The Importance and Relevancy of Race Specificity for Black Women in Politics: In Cohesion

with and Contrast to their White Women Counterparts

 A little over six months ago, the United States was in a political frenzy as the presidential

election unfolded. The whole world was watching. Would the United States elect their first

female president or would a business mogul with a vicious tongue win the seat for leader of the

free world? The presidential election had the country divided, but the election also caused unity

amongst Americans who felt that their lives were threatened due to the rhetoric and the proposed

policies of the candidates. Women especially found the need to unify after being witnesses to the

public degradation of women during the election. The Women's March on Washington was

organized because of the need to protest the misogynistic and vulgar rhetoric towards women

that consumed the presidential election spearheaded by the election winner Donald Trump (10

Actions). The March advocated for the safety and inclusion of all women regardless of race,

class, sexuality, and any other marginalized group women may find themselves (10 Actions).

The Women's March on Washington became a global march as marches sprang up all over the

world in places like Chicago and Paris (10 Actions). There were more people in attendance at the

Womens March than at Donald Trumps inauguration. Even with all the support the Women's

March garnered, there was also a high number of those not in favor of the march. The biggest

critique was that the marchers were overwhelming white women. The reason that the majority

white women march was such an upset was because the majority, over 50 percent, of white

women voted for Donald Trump (Carroll). White women were protesting in the streets what

statistics show they advocated for in the voter booth.

After months and months of dirty comments and language normalizing sexual assault,

Trump was presumed doomed to failure. Unimaginable it was deemed that women would vote

for someone who was so overtly anti women. That presumption was proven wrong as women,
white women, voted in large numbers for Donald Trump. White women voting for Trump and

then protesting the racist, sexist practices of a president for which they voted presents a problem

that has been historically evident in womens movements: white women's political involvement

and fight for womens equality excludes Black women because white womens whiteness causes

them to overlook the plight of Black women in society. There needs to be recognition that all

women does not necessarily include all women.

The recent election of Donald Trump shows that white women, though facing the

hardship that comes from being a woman, have a strong shield that trumps their womanhood:

their white skin. White women can choose to be political, but for Black women, their very

existence is a political battle. The Women's March on Washington supports this because it

exemplified how for white women, politics is something they can opt in and out of as it benefits

them. Black women have no choice but to opt in full time because their lives depend on it.

Noting historical examples of the relationship between white women and Black women in the

political arena is vital so that the contemporary relationship is easier to assess.

One example of white women advocating for equal treatment and inclusion in politics

was the Womans Suffrage Movement of the mid 1800s. This movement later resulted in the

19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote (Introduction). The impetus for the

Womans Suffrage Movement was not the exhaustion of being excluded from politics or this

burning desire to have a political voice through a vote at the polling booth. The Womans

Suffrage Movement started because white women were upset about Black men being able to vote

(Introduction). The Reconstruction Era was the height of Black political involvement where

Black people had direct power in government; however, this Black political involvement was
male dominated. Black women still could not vote. The Womans Suffrage Movement is

contemporarily branded as the crusade for all womens suffrage, but the right to vote was

primarily fought for and won for well off white women who were upset about a Black person

having more rights. After gaining more political power with the right to vote, women wanted

more power at home over their life choices.

The Women's Liberation Movement occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. This movement

advocated for women's choice (Cobble). Women should have the choice to stay at home or go to

work. The irony with the notion of women being forced to stay at home and take care of the

family is that this has never been a reality for Black women. Being forced to stay in the home is

a white narrative. Black women have always worked. Black women since slavery were forced to

work and oftentimes outside their homes. An online exhibit highlighting the different stages of

the Womens Liberation Movement includes the differences Black women faced during women's

movements and notes how, many black women moved from employment in agriculture to

employment in factories and as domestic servants (Introduction). During the 1900s until present

day, Black women worked as maids in white households. This has caused generations of Black

women to neglect their own families in order to take care of white families. The Women's

Liberation Movement and other womens right groups inadvertently silenced the narrative for

Black women. During the 1950s and 1960s, For many black women the entire feminist

movement is suspect[Black women] see concerns of feminists as being individual

self-advancement within the middle-class structure ( Darcy, Hadley 630). Although labeled

Womens Liberation, the use of the word womens enforces the practice of white women
being the standard, default woman because these womens movements only address white

womens issues.

