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I think that the same kind of openness and fluidity and willingness to interrogate power that we, as feminists, expect from men in alliance on questions of class should also be the expectation that women of colour can rely upon with our white feminist allies.
Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Openness and willingness to question authority should be mutual between feminists and their allies.

In this quote, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw emphasizes the importance of mutual openness and engagement within feminist movements. She argues that just as feminists expect men to be receptive and critical of power structures related to class, women of color should have the same expectation of support and understanding from white feminist allies. This underscores the necessity for solidarity and accountability across different intersections of identity in the pursuit of equality and social justice.

Themes

OpennessFeminismAllianceIntersectionalityPower

In practice

Example use cases

During a women's empowerment workshop, to illustrate the importance of allyship, one can quote this to highlight the need for mutual understanding.

More from Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

The struggle against patriarchy and racism must be substantively robust and inextricably intertwined.
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I have a wonderful, diverse, and young staff at the AAPF who pretty much work around the clock trying to figure out how we promote the idea that social justice requires us to be intersectional in our thinking and in our scope of vision.
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If you don't have a lens that's been trained to look at how various forms of discrimination come together, you're unlikely to develop a set of policies that will be as inclusive as they need to be.
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We have to move back to the idea that education isn't about teaching people to bow to rigid rules. That's not what democracy is about.
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Having a monolithic view of feminism is suffocating.
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We must begin to tell black women's stories because, without them, we cannot tell the story of black men, white men, white women, or anyone else in this country. The story of black women is critical because those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.
Kimberle Williams CrenshawRead

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