Division Amongst the Feminist' - Meryllia Luavasa

     It's surprising how feminism can be racialized. How does race play a part in a concern that has to do with gender equality? In Hannani-Kay Trask's article "Feminism and Indigenous Hawaiian Nationalism" the author talks about how "the feminism [she] studied was just too white, too American." What the author means is that she was studying feminism from the perspective of white people, so their point of view doesn't always line up with the perspectives or voices of women of color. Therefore it is clear that there is division amongst the feminist'. So how can feminist from all walks of life try to fight for equality when there isn't equality amongst the women themselves? Unless there is unity amongst these women, the inequality amongst men and women will remain.

     There seems to be a never ending circle of white people labeled as the oppressors. "White American women are American, not Hawaiian. White American feminist women are still American." This quote is the authors response to the "assertion that all people are alike in their common humanity." The authors frustration with white feminist' is evident. There's obviously a battle amongst different races of feminist' and it's distracting them from the bigger battle against patriarchy. If they don't settle their differences and focus on the bigger issues, the circulation of inequality will just keep going around.


     The other day a friend and I had a discussion about her experience in participating in a class activity for her Sociology Race Relations course. The class was to split in half and one side of the room would be the privileged side and the other side would be the unprivileged. The instructor, for example, would give everyone a task to draw a picture. He walked around to the privilege side and compliment everyone on how nice their drawings, gave encouragement and smiled a lot but when it came to the unprivileged side, there were insults yelled at them, they're pictures were thrown out or not even acknowledge. She explained that while sitting on the privileged section, although she knew how it felt to be on the other side, to be on the oppressed side, she didn't want to give up her privilege because she liked the compliments, she enjoyed the smiles and the acknowledgments.


    It's always convenient to point the finger at the white people, but am I the only one who has a little compassion for them? Sure, they sit on the privilege side but it must be tough for white people to sit in classes where most of the articles that are required to be read blames them for everything wrong in America. If racism is institutionalized, are white people to blame for white privilege? Everyone plays a part in it, everyone feeds into it whether consciously or subconsciously.The only reason why it still continues is because the people who are ignorant obviously don't know it and because those who are aware keep allowing it too. If feminist' were to put aside their differences and let this concept resonate, there could be unity and that could lead to their victory.


     Division is one of the best methods to keep ones opponent from winning. If people can't get along, there won't be any teamwork which leads to defeat. Feminist' must truly be unified if they want to think about anything else, because if there is division, one might as well call it a loss. Differences must be put aside or handled so that the bigger battle against patriarchy can finally begin.

-M. Luavasa