Against White Feminism

Against White Feminism

Summary

Personal, provocative and powerfully persuasive - an essential guide to what white feminism is, why it matters, and how we can put an end to it

'Thoughtful and provocative... It is a must-read' Roxane Gay

'A book to make you stop and think' Mishal Husain


'
This book is going to light fires everywhere, so if you are prone to combust, get right the hell out of the way' Lit Hub

Most of us believe that feminism is a force for good. In the past 200 years, it has paved the way for women to advance economically, increasing their safety and their power in society, and advocating for their needs and experiences. But not for all women.

If you are poor, if you are an immigrant to the West or (even worse) don't live here at all, and above all if your skin is not white, the door to mainstream feminism has been shut against you from day one. This is not oversight or an accident. It is an active and sustained strategy to advance white women at the expense of everyone else. And what makes this strategy especially dangerous - and especially effective - is that most white people have no idea they are participating in it.

Attorney and activist Rafia Zakaria shines a spotlight on this urgent issue, revealing the fingerprints of white supremacy all over the feminist movement: from early suffragette campaigns right up to the divided and profoundly unequal world we inherit today. And she issues a powerful call to every reader to join her in building a new kind of feminism, lighting the path to emancipation for all.

Reviews

  • Bracing and compassionate... Make room beside Audre Lorde and Angela Davis on your shelves
    Chicago Review of Books

About the author

Rafia Zakaria

Rafia Zakaria is an attorney, political philosopher, human rights activist, and author of two books: The Upstairs Wife (selected as one of the Most Important Nonfiction Books of the Year by Newsweek) and Veil, part of the Bloomsbury Object Lessons series. Her writing on global feminist and immigrant issues has appeared in The Baffler and DAWN (Pakistan's largest English-language daily), where she writes regular columns, as well as in the New York Times, Guardian, New Republic, Nation, CNN Opinion and more. Zakaria is currently a Research Scholar at the Colin Powell Center for Civic Leadership at City College New York. Born and raised in Karachi, she now lives in Indiana.
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