DigitalCommons@C.O.D.

Krebaum, Joseph

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 25 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Mosquito Bites 
Joseph Krebaum 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Krebaum, Joseph (2020) "Mosquito Bites," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 25. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/25 
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has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
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Mosquito Bites                                        Joseph Krebaum
*Conntent Warning: Rape
Underneath my tight flannel clothes, there is barely any space 
for my arms to breathe. The insect bites scathe my legs and 
constellate the skin like a road map with a red rash of cities. As 
I trudge across the deep trenches of mud with the occasional 
crackling of sticks and leaves, I only have about one thing on my 
mind: “home.” “Home” being the code word for “my tent.”
It is dark, and I spot the silhouette of a man. His figure is sly, 
curving just around the waist and hungry for deliverance. I look 
up at his face. The nose is slightly upturned, the eyes hollow, 
but even so, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to ask him for help. 
Reluctant, but still hopeful, I ask the man a question.  
He answers the question. Not in the way that I want it to be 
answered, but in the way that he wants it to be answered instead. 
Without blinking, he pushes me down. Onto a log. Holds me 
down with his coarse, unwashed hands as he unzips his jeans. 
Unzips my jeans. Then, he thrusts his hips wildly as he forces 
me to stay down on the log, trying not to break concentration. 
After all, this is his destiny. The man violates my personal space 
as if his life depends on it. A violent pattern of penetrating gasps 
of air and “Oh yeah.” I try to scream my answer out loud. But he 
doesn’t care. He doesn’t care. As offensive as he gets, he doesn’t 
look back as he pulls me toward him. Brutalizes me. Pounds 
me so hard that my flesh tears open, and I no longer focus on 
the irritating bug bites covering my razor-thin legs. Groans. 
Ejaculates. 
And before I know it, the question becomes a memory. 
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English

Mosquito Bites

Tellez, Bianca

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 34 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Possibilities 
Bianca Tellez 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Tellez, Bianca (2020) "Possibilities," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 34. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/34 
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has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Possibilities                                            Bianca Tellez
“Do you think we’re capable of seeing something other than 
ourselves?” 
 “I don’t think I follow.” 
“I mean,” Hesitation. It was one of those moments where 
you knew exactly what you wanted to say but had no way to 
put it into words. Somehow even a thousand words couldn’t 
accurately describe the infinite range of emotions you felt. 
The curiosity that bubbled from the deepest parts of your 
mind. The wonderous sparkle that you knew would blink 
back at you in your own reflection. The secret longing that 
practically ate you alive.
“I mean we live in a blur of moments and those moments 
are the only things that matter. But what about the moments 
we don’t get a chance to see? The moments that are lost to 
other universes? The possibilities? Like this morning. I was 
sitting in the library, and I had my bag on the chair beside 
me. This woman walked in, and she was obviously really 
tired. I thought about what would happen if I just took my 
bag off the chair and invited her over. She would thank me 
and awkwardly sit down because Oh my God! What does 
this person want from me? I would take my lunch out of my 
bag and offer her some, and we would eat it in secret so the 
librarians wouldn’t notice. She would tell me about how she 
just started taking college classes again, because she had to 
drop out when she got pregnant. She would have a daughter 
who was in kindergarten now, and she had eight hours a day 
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to kill so why not finish that degree in chemical engineering? 
I didn’t do that though.  She walked away to a different table, 
but I could so clearly picture her and her daughter three years 
later when she finally graduated. That little girl would be so 
proud of her mom and I just sat there because it was early, 
and I didn’t really want to talk to anyone.
And then at the store, I almost crashed into this guy in the 
cereal aisle, and we both went our separate ways shortly after. 
But what if we hadn’t? I could so clearly see this conversation 
that we would have. I’d notice the things in his cart and point 
out that it looked like he was going on a trip. He’d say he was, 
and we’d talk about how I haven’t been on one in years. Then, 
shockingly enough, he’d say his friend bailed on him and that 
I was welcome to join as long as I chipped in on gas money. 
We’d travel all around the US and later the world, seeing 
everything from rain forests to deserts to mountains. But 
again, neither of us had any intention of making small talk. 
I honestly believe that those moments, those futures we live 
out in brief two-second interactions with strangers are some 
of the purest thoughts of all. They’re the moments where we 
don’t judge based on anything. We look at somebody and can 
suddenly see a whole range of possibilities of every kind. 
Or what about right now. I can see us finishing this 
conversation. I would finish ranting about everything that 
went on inside my brain, all these possibilities. Possibilities 
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The Prairie Light Review, Vol. 42, No. 2 [2020], Art. 34
https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/34
that are so astonishingly clear to me and my brain that I’m 
sure they’re happening somewhere else outside our own little 
universe. But you would sigh. You would sigh and shake your 
head and gently tell me You’re overthinking again. I would 
insist that I wasn’t. I would tell you that this isn’t something 
that happened once. This is something that happens 
constantly. I’m constantly seeing futures where I’m just a little 
bit kinder. Ones where I put something into the world instead 
of taking from it. I see them so vividly that it disappoints me 
when they’re not real. I’d tell you that sometimes I wonder if 
you have these flashes of possibilities. I wonder if everyone 
has them. I wonder if anyone acknowledges them or if they 
simply float away to come true in another universe. I’d tell 
you that I really, truly, deeply hope that one day I will be able 
to make my possibilities something more than that. Maybe 
one day an alternate me will have a possibility that they let 
go and I will be the lucky one in the universe where that 
possibility becomes real. I’d tell you all of this and you would 
smile. Smile and wonder if it’s all just another possibility left 
to come true in another universe.”
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Tellez: Possibilities
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Possibilities

