It is not the differences between us that tear us apart

What We Aren’t Talking About When We Talk About ‘White Privilege’
May 24, 2012

By Theresa Warburton and Joshua Cerretti



We’re white feminists. We aren’t white just because our ancestors were mostly European. We are white because we regularly experience being identified as such by individuals and institutions that systematically favor those who appear white over those who don’t. We aren’t feminists just because we have degrees and teach in Gender and Women’s Studies. We are feminists because we are committed to dismantling the structures that systematically favor men over women, heterosexuals over non-heterosexuals, the rich over the poor, and, amongst many other oppressions, white people over people of color.

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These challenging conversations are necessary because, in the age of intensive plurality and diversity, any movement worth being part of is going to involve organizing across many forms of difference. Notice how we say ‘across’ and not ‘in spite of.’ We say that because it’s likely that most people in these movements will have at least one identity that provides systematic, unearned advantages – whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, citizenship, able-bodiedness, etc. – and those same people will have other identities that provide systematic, unearned disadvantages. We need to recognize that the vast majority of people are both oppressed and oppressive in different ways, in different contexts, and in different moments.

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You’re receiving this talk about white privilege because we want to work together to rid this world of the various oppressions that make life worse for so many people. Overcoming the challenge that these forces present will require working across multiple forms of difference, and to do this we mustn’t forget that the challenges lie not in difference itself, but in the oppressions structured around difference. As Audre Lorde said so beautifully…

[...]it is not the differences between us that tear us apart, destroying the commonalities we share. Rather, it is our refusal to examine the distortions which arise form their misnaming, and from the illegitimate usage of those differences which can be made when we do not claim them nor define them for ourselves.

As feminists, we don’t want to participate in the use of oppressive force or reproduce any system that legitimates this force. As white people born in the U.S. who work at a university, we’ve benefited enormously from this very system we oppose. These contradictions will not be resolved in silence and, unless we work on recognizing and addressing them, we don’t expect for it to be easy for anyone who hasn’t shared our experiences to work with us.

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http://thefeministwire.com/2012/05/what-we-arent-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-white-privilege/