Half breed belongs no where. Half breed is reviled and raped by white and coloured alike. Half breed is what you better live in fear of Virago, if we ever meet in flesh I’ll rip yours. I have no intellect. Do not no how to argue you. So I will strike out physically. I will cut you if I ever meet you because I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m half breed.

You attack Mar Iguana and me (when as far as I know I was in no discussion let alone argument with you until you used that term pseudo white and all that you wrapped around it. You RACIST!

YOU are the POC who has resorted to “discrimination on the basis of race.”

“spit the dummy”: Baulk at, get angry about, or simply, obstinately refuse to do, something. A dummy is what some Americans call a pacifier, and when a baby spits the dummy it just can’t be pacified.

I’ve been accused of doing this about feminist issues my entire life, so the nickname seemed appropriate for this site!

I parse this whole thing exactly as you do.

I wish you the blessings of Kitchen Happiness, and Joy in the existence of this Beautiful Earth. Success and Satisfaction in the pusuit of your best physical health.

Good night.

In response to your second (or is is your third?) quotation of Twisty’s comment, what I’m trying to say is that on this blog the idea is that feminism is most important because on this blog it is set up that way. We can discuss other things and believe other things to be equally or more important but for the purposes of this blog nothing is more important than feminism. I don’t come here to argue about which “ism” is most important to fight for first because on this blog I don’t want to have to defend feminism AT ALL. Even against racism. Or world hunger. Or genocide. Against ANYTHING.

I will relate more to people who hold the same basic principles I do

I agree. Unfortunately, the way that works in practice has meant that, even though we adopt the shared mantle of feminism, it absolutely doesn’t necessarily mean that we hold the same basic principles in regards to race or class.

Discrimination on the basis of race is so invasive that, yes, even POC resort to it. It’s a real problem in American feminism (I should just admit right now that I am guilty of knowing little outside of American, black/African-American, and Chicana issues in regards to feminism), a real problem that drives women away from feminism.

And why should women adopt the principles of a movement that doesn’t take into account their concerns as women of color? I have, but I get very leery of continuing to do so when I see how WOC’s issues are marginalized.

the divisions that already exist in wider society are often not addressed for what they really are but end up being blamed on “feminism** (because it’s racist and only for white women(???!!))”.

In America, yes, feminism is often believed to be racist and only for white women. That isn’t a view from outside the feminist movement, either. It comes from within the movement as well.

White women have a smidge more privilege (yes, because of the efforts of feminists) and that allows them to have the greater ability (versus WOC) to fight the patriarchy–but it also means that the racism white women almost invariable harbor becomes part of the movement.

I think addressing these issues means that a lot of people would have to back down from a lot of privilege and convincing people to give up privilege is, to put it mildly, very difficult. In my own experience, it is extremely difficult for me to do so, so I understand this.

*there is racism everywhere of course, it’s part of the patriarchal package, but just because it plays out one way in USA does not mean it plays out like that everywhere.

I definitely am interested in hearing about your experience in the UK (and, well, wherever you have experience with feminism), therealUK. As you Spit the Dummy (is this an Australian term?) rightfully points out, there is a world outide the continental US, outside America, and those voices are missing from my experience (and, I would guess, from the experience of most American feminists). In other words, I know fuck-all about feminism in the UK.

Virago, your claims of having been the victim of ad-hominem attacks by MarIguana and MedeoOnCrack would be more effective if you didn’t immediately follow them with an attack on MarIguana! An attack on MarIguana’s opinions on a different subject even. Why is another thread on a totally different subject at all relevant to this one, except for the fact that you disgreed with MarIguana’s opinion on that thread, too?

I was extra careful in using American WOC in my comment to therealUK, and she seemed to have no problem with that designation.

If you mean by “no problem” she remained polite, then I agree with you. However, she did have to keep re-stating her arguments because you failed to understand them. Just as, I notice, you failed to understand quite a lot of other comments on this thread. You’ll forgive me but you seem to be so involved in what you want to say that you aren’t really LISTENING to what other people are saying. The fact that other women of colour are disagreeing with you should be a flag for you to consider the possibility that somebody here may have a point of view worth listening to. Otherwise, why are you here? You make many interesting points but it would be a shame if your zeal made you deaf to all other points of view, especially on a list such as this one.