Multiracial feminist theory is a feminist theory thought to have gained momentum in the 1970s by feminist women of color. Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill wrote “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism” in 1996, a piece emphasising intersectionality and the application of intersectional analysis in feminist discourse.
Contents
Women of color have challenged the use of the second-wave movement as it places women's oppression at the root of sexism, without any regards to other forms of domination. Generally speaking, women of color acknowledge that race acted as a foundational power structure that heavily effected their lives. The activist work of WOC has been erased from the second wave movement. The term, "multiracial" was used to illustrate the importance of race interacting with other forms of oppression to understand gender relations. With a focus on race, multiracial feminism acknowledges, "the social construction of differently situated social groups and their varying degrees of advantages and power". One definition of multiracial feminism is, "an attempt to go beyond a mere recognition of diversity and difference among women to examine structures of domination, specifically the importance of race in understanding the social construction of gender." The central point of this perspective is to focus in on the significance of race, institutionalized racism, and struggles against racial oppression to understand how various forms of domination influence women's experiences.
Overview
A product, in part, of Chicana feminism, multiracial feminist theory covers a wide range of gender-based, racial and political discourses intended to further analyze the interlocking oppressions minorities, women, women of color and other oppressions individuals face.
History
Having first gained steam in the 1970s, multiracial feminism grew as a movement to challenge racist, classist, and sexist barriers not as separate, singular matters but as interlocking identities that make up both privilege and oppression. Multiracial feminism is described as a “liberation movement spearheaded by women of color” and focused primarily on intersectional analysis and both an international and a multiracial approach to oppression.
Although not acknowledged by the second wave movement, women of color and white women took a stand to combat racism and colonialism. Black feminists believed that, "cross-racial struggle made clear the work that white women needed to do in order for cross-racial sisterhood to really be powerful." White women also recognized that sexism was not the root of women's oppression. They collaborated to put forth an anti-rascist movement that incorporated interlocking forms of oppression.
Notable proponents
Application
It is widely agreed by many if not most multiracial feminists that multiracial feminist theory is needed in order to broaden feminist discourse and bring much-needed intersectionality to contemporary feminist movements. In spite of this, however, multiracial feminism struggles to gain momentum as an intersectional approach to combating oppression and is fairly new concept in the world of quantitative research. New though it may be, Catherine Harnios in her book, Feminist Measure in Survey Research, writes that multiracial feminism may be more beneficial to feminist discourse than once thought.
Family study, formation and power relations have been extensively examined using a multiracial feminist approach, the results of which reveal a hidden power dynamic between “advantaged families and disadvantaged families.” Advantaged families have been shown to rely upon the labor and disadvantage of poorer families, women, women of color, minorities and immigrants.
Women of color provide an "outsider within" perspective as they are active participants in domination while also continue to be oppressed by it. In understanding multiracial feminism, it is important to note how interlocking forms of oppression persist to marginalize groups of people. Although people continue to be oppressed, others are privileged at the sacrifice of those who don't obtain benefits of the system. Patricia Hill Collins defines the term, Matrix of Domination, to refer to how various forms of oppression work different depending on what social location one obtains. In reference to this term, people will have varying experiences with gender, class, race, & sexuality, depending on what social position one has in relation to structural powers. In terms of interlocking oppressions, this results in different social groups experiencing varying subordination and privilege.
Activism
Though women of color are rarely credited as being prevalent in the 2nd Wave feminist movement, it has become evident that multiracial feminism was very much present in the 1980s through the 1990s and even today.
In the 1970s, women of color worked alongside hegemonic, white feminist groups but found it to be mostly centered on the white, middleclass feminist issues of the time. With the help of white, anti-racist women, women of color gave rise to multiracial feminist theory and led to the development of organizations created by and for women of color.
Multiracial feminists of the 1980s challenged white feminism by speaking out of the individual experiences of women of color, immigrants, and “third-world women” who had been largely swept under the rug. This was mostly done through multiracial feminist writings which have been revealed to date as far back as the 1960s.
Online activism
There has been a notable increase of multiracial feminists, journalists and bloggers using online media to write about and theorize on intersectionality and multiracial experience as it relates to class, gender and race cooperatively in contemporary society.
Journalist for msmagazine.com, Janell Hobson, wrote a critique of white feminist activism pointing out the fact that women of color are still being left out of the conversation in current feminist discourse. She claims that it is time feminists “reclaim solidarity” by recognizing race and gender as being intertwined, rather than separate matters to be deal with individually.
Similarly, Lara Witt who writes for Rewire.news, calls upon both her privilege and oppression to understand her role as a multiracial feminist with the ability to speak out against racism towards Black, Hispanic, and Indian people.
Organizations
In April 1996, there was a rally in Middletown, Connecticut led by a multiracial coalition. Taking place at Wesleyan University, the rally was organized in defense of journalist and author Mumia Abu-Jamal who had been placed on death row in Pennsylvania.
Criticism
Some criticisms have been raised challenging whether or not multiracial feminist theory can actually produce measurable results due to a lack of “existing survey tools” by which to quantify or examine those experiences. It is unclear as to whether or not these criticisms will be the undoing of multiracial feminist theory or if such drawbacks can be overcome with more time and research.