“Time and time again, I have observed that the usual response among white women's groups when the "racism issue" comes up is to deny the difference. I have heard comments like, "Well, we're open to all women; why don't they (women of color) come? You can only do so much..."”

—  Cherríe Moraga

But there is seldom any analysis of how the very nature and structure of the group itself may be founded on racist or classist assumptions. More important, so often the women seem to feel no loss, no lack, no absence when women of color are not involved; therefore, there is little desire to change the situation. This has hurt me deeply. I have come to believe that the only reason women of a privileged class will dare to look at how it is that they oppress, is when they've come to know the meaning of their own oppression. And understand that the oppression of others hurts them personally.
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 30, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Time and time again, I have observed that the usual response among white women's groups when the "racism issue" comes u…" by Cherríe Moraga?
Cherríe Moraga photo
Cherríe Moraga 8
American writer 1952

Related quotes

Toni Morrison photo

“Black women write differently from white women. This is the most marked difference of all those combinations of black and white, male and female. It's not so much that women write differently from men, but that black women write differently from white women. Black men don't write very differently from white men.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Black Women Writers at Work (1983) by Claudia Tate

Paula Jones photo

“Why would Hillary not want to say, ‘I’m going to get to the bottom of this and these women deserve to be heard. And I’m gonna listen to every one of these women. And I’m gonna make a decision after I hear everything that they have to say. And at that point in time I will make a decision.’ But she never has come to any of these women to see if her husband did what he did to them. And you know she don’t want to. Because she knows it’s true. But why wouldn’t she do that? If she was a woman who’s as out there, oh, to support all women and all women have a right to be heard. And she has the nerve to run for the presidency of the United States and run for all women and to be for all women.”

Paula Jones (1966) American intern

Paula Jones: The Truth About Bill’s Women Would ‘Destroy’ Hillary’s Political Career https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/08/exclusive-paula-jones-the-truth-about-bills-women-would-destroy-hillarys-political-career/ (March 8, 2016)

Joice Mujuru photo

“I will support you and you can send me anywhere, when it comes to issues involving women empowerment and family unity.”

Joice Mujuru (1955) Zimbabwean politician

Source: "Former Zim vice-president Joice Mujuru ‘not into politics any more’" https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2021-03-09-former-zim-vice-president-joice-mujuru-not-into-politics-any-more/, Times Live (March 9, 2021)

Tony Abbott photo

“While I think men and women are equal, they are also different and I think it's inevitable and I don't think it's a bad thing at all that we always have, say, more women doing things like physiotherapy and an enormous number of women simply doing housework”

Tony Abbott (1957) Australian politician

Quoted in "Rudd hands PM a crucial lifeline" by : Laurie Oakes http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/rudd-hands-pm-a-crucial-lifeline/story-e6frfhqf-1225902277655 in the Herald Sun, August 6, 2010.
2010

Kurt Cobain photo

“At this point I have a request for our fans. If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us - leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Incesticide liner notes (1992)

Keira Knightley photo

“A lot of times in cinema today the women are overly sentimental, so I constantly try to do the opposite. I like strident women.”

Keira Knightley (1985) British actress

Interview in Allure magazine (October 2007)

“How much more forcefully can I say it? The time has come, and it is long overdue, when Christians and conservatives and all men and women who believe in the birthright of freedom must rise up and reclaim America for Jesus Christ.”

James Kennedy (televangelist) (1930–2007) American evangelist

Character & Destiny: A Nation In Search of Its Soul D. James Kennedy, Zondervan Publishing House, 1997, p. 80

Jordan Peterson photo

“You can't have the conversation about rights without the conversation about responsibility, because your rights are my responsibility. That's what they are technically. So, you just can't have only half of that discussion. And we're only having half of that discussion. Then the questions is, 'well what are you leaving out if you're only having that half of the discussion.' And the answer is, 'well, you're leaving out responsibility.' And then the questions is, 'Well, what are you leaving out if you're leaving out responsibility.' And the answer might be: 'Well maybe you're leaving out the meaning of life.' Here you are, suffering away. What makes it worthwhile? Rights? It's almost impossible to describe how bad an idea that is. Responsibility. That's what gives life meaning. Lift a load. Then you can tolerate yourself. Look at yourself. You're useless. Easily hurt. Easily killed. Why should you have any self-respect? Pick something up and carry it. Make it heavy enough so that you can think, yah, well, useless as I am, at least I can move that from there to there. For men, there's nothing but responsibility. Women have their sets of responsibilities. They're not the same. Women have to take primary responsibility for having infants at least, then also for caring for them. They're structured differently than men for biological necessity. Women know what they have to do. Men have to figure out what they have to do. And if they have nothing worth living for, then they stay Peter Pan. And why the hell not? The alternative to valued responsibility is low class pleasure. Why lift a load if there's nothing in it for you? And that's what we're doing to men and boys that's a very bad idea. Basically we give them the message, 'you're pathological and oppressive.' They often respond, 'fine then, why the hell should I play? If I get no credit for bearing responsibility, then you can be sure I won't bear any.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Then your life is useless and meaningless, and you're full of self contempt and nihilism, and that's not good. And so that's what I think is going on at a deeper level with regard to men needing this direction. A man has to decide that he's going to do something. He has to decide that."
Concepts

Donald J. Trump photo

“People want me to [run for president] all the time … I don't like it. Can you imagine how controversial I'd be? You think about [Bill Clinton] and the women. How about me with the women? Can you imagine?”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

On Hardball with Chris Matthews, as quoted in the New York Post. http://nypost.com/1999/07/12/trump-toys-with-prez-run
1990s

“There can be no such thing as a simple "women's issue" in a capitalist system founded on the enslavement of Africans, in which racism remains embedded in its foundation and all its institutions. Nearly every so-called "women's" issue has a racial component.”

Sharon Smith (writer) (1956) American historian

A Marxist Case For Intersectionality (2017)

Related topics