Sojourner Truth: White Feminism

White feminism is a term that refers to the “feminist” ideology that focuses on the issues pertaining to white women while, simultaneously, ignoring the struggles faces by women of other races. Throughout history, there has always been a privilege pertaining to whiteness, one of which happens to be the ability to mobilize movements with greater ease, such as the case with many feminist movements. The downfall in this is that white feminism tends to disguise itself as being a movement for all women, when in fact it further oppresses the individuals it seeks to help: women of color. Universalizing feminism, or, more accurately, universalizing white feminism, results in the creation of a hierarchy between the lived experiences of different women.

The historical difference between white women and WOC is this: white women have been considered to be human, but simply not as valid as white men, while WOC have been considered to be totally sub-human. One of the best examples of this comes from Sojourner Truth’s poem “Ain’t I A Woman.” At one point, Truth makes the observation “that man over there says women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, and lifted over ditches, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?” (Carby 213-4). While many white feminists might argue that the treatment described in Truth’s piece aims to reduce women into frail beings in need of constant assistance and guidance, Black women, like Truth, were never seen as women to begin with, and therefore, were always subject to the cruel and subhuman treatment by not only white women but also white women. Through her repetition of the phrase “Ain’t I A Woman,” Truth further shows how this narrative, largely created by white women, of the reality of women doesn’t seek to include all women, pointing to the obvious erasure on behalf of white