Houston, We Have a White Women Problem
I was feeling super out of sorts on the Monday before Election Day, as I imagine many of you were. It took me a minute to realize this was the first election in decades that I wasn’t working on a campaign or doing exit polling. And when you’re doing the work, you don’t always feel the knot in your stomach as acutely.
As it turns out, young people and women of color saved our asses, as they often do. We can attribute all wins to record turnout by young voters and organizing by women of color. Laphonza Butler, Alexis McGill Johnson, Mini Timmaraju, Presidents of Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood, and NARAL, respectively traveled across the country rallying voters.
And then there’s white women. Lord. Exit polls in Georgia show that 72% of white women voted for the incumbent Republican Governor, Brian Kemp. Nationally, white women apparently don’t trust Democrats on the economy and inflation.
On the weekend before the election, I had read the newly released White Women: Everything You Already Know about Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, by my friend Saira Rao and her business partner Regina Jackson. It’s already made The New York Times bestseller list and is the most brutally honest and insightful assessment of white women’s role in upholding the patriarchy and gaslighting, minimizing and erasing women of color.
It’s hard to pick a quote from this book, because the whole thing is quotable. But white women voters purported concerns about the economy is an apt illustration of this point made by Saira and Regina:
“White wellness isn’t concerned with systemic wellness–things like eradicating poverty or building adequate housing or establishing free healthcare or ending hunger or abolishing justice. White wellness doesn’t promote wellness beyond self. Communal wellness is not a thing in these circles because communal wellness requires us to really look within.”
What happens now? Well, we get some rest, hydrate, and return to organizing. Because our vision is for collective liberation not just individual freedom.
See you in the streets,
Sayu