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

Product Information

The book itself has a strong throughline with the different chapters being connected in a logical manner and leading up to a well-thought progression. I did feel like chapter 7 was the weakest part, with Hamad's clumsy analysis of class struggles and the erasure of class solidarity - which earned the rather silly moniker of "classwashing" from Hamad and which I do not find useful in any way in terms of structural and materialist analysis - and fumbling to tie it to... rape culture? Not the brightest moment of this book imho, but it didn't particularly throw me off as there still were interesting bits to this chapter. It doesn’t usually end this way. “White women tears are especially potent … because they are attached to the symbol of femininity,” Ajayi explains. “These tears are pouring out from the eyes of the one chosen to be the prototype of womanhood; the woman who has been painted as helpless against the whims of the world. The one who gets the most protection in a world that does a shitty job overall of cherishing women.” Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep “ownership” of their slaves, through the centuries of colonialism, when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women’s active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long overdue validation of the experiences of women of color.

The alleged threats made against Dutton are one thing, but using them to whitewash his public record by presenting him as a virtuous father and victim is another. This is how White Womanhood stabilises white society: by turning the tables, downplaying its violence and ensuring power stays firmly in white hands.” For all the “I’m With Her” and “The Future Is Female” high-fiving floating around, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that merely having more white women in powerful positions isn’t going to result in a more just and equitable world. This reality continues to be glossed over by the rhetoric of “empowerment” and “lean-in” corporate feminism.” Ironically, perhaps, it is the women of color, most especially Indigenous women, who are at the forefront of environmental rights,” because their own rights are inseparable from the battle for the environment.” They don’t have time for the games white women play. Their families and their lives are at stake, and they make real headway and real progress without the drama white women engender. Because they have to. I love Ruby Hamad for this attempt to navigate the knotty nexus of gender, race, and feminism. I felt more like I was talking with a friend than I was reading a manifesto. That approach has pros and cons.I listened to the audiobook daily while I workout in the gym, and my first thought when the book was over was to yell in my head: “NOOOOO!! I NEED TO HEAR MORE FROM THIS AWESOME AUTHOR!” Upon its publication in September 2019, White Tears/Brown Scars was met with an overwhelmingly positive response in the media. In the Canberra Times, Zoya Patel describes the book as “a powerful read that will benefit all readers, regardless of gender or race.” Raelee Lancaster in The Saturday Paper praises Hamad as she “challenges society to face the discrimination it has normalised, and to commit to a future where white women let go of their privilege and stand with women of colour.” Dr. Mridula Nath Chakraborty in The Sydney Morning Herald commends White Tears/Brown Scars as “a compelling critique of the ways in which the woman of colour is pilloried and crucified at the altar of white fragility”, while Rashida Murphy applauds Hamad for exposing “tough, unpalatable truths” in a review in ArtsHub. This has created a highly skewed perception of Arab women that relegates us to what I call “Pets or Threats”: we are positioned as helpless, repressed victims without agency or a voice worth listening to, desperately in need of a white savior to rescue us from the clutches of our Bad Arab kin; or we are Bad Arabs ourselves, threats that must be contained and kept in our place. If we are not one, we must be the other.” That the voices of “women of colour” are getting louder and more influential is a testament less to the accommodations made by the dominant white culture and more to their own grit in a society that implicitly – and sometimes explicitly – wants them to fail. Ron Rash is renowned for his writing about Appalachia, but his latest book, The Caretaker, begins ...

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 stars! i'm glad this book exists, and i will certainly be drawing upon its ideas in discussions with white feminists in my life. Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep "ownership" of their slaves, through the centuries of colonialism, when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women's active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. For all the talk about how offensive it is to call someone a racist, it doesn’t seem to do much harm to the career of white people.

It reminded me of the reading experience I have with Richard Dawkins. With both of these authors I feel they are making assumptions about what’s obvious to them—that everyone already knows this thing they’re talking about—and in other cases they overexplain what really does feel obvious. I just didn’t fit well with Hamad’s assumptions about her general reader. Hamad says it shows white women are part of the problem, not the solution. They have decided they are a rung above women of color, and have hitched their wagons to white males on the top wrung. It is more important for them to be associated with white supremacy than female equality. They would rather fit into the hierarchy of the patriarchy where they are a poor second, than with women of color, who are an even poorer third. Women of color are a lower caste, definitely not worth associating with. The result is this odd habit of white women suddenly bursting into tears when accused, challenged or even just discussing their own racism.