Kingston, Bridget

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 42 
Spring 5-1-2020 
When Creeks Run Again 
Bridget Kingston 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Kingston, Bridget (2020) "When Creeks Run Again," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 42. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/42 
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has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Beneath The Frozen Shroud            Michael McInerney
A wasteland is waiting.
In an otherworldly silence,
The graveyard weeps
Its crystalline winter tears.
Life is but a memory here:
Like a newborn thrust
Into an empty, ageless sleep
That time has long ago forgotten.
Lifetimes and civilizations end
But Mother Earth’s still churning.
Her lips kiss the timeless tundra.
If a star were to fall to Earth,
Would anybody find it 
Beneath the frozen shroud?
When Creeks Run Again                      Bridget Kingston
It is utterly unironic that snow damped the April
ground. You died, even as hope licked our skin
and sunlight offered its promise of a ripe tomorrow.
I knew this day was coming. I knew
it when I emerged from my pillowy down to find
other sunlight, shepherding tufts of snow
down to mock the budding trees. 
There’s a certain weight as the air works its way up
from frozen to thawed. April is the pregnant
pause before an exhale. Which is why it’s not shocking, 
it’s not shocking at all
that I woke up to find your hollow
body abandoned
in my chest. I knew the risk
of the cold coming into re-
arrange the light, but with birth
comes death. I’ll bury you when
ice thaws, when 
snow softens, when
creeks run again with crystal spring water. 
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When Creeks Run Again

Murray, Karlette

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 47 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Walk in the Park 
Karlette Murray 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Murray, Karlette (2020) "Walk in the Park," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 47. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/47 
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
the sins of the world are cast up into the blood-crimson light, 
hurriedly awaiting to be hidden by the dark cover of night, where 
shame and sorrow dwell. But when the dawn comes, all of those 
sins are gone, and the day begins afresh. No regrets of the past 
are to be known here.
   Every day it is thus between the sun and the moon, between 
day and night: rise and fall, rise and fall. Each one succeeds for a 
time before she is toppled by her relentless opponent. Each does 
what the other cannot, and that is from whence their rivalry 
sprung. Neither has lost, and neither has won… and oh, they are 
so very different! 
   And so you see? That is why I have little love for sunsets - they 
are the reminder of all that has been lost in the day. And that is 
why I have great admiration for sunrises - they are the reminder 
of all that may be gained in a day. They show forth courage and 
beauty and deliver a promise that the sun will always rise, and 
tell that there will always be another tomorrow.
Walk in the Park
Karlette Murray
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Walk in the Park

