In this interview, "black, lesbian, womanist, feminist, poet and survivor" e nina jay tells us how working at a rape crisis center brought her to poetry, how she survives rape and incest, why women-only space is important and how she challenges racism in the feminist movement.
They say feminist struggles have made great steps forward. But we are still being murdered.
They say now women have more voice. But we are still being murdered.
They say women are now taken into account. But we are still being murdered.
One of the ways in which pornography perpetrates and reinforces sexism and racism is the normalisation of terror and hate. If we look at the parallel between sexist and racist pornography with sexist and racist jokes, the process becomes clear. In both cases, where previously discriminations based on sex and race are unacceptable in any circumstances, they are “redeemed” through pornography/jokes, because the former is seen as only providing sexual gratification, and the latter is just for a laugh.
We recognize that these women have taken a huge risk in the hopes of a better life, a life that is widely promoted by developing nations. It is easy for traffickers to promote and sell to these women – their lives offer few alternatives. Our government has colluded with these traffickers by applying tremendous pressure with other first world nations to demand that third world countries conform to the western market ideologies hidden in calls for freedom and democracy.
Racism makes Black women and girls especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation and keeps them trapped in the sex industry. It does this by limiting educational and career opportunities for African-Americans in this country. It does this through a welfare system that has divided the poor Black family. If a mother works, or her children’s father contributes to their support, her check and food stamps are cut by that amount. Thus, poor Black women are left alone to find for themselves and their children on inadequate Aid to Families with Children grants.
I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize
male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have
come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in
each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible
weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank
checks.
"A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political. In our consciousness-raising sessions, for example, we have in many ways gone beyond white women's revelations because we are dealing with the implications of race and class as well as sex."
