Against White Feminism

Notes on Disruption

By: Rafia Zakaria

Narrated by: Ulka Simone Mohanty

A radically inclusive, intersectional, and transnational approach to the fight for women’s rights.

Upper-middle-class white women have long been heralded as “experts” on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority. An American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism in Against White Feminism, centering women of color in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism’s global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals.

Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist savior complex and “the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West” to the condescension of the white feminist–led “aid industrial complex” and the conflation of sexual liberation as the “sum total of empowerment,” Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberlé Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this staggering, radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront.

Incredible

This book has taught me so much. I keep going back to it to re-read or re-listen, because there’s so much truth in it. I am a Latina mestiza woman and as such some of the truths in the book are painful to hear. The recognizing of my privilege and the recognition of my failures as a feminist it is something I am tending with love but with accountability. I know how badly we’ve been indoctrinated by capitalism. I recommend this book to my fellow white or white-mestize women. It is time for us to for to allow and hold space for all the other feminism that are in true essence; diverse, inclusive and intersectional. Thank you Rafia! I admire you a lot!

Important that deals, thoughts, and challenges

Are you white? A feminist? Think you understand feminism?

Please read this book and recalibrate.

The things the movement lacks are critical to real change.
This book is presented well and is much needed.

Required reading

So important for understanding the colonial origins of white feminism today, and for recognizing how to mice forward.

Important topic

I read this one in part due to a FB controversy about it. The term “white feminism” gets people so mad. Not counting all the Black feminist books I’ve read, intersectional feminism, or just feminist texts, this marks my fourth book I’ve read decrying white feminism directly as the theme this year.

They have all been very insightful and eye-opening. Whatever you call it “white feminism” is a thing and it is harmful and it is not decrying all white feminisms. It’s decrying a feminism that centers whiteness and presumes to speak for all and has been infinite ages by corporate aims.

I’ve enjoyed all of them, and they have all been great. The author’s perspective here based on her own experience coming from Pakistan and how she came was one of the greatest things about this book. I appreciate her vulnerability and advocacy surrounding dv/ipv.

We need more of this

Loved her no BS style, straight forward head to head comparisons & calling out hypocrisy!
Thanks for voicing out all the things I have wanted to scream since unwillingly embarking on my feminist journey!
I will sure relisten! I binged it all in one shot! It had a really nice balance that it didn't shy away from the atrocities committed against WOC, without leaving me feeling too triggered & exhausted, like other books in the genre. It even left me on a hopeful note