BIFP Meeting 6: Acknowledging and Confronting Racism

Thank you to everyone who came to the sixth meeting of the Bipartisan Feminist Project last night!

At this meeting, we discussed cultural barriers in the women’s movement, completing our review of the four major reasons people do not support the feminist movement: political differences, gender differences, being a woman, and cultural differences. By creating an open forum to discuss these issues which people usually shy away from, we aim to get more people on board with feminism.

We discussed that since the 19th century, the women’s movement has been led by white women, and has consequently brushed aside the issues of women of color. Although much progress has been made in racial equality since the 19th century, racism in the women’s movement often persists because people are afraid to talk about it. Insisting on being “color blind” is not necessarily beneficial, because it ignores the fact that people of different races are unfortunately seen and treated differently.

At the Bipartisan Feminist Project, we believe that awareness and open discussion of societal problems is the first step in confronting them.