Williams, Syreeta

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 53 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Dance Violin 
Syreeta Williams 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Williams, Syreeta (2020) "Dance Violin," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 53. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/53 
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has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Dance Violin                                                         Syreeta Williams
You dance in the light
Above my breasts you rest your head to lay
The lines and angles sing along ... a dance tossed forth you sway
Your melodies bend a lasting song that never ever ends
An echo of sound all to a fault that soar above the wind
Van Gogh’s Bedroom Remastered         Bea Zillius
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Dance Violin

Waters, Jim

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 67 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Do the Wave 
Jim Waters 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Waters, Jim (2020) "Do the Wave," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 67. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/67 
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more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
 We took turns tolerating and ignoring,
Making do with whatever happened to work. 
We tackled the ones we could,
Solving the fixable to make us feel better. 
And we felt better, bonded by what was unique,
Like a weed growing in the cracks,
Beautiful even though damned by its name
Surrounded by the coarse and broken company
Of sidewalk. 
We ignored 
the chipped concrete of the back porch
Stained burgundy with mulberries,
Alive with teeming flies and June bugs,
The larvae moving underneath
The garbage can lid that smelled like murder
Or the back porch that looked like murder,
Or another kind of death you have to be careful
Not to talk about.
Do the Wave                                                               Jim Waters
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Do the Wave

Fortier, Mardelle

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 68 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Express Train 
Mardelle Fortier 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Fortier, Mardelle (2020) "Express Train," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 68. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/68 
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has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Express Train                                           Mardelle Fortier
Almost instantly, the Memory brings me back
down shining rails to where I long to be.
We pass cold gray fields, so fast I can
barely feel them. Down the straight clear
tracks we flash. Steel Memory, in your
cushioned car I ride without a fear of rain.
Instantaneously, I look through this wide clean
window, I see so vividly: the sun
shining yellow-nearly-white as it did then.
Ocean, flying up to greet me, like a million
glowing flutes of rare champagne.
Memory, you bring back bliss—Special Unlimited train. 
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Express Train

Shannon Brown, Associate Professor of Education, and Dr. Ada Wainwright, Professor of Psychology, discuss the situation of schooling during COVID-19, education tips for parents and students, and managing the inherent stress of remote/e-learning

Brown, Shannon

Wainwright, Ada

diLiberti, Julia

Episode 19: Keep Calm and Educate On: How to Do Just That While COVID-19 Looms Large

ESSAI 
Volume 17 Article 6 
Spring 2019 
Foreword 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai 
Recommended Citation 
(2019) "Foreword," ESSAI: Vol. 17 , Article 6. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol17/iss1/6 
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DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in ESSAI by an authorized editor of 
DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
V 
Foreword 
 
Created in 2002 by a cross-disciplinary faculty, ESSAI, The College of DuPage Anthology of Academic 
Writing Across the Curriculum is an annual academic journal that represents a unique but inclusive 
discourse community of student writers; it fosters student success through writing across the curriculum 
and in all levels of learning at College of DuPage. It rests on our belief that writing empowers and 
prepares our students for meaningful careers and advanced academic pursuits and that, to realize such 
goals, the entire college community is responsible for incorporating writing into their courses as a vital 
part of the academic experience at our college. 
 
Like all the past volumes, this Volume XVII continues to harvest our belief in fertile cooperation with our 
cross-disciplinary faculty who implement writing in their teaching. Some of the published essays, 
therefore, have resulted because our students made use of journals, logs, microthemes, and other 
informal writing assignments encouraged in the classroom. In this way, students wrote frequently and 
improved their writing skills enabling them to comprehend better and to retain information longer. Others 
– expository work such as reports, article reviews, criticisms, research papers – attest to students’ 
successful participation in academic discourse according to the conventions of language use and style 
expected in specific disciplines. 
 
