The Wayward Scholar

The political climate of our nation these past several months has left me with a loss for words. It has been a travesty. I admit that I am still developing much of my values and ideas about what is best for our nation and how that aligns with what I find to be best for myself, family, friends and my neighbors. I’d like to think that I am politically conscious and think that I have always been so even if I haven’t been as political engaged, active or competent until fairly recently. When I say politically conscious I mean that I am aware of what is occurring domestically, internationally and globally. I advocate for issues from the perspective of a global citizen. It means that I set myself to be an active learner and listener, to be critically engaged and apply critical thinking to issues. Applying knowledge to understand, to solve problems through the lenses of variable perspectives and to challenge and question with a healthy skepticism and then articulate the education acquired with scholarly proficiency.

This is all relevant to my own understanding and self-identification as a feminist. Evaluating the candidates for presidency has created a major conflict for me as a feminist. Unfortunately, due to several dozen not-so-innocuous micro aggressions involving tone policing, respectability politics, body politics, relational justice, antagonism and racial justice…etc. I didn’t know who deserved my votes.

I was discussing this brazen conflict with my partner and he asked me to evaluate where my core issues were and which candidates would best advocate for them. Of course, the top two contenders were Racism, Racial Justice and Women’s Rights, Equality and Feminism. Neither of the democratic candidates seem to fully embody advocacy for either of these issues at the depth that I have been seeking and I know that many progressive black scholars, writers and academics that I highly respect and admire have denounced their support for Hilary long ago. They have compelling reasons that go beyond racial justice but also incorporate racial justice as well. Perhaps I’m too young to understand, to remember her during Clinton’s presidency or to comprehend her influence throughout politics but nevertheless I had been on the fence. It was then he asked me a striking question, “What would you choose; given you could only do work for one cause for the rest of your life?” Would I choose women’s rights and men’s work or racial justice? After some startling thought I decided that I choose women, I chose Feminism. Here’s why:

I LOVE and LIKE women. That may first appear redundant to some but there is certainly a difference. Loving women requires the ability to forge deep connections and have the ability to feel deep unconditional affection. To like someone, there must be the acceptance and celebration of finding parallels and similarities between us. I have affection and admiration for the characteristics that align well with my internal values, beliefs, emotions and sense of identity. The nature of masculine patriarchy and misogyny fundamentally opposes the ability to both love and like women. Hegemonic masculinity and maleness in our culture is determined based on a man’s ability to control women and exert dominance over women’s bodies. I however, do not require or desire the need to take away anyone’s independence and autonomy.

My personal identity and construction of masculinity is not bound to my ability to control women. I do not require women to make me feel important, empowered, strong, attractive and confident. I do not need women to dress a certain way or to express themselves as “ladies” (whatever that really means) in specific contexts that caters to my own feelings, mood or needs to ensure that I am always comfortable. I don’t believe that women only exist to serve me or anyone other than themselves. I recognize that women are human beings after all. You know, just like me.

I choose feminism because feminism advances the ability and opportunity for equal and equitable access to both genders in all social, political and economic dimensions. I firmly value what feminism stands for and what fundamentally feminism, black feminism, intersectional feminism(s) and womanism advocate. Bell hooks said it best in her novel Feminist Theory: Margin to Center (2000)

“It is the freedom to decide her own destiny; freedom from x-determined role; freedom from society’s oppressive restrictions; freedom to express her thoughts fully and to convert them freely into action. Feminism demands the acceptance of woman’s right to individual conscience and judgment. It postulates that woman’s essential worth stems from her common humanity and does not depend on the other relationships of her life.”

I believe Justice for Women IS Racial Justice. In other words, Black Feminism. Neither racial justice or women’s rights neither can make true advancement without the progress of the other because of our intersectional identities of race, gender, class…etc. These identities are all powerful shapers of our lives as well as our movements. An example of this is the Black Lives Matter/Pro Life group at Purdue University that were campaigning against abortions specifically against black women having abortions (check out the story here). Their conceptualization of Black Lives Matter is to administer a racist misogynistic solution of controlling black women’s bodies as a means to protect black lives.

I feel that if these groups truly stood up for Black Lives and wanted to “protect the vulnerable among them” then they wouldn’t resort to campaigns that shame black women, their bodies and their reproductive rights. Instead to truly protect these populations we would support the community, support black owned businesses, provide quality well-funded education, provide comprehensive sex education, enact responsible police reform, upturn the criminal justice system, advocate to raise the wage and fight to ensure women receive the right to equal pay and economic and political opportunity, shout down gender bias, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia and misogyny in all shape and forms…..and that’s just barely scratching the surface.

