Submitted by: Judith Pedersen-Benn, Chair Social Justice Committee
This month I would like to share excerpts from an article by Koritha Mitchell and Alex Chavez about the relationship between Racism and Sexism. The Social Justice committee along with East Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry will be bringing in a speaker later this year to talk about this issue and help us identify ways we can be more active in bringing about just change.
Next Social Justice Committee Meeting will be: Sunday – January 14th at 12:30 pm. Bring a sack lunch if you like.
In Peace and Justice
Judith Pedersen-Benn, SJ chair
Koritha Mitchell, Contributor
Award-winning author, cultural critic
Alex E. Chávez, Contributor
Assistant professor of anthropology, artist, and cultural critic
An Open Letter To White People From Two Professors Of Color: Step Up! 03/21/2017 03:07 pm ET
Now that ……Donald Trump is the president of the United States, many Americans have begun experiencing life in a vertigo of disbelief, embarrassment, fear, and anger. Many find it galling that he was elected, despite evidence that he likes to touch women without their consent. However, others were outraged long before that evidence emerged because he had so consistently denigrated people of color, people with disabilities, and Muslims. As much as we would like to sympathize with those who were outraged enough to show up at Women’s Marches in impressive numbers, we cannot escape the knowledge that some of us were living in Trump’s America long before he became, as Koritha insists upon putting it, Predator-in-Chief.
For example, long before the “grab them by the p—” recording surfaced, Trump repeatedly called Venezuelan model Alicia Machado, the 1996 Miss Universe beauty pageant winner, “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.” American society during Trump’s political ascendency has therefore proven to be similar to what we have always experienced—and found in our research.
Yet, what makes the Trump era feel so familiar to us is also what should further mobilize white women. It is time for pink hat-wearing Women’s Marchers—and the many progressive men who cheered them on—to recognize what U.S. history makes crystal clear: wherever there’s an investment in controlling women’s bodies, you will also find hatred for black and brown success. And wherever there’s hatred for black and brown success, you will also find an investment in controlling women’s bodies.
Even privileged women participated in inauguration protest marches because they understood what brought this administration to power: the fact that many Americans want to see women in their “proper” place. White Americans voted in significant numbers for Trump, and support was even stronger among evangelicals. Ultimately, even if they did not identify with Trump’s extreme lack of decorum, they held their noses and voted for him in order to secure a more conservative Supreme Court that would target abortion
What fewer Americans understand is that efforts to constrain white women and to limit the life chances of black and brown men and women have one thing in common: they increase whenever these groups seem to be succeeding. In the United States, black and brown people and women of all backgrounds (and whether cis or trans) encounter aggression because of their success, not because they’ve done something wrong. In short, this election was an answer to women’s success in securing legal recognition of their right to reproductive health services, including access to safe abortions. It was an answer to the success of dreamers persuading other Americans that they are not criminals, but human beings. It was an answer to black and brown people who recently began assuming that the White House and the government should work for their benefit, too.
By voting for Donald Trump, 63 million Americans communicated their belief that successful people of color, especially women, had forgotten their “proper” place. His election only reinforced a truth that was already painfully clear to us: in the United States, the success of marginalized groups inspires aggression as often as praise. American society is designed to facilitate the success of straight white men, so the achievements of other groups are diminished and the populations themselves are stigmatized.
Even with a wealthy white woman in the spotlight, the 2016 presidential election was a case in point. It was the first time that a woman represented a major political party in the race for the presidency, so gender was front and center. Attacks on Hillary Clinton were often misogynistic and sexist. A position of power is simply not a woman’s “proper” place, and everyone was reminded of this fundamental American belief.
The new regime’s stance toward women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, migrants, immigrants, and refugees exposes a reality with which we were already familiar, that “America is a white racial project that both produces sexism and relies on it. The idea that white men deserve to lead—whether they are qualified or not and whether they are decent or not—is nothing new. Still, it seems to have intensified, pushing the nation toward what many recognize as fascism.