Feminism*ish: What “Black*ish” Can Teach Us About Social Movements
posted by Dominque Elliott | November 23, 2019 | In Arts and CultureIn the episode of “Black*ish” called Femisin’t, the cast explores the different dynamics of feminism. It explores the stigmas, intersectionality, and even contradictions of feminism.
The episode starts with Rainbow learning her daughter, Diane, and her mother-in-law, Ruby, don’t identity as feminists. This is due to the stigma around it and false notions of what feminism actually means. To try to counter this, Rainbow takes Diane to her feminist group, but her daughter is further discouraged because of the lack of diversity in the group. To combat this, Rainbow invites her old girlfriends, the “Girlfriends” cast, to showcase the diversity in feminism. Although, this seemingly backfires because as Rainbow’s friends brings up more racial issues, the leader of the majority white feminist group feels like they’re trying to deviate from gender issues to race issues. Rainbow tried to explain that she and her girlfriends don’t have the privilege of separating their race from their gender as Black women. This was to no avail though, and they left.
After this, Rainbow temporarily started to believe Ruby’s point-of-view, that feminism wasn’t for them, but with her friends help she quickly dissuades the myth. Instead of staying in despair, she and her friends created a feminist group for women of color that was more inclusive.
This episode of a sitcom showcases a classic problem or conflict that was and is ever-present in a lot of feminist groups.
In the 1970s, although the feminist movement was strong, there were a lot of internal conflicts. Black feminists and other woman of color felt excluded or silenced about certain issues when taking a part of larger, majority-white feminist groups. White feminists typically didn’t have inclusive agendas to solve problems that also affected women of color. For example, they didn’t focus their activism towards issues that disproportionatly affect Black women, such as discriminatory housing policies, police brutality, and more.
These divisions contributed to the development of groups/movements like Black Feminism and Womanism. They were movements that focused on more issues that had an intersectional impact. Intersectional issues are problems associated with multiple oppressed identities. For instance, Black Feminism can focus more on discrimination based on race, sexuality, and gender.
Black Feminist groups are still around, like Black Feminist Scholars on Fayetteville State University’s campus. They welcome anyone and are open to talking about a varied amount of issues.
Divisions still remain. The recent feminist resurgence following President Trump’s election has been marred by internal division, largely centered on race. After a largely attended women’s march worldwide after Pres. Trump’s inauguration, subsequent marches were cancelled after accusations of anti-Semitism and exclusion of people of color, according to NBC News.
However feminist groups, such as N.O.W (National Organization of Woman), take strides to be more inclusive to everyone. N.O.W was founded in 1966 and tends to focused on issues of race, politics, sexual assault, income inequality, and immigration. There is Fayetteville chapter that is readily open to new members and are eager to gain college students as members as well.
The “Black*ish” episode illustrates how complicated social movements and issues can be benefitted by a thoughtful treatment in pop culture. Sitcoms, such a “Black*ish,” can make these tough, oppressive social issues a little more accessible to all of us.
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