When feminism is talked about the conversation is usually focused on one group: white women. This has been a problem for years with feminism, going back to the suffrage movement and during slavery/abolition. Feminism that only applies to white women (which is called white feminism) has commonly ignored and disregarded the specific sexism that happens towards Black women, Hispanic women, Asian women, and Native women. Not only does this happen with race, but also with other groups of women such as poor women (feminism tends too focus on middle/upper class white women), muslim women (other religions as well), disabled women, and LGTBQ women.

To look at racism in the feminist movement you have to go back to the suffrage/abolition movements. As many white suffragettes were racist and supported slavery, others were anti-slavery and supported the abolition. Though this support for abolition was conditional. One of the most esteemed feminists Susan B. Anthony was pro-abolition, until it came to the voting rights of Black men. When the 15th amendment was going to be passed, which gave Black men the right to vote before white women, many white suffragettes were angry, dropped their fight to end slavery, and turned to racism to try and ensure that Black men couldn’t vote. As the fight for voting rights between white women and Black men went on it ignored Black women, who wouldn’t get to vote whether white women or Black men did. This resulted in many Black suffragettes speaking out and resulted in Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech to put focus on the fight for civil rights for Black women. Even in the 1920s when women got the right to vote Black and Hispanic women couldn’t vote due to racist restrictions. When Black and Hispanic women reached out to white suffragettes for help they were denied.

One problem of feminism is that it assumes that women of all races have the same needs when it comes to feminism. Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native women all have different needs when it comes to fighting sexism, because not only do they have to fight sexism, they have to fight racism as well. In response to these different needs women of color have had to create their own feminist movements. Black women created womanism, a feminist movement based on the specific misogyny that Black women experience. Hispanic women, Asian women, and Native women also have their own feminist movements based on the specific misogyny that they experience. Women of color, poor women, muslim women, and LGTBQ women all have specific needs when it comes to feminism that is ignored to favor the interests of middle/upper class straight white women. This is when the need for intersectional feminism comes in. Intersectional feminism is a movement that focuses on all different types of women and their specific needs when it come to feminism.

Of course, feminism and racism goes way deeper, but I wanted to try and keep this short and just give the gist of it. Feminism tends to ignore racism when the two cross paths with each almost all the time. A feminist movement that excludes certain women is not a true feminist movement. No woman can truly be free until all women are free.