Historically, the true, default American citizen has been a white person. All other

American citizens are both inside and outside the claim of American citizenship. All other

Americans are on the outskirts; they are the marginalized in society. Although America is home

to many different races and ethnicities, to show the disparities Black women face in American

politics, this essay will focus on the relationship between Black women and their white women

counterparts. The ranking in America goes white men, white women, Black men, and lastly

Black women. Darcy and Hadley in their journal article, Black Women Politics: The Puzzle of

Success discuss the double disadvantage hypothesis (Darcy, Hadley 630). This hypothesis

explains how the assumption that we can reach the experiences of black women in politics

through a general understanding of both black politics and women in politics leads to the double

disadvantage hypothesis. Because blacks are at a political dis- advantage and because women are

at a political disadvantage, black women are doubly disadvantaged (Darcy, Hadley 630). Black

women cannot be involved in white womens politics because Black women have an extra

descriptor attached to their womanhood. The importance and relevance of this descriptor (Black)

is harder to manipulate than white. The oppression of being both Black and a woman causes an

existence that one constantly has to fight for its validity. Since Black women are not and cannot

be involved in white womens equality campaigns because white womens whiteness is at the

center of their political agenda, the Black womans voice and needs are inevitably disregarded.

Black women have power in politics. An article by the AAUW states that, Black women are at

the forefront of todays changing political landscape, just as they have been for decades. They
are leaders in mobilizing communities for both electoral and sociopolitical movements (Black).

The Black womans liberation struggle is an all encompassing one. Black women know what it is

like to be a woman, what it is like to be Black, and what it is like to be a part of many other

minority and marginalized groups simultaneously. Black womens political scope is broader and

has the ability to be specified to reach a larger audience. The issue comes when Black women

align themselves with white womens activism. On the surface it seems that there is a common

cause: ending sexism, eliminating unfair treatment, and increasing the womans voice in politics;

however, the anomalous occurrence of the oppressor helping free the oppressed leaves little

room for any type of allegiance to occur. Black women pushing their Black womens agenda

through white womens campaigns leads to absorption. White womens protest organizations

will claim to advocate for the issues of all women and they will claim to care, but white women

cannot fulfill those claims because they do not understand the issues of Black women. White

women cannot care about Black women issues because their whiteness has taught them not to

care about Black issues. A part of whiteness is erasure. John Henrik Clarke, noted Africana

scholar, speaks about Black erasure extensively. In a video recorded at one of Clarkes early

academic lectures on the topic of erasure he explains how the early white oppressors sought to,

destroy a people in such a manner that they had to be remade in an American image (Rare). A

pattern throughout European history is domination and forced assimilation. There is a negation

of race specificity. Whiteness seeks to diminish the plight of Blacks so that Black people see

their disparities as isolated events causing them to not protest these rare occurrences. Black

women need to create race specific, political spaces that advocate for their unique issues. These

spaces are vital for their survival. Black women cannot rely on white women to advocate for
them. Black women must be their own advocates. Politics is the allocation of values and

resources. Throughout American history, Black women have not been valued and their resources

for survival are scarce. Black women need to take ownership of their issues and fight for a spot

in politics. Black women need to set their own values, compile their own resources, and choose

the allocations of those values and resources in benefit to their womanhood and Blackness.

Women are consistently shafted in politics due to its patriarchal nature; however, white

women still benefit from the political allocation of values and resources. Republicans vouch for

the luxury tax on feminine products, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and other laws and policies

that are unfair to women, but women, primarily white women, still vote Republican in elections,

as evidenced in the recent presidential elections. According to exit poll statistics done by the

political science department at Rutgers University, Trump won a majority of white womens

votes (52 percent) (Carroll par. 3). Trumps campaign was plagued with misogynistic and

hateful speech towards women. There were videos surfacing of Trump joking about sexual

assault which caused Michelle Obama to make a speech on the campaign trail that directly

addressed Trump and his disrespect of women. Michelle Obama remarked how she could not

believe she was, saying that a candidate for President of the United States has bragged about

sexually assaulting women (First). Womens rights being an issue in a society that is patriarchal

in nature is not shocking. All women have in some degree experienced and later accepted a level

of mistreatment from this male dominated society because it has been so normalized. The

difference though between white women and Black women is that white women are still

protected. The only oppression a white woman faces is being seen as inferior because of her

gender, but her white face provides her a certain level of protection that Black women do not
have. This inequity in protection is another example of the disparities evident in the relationship

between Black and white women in politics.