That we practice the philosophy of student success through good writing will become even more apparent 
in the journal’s name. It harkens back and pays homage to Michel de Montaigne whose seminal style of 
writing “essais” connoted one of trials and attempts. Thus ESSAI chronicles our students’ intellectual trials 
wherein they dialogically encounter diverse culturescapes, critically weigh various issues at hand and 
then engage in analytical exercises, while each evolving from a personal to a public writing self. The 
resulting published work is their expanded cultural and epistemological self endowed with talent, 
sophistication, and fresh scholarship, all expressed with clarity, eloquence, and grace. 
 
We continue our editorial tradition in making the best selections for publication. The most exemplary of 
the year’s submissions are those that: 
 
 Are completed according to assignments’ purposes 
 Have mechanics, grammar, and other technical points in place 
 Are imaginative, creative, logical, and risk-taking with respect to assignments’ purposes 
 Exhibit clarity of writing with respect to purposes 
 Follow the disciplinary format 
 Include relevant literature reviews where required 
 Demonstrate analytical abilities 
 Generate interest 
 
Join with us in honoring the exceptional talents of our student authors and our student artist whose 
graphic design adorns our cover. And watch for Volume XVIII of ESSAI which will be published in 2021. 
We appreciate your readership. Through your interest and support, our anthology will keep growing. 
 
The ESSAI Editorial Board: 
 
Brian Blevins, Graphic Design 
Franz Burnier, English 
Kris Kowal, English 
Sarah Magin, English 
Sam Mitrani, History 
Miglena Nikolova, German 
Lynda Randa, Biology 
 
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Foreword

Brennan, Caitlin

ESSAI 
Volume 17 Article 13 
Spring 2019 
White Feminism Falls Short 
Caitlin Brennan 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai 
Recommended Citation 
Brennan, Caitlin (2019) "White Feminism Falls Short," ESSAI: Vol. 17 , Article 13. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol17/iss1/13 
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has been accepted for inclusion in ESSAI by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, 
please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
20 
White Feminism Falls Short 
 
by Caitlin Brennan 
 
(English 1101) 
 
 
 
