Some have claimed that there may be a movement afoot to try to set white women and blacks at odds. I don’t think that’s anything new though. I think there has always been a strategy by white men in power to set different groups against each other, divide and conquer basically. And many times they have succeeded. I think we are trying to deal with that history and make improvements in our current allyships. See, for example:
Time: Kanye West Rails Against Harriet Tubman and Proposes $1 Million for New Mothers
Rapper Kanye West, in his first event since declaring himself a presidential candidate, ranted against historical figure Harriet Tubman on Sunday, saying the Underground Railroad conductor “never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people".
(Not that Kanye West is authoritative.)
And The Guardian: The US suffragette [sic] movement tried to leave out Black women. They showed up anyway.
By 1913, racism was tightly stitched into the fabric of the movement for women’s votes. As far back as the 1860s, suffrage leaders had traded in anti-Black thinking. They had even linked arms with openly racist allies who, for example, in 1867 Kansas looked to trade the defeat of Black enfranchisement for the elevation of white women to the polls. The movement continued into the 20th century by way of a southern strategy that aimed to win support for a women’s suffrage amendment by remaining hands-off when it came to Jim Crow, assenting to the ongoing disenfranchisement of Black women in the south. Paul built her radical wing of the movement on this troubled foundation.
We need to continue to do better at coming together. Not only is it the right thing to do ethically, it’s also the right thing to do strategically: More allies = more power. Please feel free to discuss!