Groups like these are disgraceful, they do not want real change because all they do is terrorize people without offering any real movement or action towards progress nor justice. All of the fundamental needs and opportunity that are denied women are directly connected to the disparagement and inequality that black women and other women of color suffer. Everything in the entire world starts with women. If we provided education, quality healthcare…etc. then most of the world’s problems likely would dissipate. Because each of us are connected to a woman and those institutions that impact women end up impacting us all. A famous sociologist once said that those who are oppressors are just as oppressed as those they are oppressing.

Going back to my earlier point of the intersections of women; advocating and supporting feminists and feminism I consider as crucial to understanding how backgrounds of race, class, gender, ability, education, age…etc. contribute to the movement. None of the identities can truly be divorced from one another; it’s a packaged deal. Historically, women of color have sacrificed their advocacy for women’s rights due to the necessities of combating hatred and racism. This is true across nations and continents where women of color have had to sideline fights for equality and equity in hopes of alleviating racial disparities. Black women and other women of color have always been in the forefront and played major positive roles in the functioning of social justice, social movements and human rights. The Black Panther Party was fostered largely by women in the later years, the Stonewall riots that began the LGBT movement had begun because of trans women and gender non-conforming women of color, the apartheid in Africa was dismantled with the facilitation of women changing stances from women’s rights to racial justice. Our current generation’s new wave of black activism through Black Lives Matter was founded by three queer black women. We would not have intersectional or black feminism to account for and articulate the complexities between power, privilege and justice without our women.

In this context, by our women I am referring to Black women and women of color. Black women hold the reigns, they protect our women, protect our black women, protect our black men and bear our children. The way I think of it is if they were so powerless, why spend so much time oppressing this group unless they actually were powerful. Black Lives Matter Movement is an example of new wave of black activism which began on the foundation of three queer black women. Women are central to the functioning of society because women contribute most highly to reproductive and un-reproductive work. Women give birth to our children; boys and girls and nurture them into adulthood while providing the passing down the skills needed to survive in the world. Our adult women protect the girls by helping them grow and mature into women, they essentially create new women to replace them and continue the legacy.

Our adult women protect our boys whom grow into men. Our women keep them alive and fight for their freedoms and for justice as a war over their bodies wages in modern culture. Our black women surrender their own equality and their own bodies to create our lives and are the starting point of each of our destinies. Maximizing each of our starting points as both women and men theoretically will maximize our end points with flourishing lives. Although racism and racial equality and racial domination likely will persist; I suggest that the conditions that we advocate for within racial justice will see dramatic progress precisely as consequence to the dedication and acknowledgement of the intersections that our black women face.

Ultimately, it’s not about me anyway. I’m a man and although my ally-ship and advocacy is significant, the last discussion we should be having is why some men are feminist and why some men aren’t. But it’s neither my place nor my job to solely educate you. It’s not the job for women of color to educate you either. It is imperative that you educate yourselves and it’s well past due. As a gay man; my interaction and relationship with women is not stringent upon any romantic or sexual contingency likely to occur when men practice loving and liking women. Thereby, my perspective is not without faults.

I am choosing feminism because I also acknowledge my privilege as a man and understand how easy it is to turn away. Being Black is who I am; the first precursor being the shade and hue of my skin. Being black is something that I am all the time and everywhere I go but I am never a woman. If advocating for sexual assault survivors or potential victims gets to be too much for me, I can walk away. If a man or a woman makes a comment that is victim-blaming or objectifying, I can ignore it. If I get a job offer that rightfully belonged to a much more qualified woman, I can pretend that I don’t know how our patriarchal structures infiltrate the workplace through gender and take the promise of a healthier salary. I have that privilege that no one criticizes or dissects the male body on a daily basis and can turn a blind eye when it occurs to the women around me. Because I know that I can, I do not. I refuse to indulge in that privilege, become blind and become a part of the problem. I choose to actively resist and use that privilege to manage change and think of it as my duty to advocate in spaces where women’s voices do not exist and bring help bring those voices to the table.

In conclusion, as a feminist I must seek to deliberately apply a holistic perspective to my political decision-making. If I want what is best for Black, Brown, African-American people then I must also want what is best for Black, Brown and African-American women. I can only choose one candidate and now I think I know who I am voting for.