A review by tattooedbibliophile
Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption by Rafia Zakaria

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

This is a challenging read. It starts off with a history of feminism and the serious mis-steps that white women made, specifically and intentionally excluding women of color, and creating a definition of feminism that alienated many women. What I gleaned from this book, which I think will require a few more reads to fully absorb, is that we cannot ignore colonialism when talking about feminism. The two are not mutually exclusive, and trying to ignore racism while we talk about feminism is not only counterproductive, but actually furthers both problems. "White feminists must accept that true solidarity, where all races of women interact at a level of parity, means accommodating and valuing many different kinds of knowledge expertise; first and foremost, the kind that comes from lived experience. Accomplishing equality will require lifting up women who are not slick with jargon or rhetoric and venerating their contributions as much as those who know how to package themselves appealingly." It was a difficult read for me as a white passing woman, because I saw in myself mis-steps in thought and feeling that I need to work on. It's painful to know you are part of the problem, but to resolve it you must change, and so I'm glad to have read it. As a person who has just recently come back to feminism after being alienated from it for many years due to some of the very problems listed in this book (specifically the clique-ism and the idea that to be a feminist you must fit this certain mold - a white working woman who carries her Prada purse to charity events and has sex all the time,) this was a timely read for me. I wish I'd bookmarked the quote, but there was a specific part that will stay with me - "the truth that resilience may be just as much a feminist quality as rebellion, is lost in the story of feminism, written and populated entirely by white women."
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