeToo rose, helping women save each other from the abuse. Thus, feminism has come through many calamities, with women gaining more insight into their struggles and sexuality.

Black Women in Slavery and Relationship

In harsh American slavery, Black women were the most oppressed. Their punishment was often worse than that of their male peers, as they were often raped. Rape was utilized to repress and destroy the slave woman’s will to resist. Lynching presents an interesting statistic as well: in 1896–1900, hundreds of men of color have been lynched for minor misdemeanors (Wells-Barnett 1135). Thus, rape repressed Black women during the times of slavery, while Black men were often targets of lynching, intermixing class, racism, and sexuality.

The personal lives of Black women were influenced even when there was no rape involved. Morrison (34) mentions Pecola, who felt a “lack of human recognition” from a man she knew once he realized she was Black, making her feel shame and then anger (Morrison 48). Another character, a Black woman named Pauline, remained with her abusive husband finding it inappropriate for a Black woman to leave a Black man for a white woman, which she had an opportunity to do. It strained her relationship with the woman and made her feel hurt and desperate (Morrison 120). Therefore, racism has had an important part in sexuality, damaging Black people psychologically.

Feminists’ Backgrounds

Activists against racism came from radically different backgrounds; for example, Ida B. Wells was born into a family of ex-slaves and had to provide for her sisters and brothers as a teacher. Mary Church Terrell, on the other hand, came from a rich family, as her ex-slave father had received money from his master. Still, she devoted her life to the cause of Black liberation. However, Mary Terrell and Ida Wells had a mutual hostility toward each other. Wells claimed that Terrell took part in her exclusion from an 1899 convention fearing for her re-election as president and wanting to limit Wells’ actions against lynching (Davis). Still, for Black women, personal wealth was not the main motivator for activism.

At the same time, white women in the American North compared their respective plights to slavery. White feminists from wealthy families tended to call their domestic lifestyle slavery, while white working-class women compared their economic oppression to slavery. Feminists of the era cooperated with the Socialist party; however, the class differences between white women influenced their work, making the wealthy ones poor feminists or socialists (Davis). Black women, however, never stopped to challenge racism, having experienced it first-hand. It is no surprise that Black people were some of the most notable queer activists as well. One of them, Gladys Bentley, had been facing criticism for it for most of her life, but her strength inspired many of the later LGBTQ+ activists. Thus, white women were only decent activists if they were poor working-class, while Black women never stopped fighting oppression and were pioneers of many new forms of the struggle.

In the present time, women from wealthy backgrounds still take part in the struggle. For example, Harvey Weinstein’s crimes came to be known to the public because his victims were famous. #MeToo, however, makes it possible for people to discuss not just celebrities, but common women as well (Burke). Sexual violence can only be ended by participation from every voice in the world and it will require those whose voices are most often heard to transit those voices that often go unheard as well.

Women and War

Women’s position on the war is unique; gender, as well as identities such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and disability, is ignored by conflict. UN Security Council’s policy demands that all parties engaged in military action take special measures to protect women from gender-based violence such as rape (Chinkin et al.). However, it presents women as a unified category needing help, which is an offensive depiction. At the same time, women make considerable efforts in the struggle for peace, demanding justice and refusing to accept their depiction as passive victims (Chinkin et al.). Women negotiate for ceasefires and passages for humanitarian help and form peace committees. Thus, women are active anti-war participants, rather than simple victims to be taken care of.

Conclusion

Thus, feminism has had a long and turbulent path across its history. Racism is deeply interconnected with feminism, as the first Black activists were the most reliable opponents of both racism and sexism. Their plight as the people who went through slavery influenced white women who had better situations to re-evaluate their station and find similarities between oppression in marriage, slavery, and capitalism. Often this oppression was accompanied by sexual exploitation, which was systematic in slavery. The same can be said about wars; despite officials paying attention to women’s plight on the frontlines, women had to, again, act on their own, as they would have the role of passive victims otherwise. Therefore, slavery, racism, sexuality, feminism, workers’ struggle, and wars have all been deeply interconnected via different historical events.

Works Cited

Burke, Tarana. “#MeToo Was Started for Black and Brown Women and Girls. They’re Still Being Ignored.”Washington Post, 2017.

Chinkin, Christine, et al. “Gender and New Wars.”Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, vol. 9, no. 1, 2020. Crossref.

Davis, Angela. Women, Race, and Class. 1st Vintage Books ed, Vintage, 2011.

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye (Vintage International). Reprint, Vintage, 2007.

Wells-Barnett, Ida B. “‘Lynching and the Excuse for It’ in ‘The Independent, v. 53 (May 16, 1901) p. 1133–36.’”Northern Illinois University’s Digital Library.

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The Connection of Race and Class to Activism

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