Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption
Upper-middle-class white women have long been heralded as "experts" on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority. An American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism in Against White Feminism, centering women of color in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism's global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals.
Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist savior complex and "the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West" to the condescension of the white feminist-led "aid industrial complex" and the conflation of sexual liberation as the "sum total of empowerment," Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberlé Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this staggering, radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront.
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Full of painful truths about how one kind of feminism can dominate and silence women. A fantastic book.--Nadifa Mohamed, author of The Fortune Men
Zakaria's frank, spirited critique of feminism's historical complicity with empire and capital, its appalling insularity, and its deep-seated provincialism opens onto a shimmering vision of true solidarity. This is, quite simply, a transformative book.--Merve Emre, author of The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway
A lucid and persuasive argument that feminism must address its "problematic genealogies" of whiteness... Tackling complex philosophical ideas with clarity and insight, Zakaria builds an impeccable case for the need to rebuild feminism from the ground up. Readers will want to heed this clarion call for change.-- "Publishers Weekly"
A reckoning and a wakeup call to the degree to which we really need to tear down and reexamine our systems of activism that we're already trying to use to change the world.--Dialynn Dwyer "Boston Globe"
Rafia Zakaria's Against White Feminism is the book I have been waiting for. This landmark work will forever change how we view the feminist movement and our place in it.--Sonia Faleiro, author of Beautiful Thing
An exploration of the divisive effects of Whiteness on feminism and a strong argument for transforming long-standing power structures... A worthy contribution to feminist and activist studies.-- "Kirkus"
Zakaria lays out the damage white feminism has wrought in clear, unflinching terms and urges readers to commit to a feminism that is truly collective and global.--Jenny Hamilton, Booklist (starred review)
Zakaria's Against White Feminism is a brilliant, bracing, and deeply necessary text. Showing how feminism had systematically centered white women's voices, and excluded others', this is a polemic that couldn't be more urgent in improving feminism as a movement.--Kate Mann, author of Down Girl
This necessary book is a critique of how whiteness (not white women) has infiltrated feminism and how it should be razor-bladed out of the current form.... Zakaria is a warmhearted and sharp-eyed writer who brings compassion, intelligence, and a steady drumbeat of change to redefining term--feminism--a word that is old and soggy and full of white ladies yelling about things. This book is going to light fires everywhere, so if you are prone to combust, get right the hell out of the way.--Kerri Arsenault "Literary Hub"
This ambitious, elegant and brilliantly argued polemic shows us how white supremacy harms Black and brown women, and offers a different politics in its place. I am grateful for this book.--Myriam Chingona Gurba De Serrano, author of Mean
Uncomfortable, often coruscating, always challenging in the best ways and never less than riveting, this book is essential reading, and especially for anyone white who identifies as a feminist. Rafia Zakaria neatly dismantles the stand-on-the-shoulders-of-giants school of white feminism that in failing to understand the intertwined history of the women's movement and white supremacy continues to perpetuate the inequalities it purports to address. She doesn't just deliver punchy, corrective narratives, but achieves something at least as important in questioning where we get our ideas and encouraging critical thinking.--Catherine Mayer, author and co-founder of the Women's Equality Party
[Zakaria's] examination of current examples from politics and pop culture furnishes crucial evidence of the continued colonization of feminism by white women. She brings this conversation into mainstream view.--Siobhan Egan "Library Journal"
