Race and Gender Summary and Analysis

The demand that feminism address race and racism changed the face of the movement more than any other factor. Years ago, a young white girl readily observed her own superiority to black girls. Only white women appeared on TV or in magazines. The only reason, the girl may have observed, that black women did not appear in media was that they were not white.

No white women knew the plight of the black woman better than did those who were activist in the civil rights movement. Ironically, when these same women shifted their efforts to the feminist movement, they suppressed and even denied the struggles of the black woman. These leaders, realizing they were indeed victims of sexism, swept the race issue under the rug. Black women in the early years of the movement who for the...