For instance, it is understandable that black women who seek to improve the lot of black women are less inclined than white feminists to support “fat acceptance”. Black women are dealing with the double-burden of race and sex discrimination, why would they seek to “other” themselves even further by intentionally subjecting themselves to body discrimination on account of being overweight? Black women have poorer health outcomes on virtually all measures when compared to white women; black women have lower health insurance rates; black women are at greater risk of diseases related to obesity—since so many black are already obese or even morbidly obese; black women have lower marital rates than other women—and men, on average, find overweight women to be less attractive than slim or athletic women. So, it is easy to see why black women who are seeking the improvement of black women’s collective lot would not rush to stigmatize themselves and other black women by embracing fatness. If white feminist (or, heck, black feminists) cannot understand this, then so be it.

Disagreement on one issue, such as fat positivity, does not mean that black women should reject feminism wholesale. There is no contract stating that in order to be a feminist you have to be fat positive.

Bitch Magazine declined to publish an interview with Caitin Moran after Moran gave a series of what some felt were racially insensitive replies to a twitter user. Feminist writer Jessica Valenti gave a nod to the importance that women of color assign to the role of motherhood and to how women of color view their status as “mother” in a different light than many middle-class white women.

Of Welfare and Welfare Queens

If America didn’t have to contend with racism, the US would probably already have a liberal welfare state the likes of which is the norm in Western European countries. But, time and time again, racists (and some of these racists were white women) were more interested in preserving white privilege than in advancing their class interests if advancing those interests meant joining hands with black people.

Many white feminists are now attempting to join hands across class and racial boundaries in support of the creation of a liberal welfare state, such a state would undoubtedly greatly benefit poor black mothers who need all of the help they can get. Here is where I think the dissention between black women and white feminists comes in: White feminists (and most black feminists) seem to be saying that instead of encouraging marriage and stable families for black women, the focus should be placed on the creation of a welfare state; many black women who are non-feminists want the primary focus of elevating the lot of black women to be placed on the need for black women to create stable nuclear families with loving male partners before bringing children into the world. Feminists are not appreciating the depth of the desire that black women have to form traditional families which include husbands—instead white feminists seem to be arguing “why do you need a husband (like the one I have) when you can just get a welfare state that will do for you what a husband will?” Perhaps because most white women grew up in middle-class families with their father’s presence these women do not understand what black women feel they are missing. Black women want husbands not just to help raise children and elevate the family out of poverty, but because most black women are heterosexual they always want a relationship with a man for companionship and comfort reasons.

In other words, too many feminists are failing to grasp the desires and wishes of black women because said white women lived a different experience. Black women and white women are talking past each other—again.

“In the 1960’s, when African American women successfully challenged the racially discriminatory policies that characterized social welfare programs, the generic image of the “bad black mother” became crystallized into the racialized image of the “welfare mother.”…the Reagan/Bush administration also realized that racializing welfare by painting it as a program that unfairly benefitted blacks was a surefire way to win white votes. This context created the controlling image of the “welfare queen” primarily to garner support for refusing state support for poor and working-class Black mothers and children. Poor black women’s welfare eligibility meant that many chose to stay home and care for their children, thus emulating White middle-class mothers. But because these stay-at-home moms were African American and did not work for pay, they were deemed to be “lazy.”(Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, by Patricia Hill-Collins)”

So when black women with middle class sensibilities hear feminists advocating for a welfare state, what these black women think is “you want me to seen as lazy and a welfare mother instead of for me to have a husband and to be able to stay home with my kids, like you.” Since so many black women have grown up poor or in working-class families that may have depended on some form of state aid, these black women have been exposed to the dehumanization and ridicule leveled at those who need to apply for assistance. And by refusing to join the calls of feminists who advocate for a more liberal welfare state, these black women are 1) rejecting what they feel to be white feminists requests to subject themselves to even more degradation at the hands of welfare officials, and 2) rejecting behavior that they believe would lend support to the “black women are bad mothers/welfare mothers” stereotype.