White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color

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I am so uncomfortable having this conversation,’ said Fox News host Melissa Francis during a live broadcast of the network’s panel program Outnumbered on August 16, 2017. The previous day, US president Donald Trump held a press conference denouncing the Charlottesville riots that ended in tragedy when a white supremacist drove his car through a group of people protesting a far-right rally, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Trump had audaciously claimed ‘both sides’ were to blame for the violence––and that there were ‘very fine people’ on both sides. This sparked countless debates across the country, much like the one Francis was engaged in with her co-panellists Harris Faulkner, Juan Williams and Marie Harf.

of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad

Omission = pg60, the historical origin of the word 'sq*aw' as presented on Oprah has been disproven by linguists. The Algonquin source word means 'woman'. A Mohican word (from a different geographical location and language family) sounds similar and does have the pejorative meaning. Yes, sq*aw has become a slur but it didn't originate as an explicit sexual reference as Hamad suggests. And so “white damsel” as an archetype was one of racial purity, Christian morality, sexual innocence, demureness, and financial dependence on men all rolled into one. A privilege, yes, but a perilous one, for to step off this pedestal meant no longer being regarded as a “woman.” Skillfully blending autobiography, history, and cultural criticism, Hamad makes a devastating case against white women's complicity in systemic racism. This insistent and incisive call for change belongs in the contemporary feminist canon." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) It’s eye–opening and necessary reading for anyone, but especially white women who consider themselves feminists." — BuzzFeed

Ruby Hamad is a journalist, author, and academic completing a Ph.D. in media studies at UNSW (Australia). Her Guardian article, "How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of Color," became a global flashpoint for discussions of white feminism and racism and inspired her debut book, White Tears/Brown Scars, which has received critical acclaim in her home country of Australia. Her writing has also featured in Prospect Magazine, The New Arab, and more. She splits her time between Sydney and New York. A MUST read for any white women who consider themselves “feminist”‘– Scarlett Curtis, author of the Sunday Times bestselling Feminists Don’t Wear Pink White women share the same racial characteristics as white men and so are more easily able to transcend gender-based oppression. Their proximity to white men gives them, as Lorde pointed out, access to rewards for identifying with patriarchy when it suits them.”

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What does it mean for the rest of us that white women can be in control of almost all of the weapons belonging to the world’s most powerful country and still claim to be an oppressed group on the same level as other women?” The racialisation of slavery and its pecuniary place in American society meant it wasn’t a minor feature but what that society was constructed around.” Likewise, white women are equally aware their race privileges them as surely as ours condemns us. In this context, their tearful displays are a form of emotional and psychological violence that reinforce the very system of white dominance that many white women claim to oppose. To put it less poetically, it is the trauma caused by the tactic many white women employ to muster sympathy and avoid accountability, by turning the tables and accusing their accuser.