2017 August

In light of Charlottesville and the #metoo social media campaign I decided I need to be better informed from voices outside my sphere.

I removed myself from the social media bubbles of white woman and white privilege and chose to seek out words, wisdom and perspectives from women of colour. Reading their words and exploring the themes they raise, and face on a daily basis, has expanded my world-view to be more global and inclusive. 

It’s not my place to repurpose or paraphrase the words. Rather I invite you to experience the clarity, courage and grace of these women of colour in their own words.

In their words…

Ava DuVernay

• Ava DuVernay – a writer, producer, director and distributor of independent film.

“We don’t have time to work on these -isms one by one.

Let me say that again.

We don’t have time to work on these -isms one by one.

Triggered by trauma and outrage, we should be outraged by all of it all of the time.

Until we are all safe, no one is safe.”

Alexis P. Morgan

• Truth, justice and liberation by Alexis P. Morgan – Creating trouble, art, and magic.

“I’m the pole-dancing, sword-wielding, democratic socialist, on-the-low-heaux sorceress you’ve been warned about. I make my cheddar as a professional writer, facilitator, artist, ritualist, and priestess.

Devoted to Truth, Justice, and Liberation, I live in the spirit of my foremothers before me:  

Unbossed. Unbought. Unbothered”

Amy Walsh

Culture Making: A Repair – to see ourselves as creators of our culture is a stance that calls us into responsibility, accountability, creativity, and vision.

“As change-makers who are building businesses in a time of advanced capitalism, we are in the tricky place of having to learn to survive within the current economic system while living into our visions for its replacement – and in navigating those contradictions, we can, and do, co-create our business culture every single day.

We are creating communities that anticipate and prepare for the world to come. This is important for us to claim and acknowledge.

To see ourselves as creators of our culture is a stance that calls us into responsibility, accountability, creativity, and vision.”

Layla Saad

• Wild Mystic Woman – I need to talk to spiritual white women about white supremacy  (Part Two)

Whilst you’re there be sure to read part one of ‘I need to talk to spiritual white women about white supremacy’ written post Charlottesville. 

“I myself, as a black woman, am showing up to do my own work of educating myself through reading articles, listening to podcasts, engaging in social justice education programs and watching and listening to the teachers and advocates who have been doing this work for far longer than I have.

Although I do not hold white privilege, I still need to be able to identify the ways in which I oppress myself and others through white supremacist and patriarchal ideology. Also, while I may not hold white privilege I do hold other privileges (e.g. cis-gendered, straight, able-bodied, class, etc) which I need to unpack and work through.”

Real Talk: WOC & Allies

• When will feminism make room for women of color?

“As my Facebook feed has filled up with #MeToos and posts of female solidarity, I have remained relatively quiet because, while I am a woman and a feminist, far too many experiences with “feminism” (the white kind, not the intersectional kind) have taught me that white women are eager to embrace solidarity when they need support for issues that directly impact them but are far too quick to throw women of color under the bus on those intersectional oppressions that uniquely target us.”

Kimberlé Crenshaw

• Her Ted Talk – The Urgency of Intersectionality

“Now more than ever, it’s important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias — and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm.

Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term “intersectionality” to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you’re standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you’re likely to get hit by both.

She calls on us to bear witness to this reality and speak up for victims of prejudice.”

Tarana Burke

• Founder of MeToo – Because you are not alone + empowerment through empathy

“From survivor to survivor know that you are not alone and that a movement for radical healing is happening and possible. The sooner women understand that they are not an anomaly, the sooner they can begin their healing process.”

Solange Knowles

• A Seat at the Table – Don’t Touch My Hair  and Cranes in the Sky

“It is one of the most important lessons that I’ve learned the past couple of years, that every form of activism is so valid and so necessary. Every forum, every voice, even just existing is a part of activism, and the way that you demand space in the world and I would tell a young artist that. There’s so much validity to every single type of way of communicating your feelings and your outrage, during this time especially. And we need people to cause a ruckus, we need people to protest, we need the people who are going to be super vanguard and academic about the subject. But we also need to acknowledge that there are people protesting everyday by just existing in the spaces that they exist in.”

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

• Elisabeth is not a woman of colour. However in her work as feminist theologian and Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School she coined the phrase ‘Kyriarchy’ which speaks to structures of oppression and domination. 

“Kyriarchy is a social system or set of connecting social systems built around domination, oppression, and submission.

 Kyriarchy was coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, interacting, and self-extending systems of domination and submission, in which a single individual might be oppressed in some relationships and privileged in others. It is an intersectional extension of the idea of patriarchy beyond gender.

Kyriarchy encompasses sexism, racism, speciesism, homophobia, classism, economic injustice, colonialism and other forms of dominating hierarchies in which the subordination of one person or group to another is internalised and institutionalised.”

There is so much to be gained from seeking out and learning from women outside of the bubbles that we live in.

Who are you listening to and learning from? Share with us below. 

Kathryn x

• Photo credit for Kimberlè Crenshaw