The relationship between Black and white women in politics was portrayed so accurately

by the presidential election which culminated with the Women's March on Washington. The

march was organized by all types of women: Muslim women, queer women, Mexican women,

Black women, indigenous American women, and so on. The march was a global phenomenon

and sparked awareness and sisterhood all over the world. The march was started to show

disapproval of the new presidential office that supports the oppression of women. At the march,

there were signs showing transnational and transsexual alliances. People of all races, genders,

and ages were in attendance although most attendees were white women between the ages of

18-42 who voted for Trump. Women chanted slogans, hugged one another, and took pictures

with flashy signs with catchy slogans, but what was accomplished for the millions of Black and

minority women the march was supposedly for? Many Black and minority women could not

even attend the march because they had a family to take care of, a job they had to go to, or no

bus fare that day. The Women's March on Washington was a white appeasement rally with no

real cause. What policies were pushed after the march to combat women's oppression in

Washington? Who listened to the story of immigrant women and their struggles with

deportation? Who listened to the Black mothers talking about the murder of their sons at the

hands of police? Who did anything after January when Black and minority lives were still at

stake? White women were afforded the luxury of marching and then compartmentalizing the

issues that the march addressed. White women were able to go on with their lives. Black women
and other minority women did not have that luxury. Black women are still marching and can

never stop marching for their rights and liberation because their lives depend on it.

A conversation immediately after the Womens March provides an example of white

womens political privilege. The conversation centered around the shock of the majority white

women in attendance at the march and disbelief that so many white women voted for Trump. A

ride sharer in an Uber Pool interjected into a conversation between two young Black women:

Im a white woman who voted for Donald Trump, so you think Im a racist? The white woman

further went on to call herself a humanist. A humanist is someone who believes in the value

and agency of all human beings. It would be fair to question this white womans definition of a

humanist and how she believes through her political vote she is a sufficient example of the

humanism ideology. This conversation is one example of how white womens political agendas

do not advocate for all women. White women may believe they are advocating for the good of

the people, for all women, but are actually suppressing Black, Muslim, immigrant, LGBTQ, and

other minority groups which Black women find themselves in.

As evidenced by the historical occurrences of womens rights movements in the 1800s

and 1900s, there has been a pattern of Black women being excluded from the political agendas of

the different movements. All women has consistently meant all white women. This creates the

issue that white womens politics have consistently excluded Black women in the fight for fair

treatment. The relationship between white women and Black women, especially in politics, has a

historical pattern that is the foundation for the outcome of the recent election and the basis of

critique for events like the Women's March on Washington today. White women cannot fully

participate or advocate for all womens issues because their white privilege excludes them from
the narrative of systemic oppression. The true struggle of Black women cannot be addressed in

white womens politics because her whiteness prevents her from seeing the struggle of Black

women. This is why it is vital for Black women to create race specific political spaces so that the

Black womans voice is not drowned out by white womens political activism. The white woman

will always put her womanhood first and deem all other struggles as less important when Black

women simultaneously battle being a Black woman, being a lesbian Black woman, being a

Muslim Black woman, being a Black women immigrant, and so on. Womanhood is the only

battle white women are fighting, so white women will cleave to this oppression and lessen other

oppressions faced by all women.

 Works Cited

10 Actions / 100 Days: We Belong Together." Women's March on Washington. N.p., n.d. Web.

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Black Women in Politics: From Social Mobilizing to Elected Office." AAUW: Empowering

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Carroll, Susan, and Kathy Kleeman. "Historic Gender Gap Isnt Enough to Propel Clinton to

Victory in 2016 Presidential Race." Center for American Women and Politics Rutgers.

Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics, 23 Nov. 2016. Web.

Cobble, Dorothy Sue. Womens Job Rights. The Other Women's Movement: Workplace

Justice and Social Rights in Modern America, Princeton University Press, 2004, pp.

6993, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7s2pv.9.

Darcy, R., and Charles D. Hadley. BLACK WOMEN IN POLITICS: THE PUZZLE OF

SUCCESS. Social Science Quarterly, vol. 69, no. 3, 1988, pp. 629645.,

www.jstor.org/stable/42862442.

"First Lady Michelle Obama's Speech On Donald Trump's Alleged Treatment Of Women."

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"Introduction to Women in the Progressive Era." Women in the Progressive Era. Web.

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<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlqH_crpTec>.