00:00Hey, I'm Elisa Kreisinger and every Tuesday I unpack my strong opinions with the help
00:04of an expert who might not have all the answers, but they certainly know more than I do.
00:09That's why this is Strong Opinions Loosely Held.
00:12And on this week's episode, what's the deal with white women?
00:15This summer my fellow white women and I became mockable memes and we pretty much ruined summer.
00:21You might remember Pool Patrol Paula, a white lady who was arrested for assaulting a black
00:26teenager at a community pool.
00:28Get out!
00:30Get out!
00:31Get out!
00:32Now!
00:32And who could forget BBQ Becky, a white lady who called the cops on a group of black people
00:37for barbecuing in a park.
00:39Charcoal grills are not loud here.
00:41No, it's not actually.
00:42I just looked at the map.
00:42It says this is a designated barbecue area.
00:45No.
00:45And then there was Permit Patty, the white lady cannabis entrepreneur who called the police
00:50because an enterprising eight year old girl was selling bottles of water on the sidewalk
00:55without a permit.
00:56She called the police on an eight year old little girl.
00:59Yeah, and illegally selling water without a permit.
01:02And those are just the instances that made national news.
01:04What is going on with white women?
01:07And how are we going to avoid ruining our favorite season, fall?
01:10Dr. Brittany Cooper is an associate professor of women and gender studies at Rutgers University,
01:16and she's also the author of Eloquent Rage.
01:19Her memoir really helped me put this summer into perspective.
01:23I absolutely think that white women have something to learn by observing people of color and observing
01:29women of color doing feminism and caring for each other.
01:32Like whenever I say this thing about white women, come get your people.
01:34Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:35Every time I say it, white women are like, but Herman Patty is not my person.
01:40Like she doesn't, I'm like, yes, she is though.
01:42Yeah, yeah.
01:43That is your person.
01:44Like she's your people.
01:45But the thing that the rest of us have had to learn that white women and particularly white
01:50feminists still have to learn is that none of us can flourish beyond the capacity of our
01:55communities to flourish.
01:56Being in community with homegirls means that you understand that you're only sustained in
02:02community, that it is not, I think therefore I am, but I am because we are.
02:06There is nothing more powerful than that.
02:08Dr. Cooper explained that communities of color have always been grouped together because of prejudice.
02:14But white women, on the other hand, we've never really had to find community with each other to survive
02:20because, well, we're white.
02:22So because the rest of us, because of racial dynamics in America, are group identified.
02:28We have to be when folks who are of Middle Eastern descent become grouped together because
02:33of the politics of like terrorism and 9-11, right?
02:36The same thing happens to black folks.
02:38The same thing happens to many groups of Latino folks.
02:41White people don't understand that.
02:42They're always like, nope, I'm just individually myself.
02:45And I want to be judged on my individual merits and my goodness as a person.
02:48And that explains why white women are a major eye roll.
02:52But it also brings up a very interesting question, which is why don't white people group by
02:58identify?
02:59Because look, here's the truth of that.
03:01White people have the power they have because of white supremacy, because of moving in a
03:04group to secure privileges and advantages and benefits for themselves as a group.
03:11And so all I'm asking for is acknowledgement of that.
03:14It is what is true.
03:15And then a shift towards using those group identifications in a just way.
03:19Dr. Cooper told me that the challenge is going to be that white people will have to have
03:23some uncomfortable conversations with the permit patty and barbecue beckys in their lives.
03:28But the benefit of that is that we'll get to be in community.
03:32But why is this idea of community such a weird and kind of radical idea for white women?
03:37Dr. Cooper explained that a lack of community has a lot to do with proximity to power.
03:42White women are closer to white men and therefore white privilege.
03:46And that privilege really skews our sense of injustice.
03:49Their only sense of injustice is that they grow up next to men and they want to be able
03:54to run in the boardroom in the home and with money.
03:57What white women and black men have in common is that many times their vision of freedom is
04:04having the level of freedom and power that white men have.
04:08Because both of them have proximity.
04:10White women live in the house with white men, are raised with white men, raise white men.
04:15Black men are men.
04:17And so they are looking at white men and saying, we could rule the world the way that you do.
04:22Black women and women of color negotiate that real differently.
04:26Because women of color don't have the benefit of being either white or male,
04:31they have a very different perspective of the world.
04:33Because we don't have either the benefit of race or gender to give us that level of proximity.
04:40And so we're like, well, this whole thing is rigged.
04:42Yeah.
04:42We can't get there no matter how we try.
04:44We know that you can't dismantle the patriarchy if you're not also trying to dismantle white supremacy.
04:50So to recap, white women need to have conversations with the barbecue Beckys,
04:54Pool Patrol Paulas, and permit patties in our lives.
04:57Because for white women, those are our people.
05:01But for white women, we also feel kind of awkward about this,
05:04because we've never really had to be in community with other white women to survive.
05:08And that's because we're white and we've done everything we can to hold onto this privilege.
05:14And that includes calling the cops on people of color for being in public.
05:19Look, white women have always been complicit in the work of white supremacy.
05:23They have often been some of its primary arbiters.
05:26I think that many black feminists don't have as benevolent a read of white feminist women,
05:31because white feminist women have a long history of doing racist shit.
05:34Dr. Cooper and I just barely scratched the surface of this topic.
05:37There is so much more to deconstruct.
05:39So check out her book, Eloquent Rage.
05:41I'll see you next time.
