Book Review - Hood Feminism – Notes from the Women That Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

There has recently been a rise in purchases of books written by black authors about social justice issues.  I would like an addition to your reading list.  Mikki Kendall’s book was released a few weeks ago and it would be great to see it rise up to the ranks of other great books about the experiences of black and indigenous people of color (BIPOC).

Ms. Kendall is writing for both BIPOC and white women in an effort to wake us up to the fact that feminism has failed to address the needs of BIPOC and, in fact, has further strengthened racist systems in order to protect the rights and protections of white women.  At any time in history that a majority of white women have voted for a candidate who claims to be a “law and order” candidate, declares a “war on drugs”, reforms aid for family programs, and promises to “build a wall”, the primary reason is based on fear that white neighborhoods and lifestyles will be eroded by dangerous people (also known as black and brown people).  Ms. Kendall provides a number of examples where white supremacy has governed the decisions of many feminists in their desire to have equal rights.  Equal rights for feminists has meant equal rights for white women at a great cost to BIPOC. 

I invite you to buy this book in order to learn more about how housing and welfare policies have further damaged BIPOC communities.  I ask you to read carefully about how young black girls are seen and treated as being much older than they are and blamed for a number of things that they have no control over.  Learn how the medical community continues to fail BIPOC by practices that would never be tolerated by white communities.  Read statistics that show that many of the domestic violence and sexual assault statistics that we quote are based on white populations and do not reflect the violence perpetuated against female (including trans women) BIPOC by white men. 

Feminism has a long legacy of racism and until we are able to face that fact, we cannot call ourselves allies.