hite feminism, with its lack of intersectionality, is really just thinly veiled white 
supremacism. Look around at the faces of these movements, listen to their voices; what do 
you notice? Almost all, if not most, of the feminists we hail are white — straight, white, 
cisgendered women — and their brand of ‘equality’ was never intended for everyone. Despite more 
recent, visible strides towards equality, much of which have garnered feminists’ media attention, a lot 
of said coverage and its subsequent calls for action, despite their well-intended nature, fall short of 
the mark. Unsurprisingly, white women’s equality doesn’t extend to women outside of their 
immediate, able-bodied, straight, lily-white world. Their failure to understand inequality, beyond 
how it extends only to themselves keeps white feminists’ version of ‘feminism’ rooted in an 
oppressive and exclusive history of white supremacism.  
 What is white feminism? What is intersectional feminism? “The Huffington Post describes 
white feminism as a subcategory of the feminist movement that tends to prioritize the advocacy and 
oppression of white, heterosexual and cisgender women” (Huffington Post qtd. in Oxnevad). In brief, 
white feminism is ‘equality’ — created by white women, for white women — rebranded as 
‘feminism’. Alternatively, the idea of intersectional feminism goes beyond the average white 
woman’s immediate securities. Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘intersectional’ as “related to the way 
in which different types of discrimination ([i.e.] unfair treatment because of a person’s sex, race, etc.) 
are linked to and affect each other” (“Intersectional”). Given these definitions, intersectional 
feminism applies to feminism in that it is feminism “with… consideration of class, race, age, ability, 
sexuality, and gender as intersecting loci of discriminations or privileges” (Zimmerman 54). In short, 
intersectional feminism acts as a true platform of equality, managing to understand certain 
overlapping depths and characteristics of a person’s overall identity. Using these classifications as a 
lens, the contradictory ‘feminist’ model emerges as an umbrella term, encapsulating many conflicting 
feminist gospels. Knowing this, oversimplified categorization remains impossible; instead, the 
boundaries of these separate beliefs become clearer when you look at the history of feminism as a 
series of waves. 
 Everyone’s first introduction to feminism differs based on their own background and — in 
some cases — their privilege. According to Constance Grady, the expression itself is “now a major 
object of cultural discourse — which has led to some very confusing conversations because not 
everyone is familiar with or agrees on the basic terminology of feminism.” She writes that the idea 
that more than one subcategory of feminists had taken shelter in the feminist roster dates back to 
“1968 when a New York Times article by Martha Weinman Lear ran under the headline ‘The Second 
Feminist Wave’” (Grady). After its initial adoption, Grady explains, this “wave metaphor became a 
way to describe and distinguish between different era and generations of feminism.” Conversely, 
Grady does admit, “The wave metaphor can be reductive. It can suggest that each wave of feminism 
is a history of different ideas in wild conflict.” Despite feminism’s overall goal of equality and 
unification, using ‘wave’ terminology “can reduce each wave to a stereotype and suggest that there’s 
a sharp division between generations of feminism,” (Grady) namely illustrated by the furthering 
dissonance between white feminism and intersectional feminism.  
Grady clarifies the ‘first wave’ of feminism dating back from “1848 to 1920” as having 
originated during “the West’s first sustained political movement… the suffragettes of the late 19th 
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21 
and early 20th centuries.” Regardless of its supposed ties to the abolitionist movement, the suffrage 
movement, and the overshadowing work of “Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony 
eventually established itself as a movement specifically for white women, one that used racial animus 
as fuel for its work” (Grady). You see, Stanton and Anthony were racists, motivated by their 
animosity for black men who received the right to vote before they did (Grady). Admittedly, 
Anthony is quoted having written, “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or 
demand the ballot for the Negro” (“Celebrating”). This is unmistakable racism and bigotry on her 
part. A characteristic both white modern day feminists and white scholars all too willingly forget. As 
the suffrage movement went on to fight, furthering the rights of white women while largely ignoring 
black women, when their efforts finally amounted to the 19th Amendment of 1920 (Grady). 
Moreover, despite proclamations that the Amendment finally granted all women the freedom to vote, 
rampant racism continued to prevent black women, and black Americans overall, from voting 
(Grady).  
The 19th Amendment also excluded Native women — despite having been here long before 
white women — since Natives were not recognized as United States citizens until the Snyder Act of 
1924 (“Voting”). Even then, “with the passing of this citizenship bill, Native Americans were still 
prevented from participating in elections because the Constitution left it up to the states to decide 
who [had] the right to vote” (“Voting”). In fact, it wasn’t until 42 years after the 19th Amendment 
passed that each U.S. state recognized the voting rights of Native Americans (“Voting”). Still, 
despite all such laws and regulations, the rules written on paper were not fully enforced and protected 
for several decades due to racism and further discriminations on the parts of both white American 
people and the (majorly white) American government (“Voting”). 
Following the first wave, Grady explains “The second wave of feminism [started] with Betty 
Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, which came out in 1963.” This wave began to center on the anger 
and dissatisfaction of housewives “who passed it along through a whole chain of well-educated-
middle-class white women with beautiful homes and families. And it gave them permission to be 
angry” (Grady). The second wave’s victories for white women included: equal pay, educational 
equality, and greater control of their reproductive health care (Grady). More importantly, Grady says, 
it extended into the realm of female perception, “changing the way society thought about women.” 
Even though “the second wave cared about racism too… black women increasingly found 
themselves alienated from the central platform of the mainstream women’s movement” (Grady). Put 
simply, many of the concerns for white women existed in a privileged realm distinctively estranged 
from the concerns of black women. While white women found solidarity in fighting for jobs outside 
of the domestic sphere, black women were continually typecast as nothing more than low lowly 
domestic workers (Grady). Whereas white women wanted access to “contraception and abortions”, 
black women wanted to stop the genocide actively being committed against them, and disabled 
