Amanda Alcantara: There’s a lot to take away from this exchange. Both Hayek and MacLaine were essentially likening black feminism to victimhood, suggesting that acknowledging your identity, including the ways in which the world perceives and oppresses you, is self-victimization. This ignores that for some women, shedding these aspects of their identity is simply not possible. It also ignores that the many layers in a person’s identity are not always a hindrance, but can in fact be a source of power—these layers and complexities are at the core of intersectionality. Moreover, in a society where whiteness is hegemonic, asking someone to strip themselves of their identity is tantamount to asking for whiteness. White art is often considered a blank canvas onto which a universal human experience can be projected, as opposed to blackness, queerness, or other non-white experiences, etc.
Even within the broad range of non-white experiences, we must acknowledge that not all people of color face the same challenges.
[…] In this time of Trumpismo, one in which solidarity between minority communities is critical to resistance, we must learn to listen to one another. Listen to those who are more marginalized than you are, take the time to de-center your own experiences, to understand that oppression can be experienced at different levels of intensity. More here.