"The way sexism visits white women and women of color, including black women, is similar in its devastation but often unique in its practice."—Tami Winfrey-Harris, in a 2012 piece for Clutch magazine, "A Black Mom-in-Chief is Revolutionary: What White Feminists Get Wrong about Michelle Obama."
@Blackamazon had occasion to link that piece again today, and I just love that quote so much. So concise. Perfect.
It totally encapsulates why I am pro-choice in all things.
Similar in its devastation but often unique in its practice. We do not always see the ways in which our own lived experiences differ from the lived experiences of other women. Privilege makes it difficult to see those differences. Segregation makes it difficult to see those differences. The human urge to universalize our experiences makes it difficult to see those differences.
We must have an expansive understanding of the breadth of women's experiences, and how they interact with a culture we understand best from our own limited perspectives, and how those disparate interactions affect individual spectrums of choice and opportunity and personal narrative.
One cannot do any sort of meaningful ally work with other women without listening and understanding these words.
Similar in its devastation but often unique in its practice.
UPDATE: See also this great piece by Mikki Kendall: "For Black Women, Everything Is a Feminist Issue."
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