women as well, via deliberate racist and ableist forced sterilization (Grady). The truth is, these two 
issues, while interconnected, are not the same. They are not on the same level and, to be frank, do not 
register with the same importance. White women wanted to further their autonomy, while black 
women desired some level of autonomy, period. The second wave may have attempted to positively 
affect all women — including women of color — but it merely succeeded in furthering the divide 
between white and non-white feminists.  
As for the third wave, Grady writes, “It is almost impossible to talk with any clarity about the 
third wave because few people agree on exactly what the third wave is, when it started, or if it’s still 
going on.” So, if the third wave is undefined, how do we categorize, or even recognize, the fourth 
wave? According to Tegan Zimmerman, “intersectionality is the dominant framework being 
employed by fourth wave feminists [which] is more apparent on social media” (54). Zimmerman 
argues that “the fourth wave is characterized by an intersectional feminist framework, exemplified 
when analyzing the discourses on racism, feminism, and… representation” (54). The phrase itself, 
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https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol17/iss1/13
22 
become popular with Amanda Fortini’s: “The Feminist Reawakening: Hillary Clinton and the Fourth 
Wave” which “brought acute sexism and gender-centric issues to the forefront” (Fortini 2008 qtd. in 
Zimmerman 55). Zimmerman believes the fourth wave’s only obvious difference is its roots in social 
media technology, however, “the fourth wave, inevitably, to be a new wave, must also distance itself 
ideologically” (56). Consequently, the fourth wave must possess notably different beliefs and when 
compared to the third wave in order for there to be a fourth ‘wave’ at all. So what exactly are these 
distinct differences or additions in ideology? For some, it’s the direct fundamental contribution and 
response of minorities in feminism. 
Women of color, when asked about feminism, “agreed that the practice of intersectional 
feminism has been more commonly accepted within feminist circles as the best opponent to ‘white 
feminism’” (Oxnevad). In fact, the concept of intersectional feminism “was [originally] developed by 
[a] black feminist… to help people understand what it’s like to be affected by multiple forms of 
power and injustice at the same time” (Poo qtd. in Oxnevad). Simply put, “White feminists are often 
unaware of and unwilling to admit their privilege within the feminist movement” which alienates and 
ignores women who, for whatever reason, fall outside of the cookie-cutter binary. Nyar Afrika, a 
black, queer, woman explained her frustration with white feminism, saying “White feminism is a 
class of its own. It’s funny. It’s a joke. It’s hilarious. It’s comical and it doesn’t give a shit about you 
as a black woman” (Afrika). She elaborated that “In white feminism, the concept of unity as a show 
of support for ‘women’s issues’ is usually based on white, middle class, cisgender, able-bodied 
women. Not queer women. Not black women. Not poor women. Not women who work as sex 
workers or strippers. Not women who live with disabilities. Not the uneducated woman struggling to 
make ends meet. No. It’s all about ‘one size fits all’” (Afrika). Essentially speaking, a white feminist 
is not necessarily a white woman. And while yes, white feminists are, in fact, more often than not, 
white women, white feminism is not about the race of the so-called activist, rather the race of 
everyone else the activist has yet to fully and truly care about. White feminism isn’t about feminists 
being white; it’s about those so-called feminists’ failure to care about those who are not.  
In order for white feminists to grow beyond white feminism, they need to acknowledge their 
own privileges — whatever those may be. If you are white — that’s a privilege. If you are straight — 
that’s a privilege. If you are — cisgender, not overweight, not disabled, not mentally ill, are middle-
class, have access to higher education, have autonomy over your body, live in a first-world country 
—each one of these things, is another layer of privilege you have as an advantage over someone who 
does not. That’s the point of intersectional feminism. It is recognizing how all these layers, all these 
aspects impact women, in different degrees, but always at the same time. The second part of 
intersectional feminism has to do with challenging the inequality and injustices that exist within and 
beyond your power which make up the unjust framework of our and other societies. Now that you 
know this, you have a choice, you can ignore the information presented, and take the side of the 
oppressor, or you can stand up, and raise up the voices of the oppressed. When white feminists speak 
up, they need to speak always acknowledging these layers, always acknowledging their privilege. To 
remain silent would be to side with the oppressive historical narrative plaguing women who do not fit 
the straight, white, cisgender, able-bodied mold. 
Unfortunately, more often than not, even when presented with this information, “White 
feminism and white privilege not only presents social constraints to the feminist movement, but 
[actual] political threats, as well” (Oxnevad). For these reasons, white feminism cannot and will not 
save the world, as it has been proven to, time and time again, promote and protect the interests of 
other privileged, white women. For example, “52% of white women voted for Donald Trump in the 
2016 election… with a reporting 94% of black women having voted for Hillary Clinton” (CNN qtd. 
in Oxnevad). More than half of the United States’ eligible white female voters, consciously elected a 
male candidate who, while perhaps protecting one of their best interests, had not only publicly 
condemned and ignored but mocked the needs of the marginalized. White women made their stance 
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very clear. If the feminism in question does not directly benefit them, they’re not interested in 
standing up for it. On the other hand, black women, who have to face both misogyny and racism on a 
day-to-day basis, made the point of standing up against a candidate who was explicitly both sexist 
and racist, doing what was within their power to protect not only themselves, but women of all 
colors. That, my friends, was a display of intersectional feminism. 
White feminists’ failure to be intersectional despite being confronted with their privileges and 
their related intersects have shown their decided willingness to put their whiteness before their 
womanhood. Since their brand of feminism focuses only on affirming empowerment for white 
women, it doesn’t end up promoting equality, just “whiteness.” It is because of this paradigm, if your 
feminism isn’t intersectional, if your feminism is, in fact, white feminism, there is little left to hide 
the fact it is merely thinly veiled white supremacism — not the promotion of femininity, but rather 
the promotion of white superiority. In the words of Nyar Afrika, “Unless it’s intersectional, fuck it. 
Stay away from it.” 
 
