Response to Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism

Thompson’s article clarified for me, a feeling I have had since I started this class. My understanding of the feminist movements before taking this class has been very skewed. Until taking this course, I never thought to question the narrative which either excludes/ignores the issue of race from the feminist movements or presents non-white feminisms as a reaction to white or “mainstream” feminism.

Overall, Thompson clearly articulates this widespread misunderstanding. Additionally, by citing specific vocabulary, history, authors and groups, Thompson offers a much fuller view of the important role of women of color in the history of second-wave feminism. She also outlines the pitfalls of hegemonic feminist thinking and quotes women of color on their opinions of the exclusion of women of color in feminist movements.

However, I find parts of her article are still somehow lacking. The title of the article, Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism suggests that she is writing specifically about the omission of women of color in the narrative of the feminist movements. In her article, however, she has a tendency to continuously pair women of color with working-class women, militant white women, and anti-racist feminists.

Plainly, I think this approach to the subject subtly continues the marginalization of the feminisms of women of color. Lots of parts of the article speak to the singularity and importance of multiracial feminism, but her pivots back to white contribution seem to undermine it.

Certainly it is important to discuss how white women can, and have been successful allies to women of color, but I felt the amount of space devoted to this topic in the article was unnecessary. I thought the article was meant to specifically discuss the exclusion of women of color, from the historical narrative of Second-Wave Feminism and their contributions and importance in that movement. I felt that the extensive discussion of white, anti-racist feminists was out of place in the article and didn’t directly serve the point.