Look, the fuss around whether race is a feminist issue (not just race, but race is a particular sore spot) boils down to this.

When people ask

“Why is X a feminist issue?”

what they’re really asking is

“Why should I care?”

I’m sorry. There’s no way to get around it.

The following is for my fellow white chicks. Bear with me, everyone.

If you are committed to feminist activism, what you are committed to is a framework of social justice built around gender. Right? You with me? What you care about is, specifically, women. But more broadly — stay with me here — what you care about is justice.

Right?

Gender is the organizing concept for you, most likely, because you are a woman. Ya? The way society organizes itself around gender makes you particularly aware of its effects, and that sparked your interest in this activism.

But that is just fucking ridiculous. Yeah, you’re a woman. But you’re also white. Why doesn’t that make you particularly aware of the way society structures itself around race? I’ll bet you don’t think men are ungendered — come on. So why aren’t you also dripping with race? Why isn’t race your organizing concept?

I’ll let you think for a while on that.*

Really: Why isn’t it worth your time to consider race in the same frame of mind you consider gender? Do you think that because you are white, it doesn’t affect you? I beg to differ! And I’ll bet you think men are negatively affected by society’s gendered structure too.

Do you think that there is nothing to learn, no benefit gain, for you or anyone else, from entering a framework other people have built, which doesn’t center around your world? Do you think it will have no relevance to your own life? Do you think it will have no relevance to your own activism?

Why is it that you have to be cajoled into showing some fucking respect for anything that doesn’t revolve around you and your experience?

You care about justice — right? Isn’t that, ultimately, what it comes down to? If you agree, then why are you putting up such a fight? What are you fighting for?

This is what I think.

Feminism is a framework dedicated to social justice, built around examining… let’s leave that blank for a moment.

Feminism is a framework dedicated to social justice.

Feminism cares about every person, no matter their (blank).

Feminism says, you deserve good, because you are a human being.

Feminism says, (blank) should not affect whether or not you receive that good, and we will fight to ensure that.

Feminism wants every person to be treated with respect, to be allowed dignity, autonomy, and self-actuation, on the basis of their shared humanity — and nothing else.

Now, to fill in that blank: feminism is a framework dedicated to social justice, built around examining gender.

But gender is not the only social construction thrust upon your unsuspecting self.

If it is the only one you see — or the one you see most clearly –there may just be a reason for this.

Has to do with social construction n stuff.

That’s all for now, folks.

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* BONUS. It killed the flow, but it’s important.

Consider also these: are you straight? younger in age? able-bodied? middle class or higher? If so: why haven’t you devoted your energies to activism built around age? sexuality? ability? Anything? — Beuller?

Is it because you don’t think those things really apply to you? But come on — you don’t think men are ungendered. So why aren’t you also dripping with these things? Why aren’t they your organizing concept?…