 
  
 
Works Cited 
 
Afrika, Nyar. “White Feminism’s concept of unity is a joke. Shoot me.” Afropunk, 12 Jan. 2018. 
afropunk.com/2018/01/white-feminisms-concept-unity-joke-shoot. Accessed 27 Oct. 2018. 
“Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – Black Women & The Suffrage Movement: 1848-1923.” 
Wesleyan University. wesleyan.edu/mlk/posters/suffrage.html. Accessed 19 Nov. 2018. 
“Intersectional.” Cambridge Dictionary. 
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/intersectional. Accessed 04 Nov. 2018. 
Grady, Constance. “The waves of feminism, and why people keep fighting over them, explained.” 
Vox, 20 March 2018. vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-
third-fourth. Accessed 27 Oct. 2018.  
Oxnevad, Emma. “Intersectional feminism, not ‘white feminism,’ will strengthen the Women’s 
Movement.” Chicago Tribune, 05 Jan. 2018. chicagotribune.com/voiceit/yourvoice/ct-hoy-
intersectional-feminism-not-white-feminism-will-strengthen-the-women-s-movement-
20180501-story. Accessed 27 Oct. 2018. 
“Voting Rights for Native Americans.” Libraries of Congress. 
loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/elections/voting
-rights-native-americans.html. Accessed 27 Oct. 2018. 
Zimmerman, Tegan. “#Intersectionality: The Fourth Wave Feminist Twitter Community.” Atlantis, 
vol. 38, no. 1, 2017, pp. 54-70. Accessed 27 Oct. 2018. 
 
 
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