re the notion of white female privilege used by black men
I think I’ve always lowkey knew about white female privilege in relation to black men (even before I knew about my own oppression as a black woman). Even without any theory or real knowledge to back it up.
Probably because being taught this is cornerstone to one of the ways in which black patriarchy justifies itself. Black men are ready and willing to talk about how white women have more privilege than them… which is fine because it’s true… but it becomes not fine when they use this truth to somehow make it seem like sexism/ misogyny doesn’t matter in the black community because white women do better than them or even worst… that sexism is NEEDED/ that the subjugation of black women is justified because there are women *white women* who have it up on them
and even this realization is often discussed in a sexist way. It almost seems to be more abhorrent to black men than the notion that white men are privileged to black men because white women are *women* yet they make more money, are viewed as more intelligent, can get a black man killed/ put in jail for life easily and etc etc… things that are supposed to be true for a *man* (money, power, the ability to reason/ be intelligent).
The existence of white female privilege is used as a justification for the demanded propping up/ worshiping of black men by black women.. it allows the black man to posit himself as the ultimate victim
because the worse thing for a man (according to patriarchy) is to be denied his manhood (money, power, recognition of his ability to reason/ be intelligent) by a *woman*
so the least black women can do is grovel and be his mirror that inflates him a billion times bigger than he is and shut up so only he can talk and etc etc
so maybe he can stand next to a white women (maybe even a white man) and say, well at least I got somebody underneath me to dominate
and also, I feel like when black women are praised by black men a lot of it comes to this too… black women know how to stand by a brotha/ she understands the struggle/ she is ride or die
which all sounds good
but can be read as, she knows her place… which is silently behind the black man
bloopididoop
as somebody who grew up in a very, very STRICT patriarchal household (although whites often claim those don’t exist for black people) I’ve seen this play out
and it annoys me.
alllll of this. Yes! Everyday I struggle to understand wwhy it is that black men do not see that despite our common oppression based in race, that patriarchy in fact does function in our community.
I have very difficult discussions with my male friends trying to get them to understand that they in fact do benefit from patriarchy and that they do have power in the black male- black female dynamic.
It seems that they cannot see how the big picture is painted. They do not see beyond their racial oppression to get to a point where they can acknowledge that they actually do have privilege and the main target of that privilege is the black woman.
I have other thoughts on this but too tired to type em.
