March 10, 2008, - 1:41 pm

Did You Know . . .

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . That the feminist movement in America started out as a racist, Whites-only group?
I’d heard that before, but now there’s more evidence in a new book, “Ida: A Sword Among Lions,” by Paula Giddings. The book, about late Black journalist Ida B. Wells, mentions how Wells–who reported on and spoke out against lynchings–was excluded by feminists in the last century. From a Wall Street Journal book review by Mark Bauerlein:

To some, she was a brave crusader for a variety of reform movements –Wells was a staunch suffragist, for instance — but to others she was just a quarrelsome agitator. Still, Ida Wells Clubs opened in cities across the country, and benefactors sent money to her causes. She also made enemies and never understood the internal jockeying of political organizations. Despite her support, the women’s suffrage movement generally avoided Wells because its leaders didn’t want to alienate Southern women.

Yup, the next time you hear bra-burners like Gloria Steinem and Martha Burk yelling and screaming about equality, ask them why their movement started out as hardly the paragon of virtue in that department.




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10 Responses

Excellent point, Debbie. The women’s suffrage/feminist movement in the United States has always been virently racist. One reason is they viewed themselves as competing with Black men for rights and power. Many women’s suffrage leaders were livid that Black men recieved the right to vote before women did and expressed their displeasure using very racially vulger language. And the struggles of Black women have always been an afterthought to them. I read a great article a while back that documented blatantly bigoted statements by well-known past and current feminist leaders. If I can find it, I will post it on this blog.

JibberJabber on March 10, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Did you know…
…That the USA “started out as a racist, Whites-only group”?
The early feminists were also conservative Christians who were pro-life.
[“Despite her support, the women’s suffrage movement generally avoided Wells because its leaders didn’t want to alienate Southern women.”]
And the founding fathers in the North decided to keep slavery as not to anger the founding fathers in the South.
[ask them why their movement started out as hardly the paragon of virtue in that department.]
The same thing could be said about America or Zionism for that matter. Anyone familiar with Jeff R… ?
JibberJabber’s stupidity:
[The women’s suffrage/feminist movement in the United States has always been virently racist.]
And the same thing could be said of the conservative movement. JibberJabber, go get your quotes and stick them where the sun don’t shine you mental midget.

Norman Blitzer on March 10, 2008 at 3:43 pm

The antisemitism of the feminist movement has also been well documented over the years. There are a number of women who had been feminist leaders who lost their standing in the feminist movement for daring to support Israel. In some cases they didn’t even have to support Israel to get condemned by the other Feminazis; they just had to say they didn’t like Arab Palestinian terrorist bombers. That was enough to discredit them.

c f on March 10, 2008 at 4:02 pm

Norman Blitzer
As a Black man, I am well aware of what feminist throughout the years have said about Black men. In order to keep their support strong in the South, many in the women’s suffrage movement stated that Black men deserved to be lynched. And some of the quotes from feminist leaders about Black men during the OJ fiasco were equally as offensive. And yet again, we have some feminist leaders making some highly questionable statements now that Obama has overtaken Hillary as the Democratic frontrunner.
And yes, you’re right. The same thing can definitely be said of the conservative movement, as well as all other aspects of American society. If stating a historical truth about the historical racism of the feminist movement makes me a mental midget in your eyes, then so be it.

JibberJabber on March 10, 2008 at 5:05 pm

“The anti-semitism of the Feminist movement….”
Weren’t most of the early,and later,most famous Feminists Jewish?

OldSchoolW on March 10, 2008 at 5:11 pm

Yes, a lot of them were Jewish, but they renounced any significant aspect of Jewish tradition or the traditional concerns of the Jewish community when they became feminist leaders. There is a term ‘non-Jewish Jew’ to describe people like that. A glaring example is the Communist movement. Individuals such as Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky, among many others came from Jewish backgrounds but completely renounced their tradition, and Trotsky explicitly renounced Zionism. Athough I disagree with Phyllis Chesler on a number of issues, including her take on the movie “Munich”, she is an example of someone who was ostracized for daring to support Israel & writing a book to that affect.

c f on March 10, 2008 at 5:31 pm

… just as the abortion movement piggybacked onto racist eugenicist Maggie Sanger, fave of Adolf the Hun.

J-Lin on March 11, 2008 at 9:53 am

Interesting post, Debbie although I know ignorance is sometimes bliss but I have also read that they were connected to the abortion movement. I know that Betty Friedan was a heterosexual who looked up to Joseph Stalin. The sad thing though is many so called Orthodox Jews do think well of the feminist movement and only think Betty Friedan was career oriented and somewhat misguided. They think more of her then Jewish men sadly. That is the position of Aish Hatorah where the founders are seperated and don’t speak to each other and live in Israel and have a program for women in Israel where the women are used to help around the home because the wife is seperated from the husband. The women find out sooner or later but they have gone to extremes in seperating the genders to protect their own secret sadly. They give advice to singles Aish (WHICH IS THE WORST EVER WRITTEN AND IT IS UNDERSTANDAble WHY) and nobody brings up their problems with feminism and now the fact that the founder have been seperated which has a lot to do in my opinion with their feminists bend.

adam6275 on March 11, 2008 at 6:18 pm

I also think it was true that if a women was a widow she did vote. Obviously, today it would make no sense and I would think even on the man’s side it should only be men who would be suitable to be in combat since they are the most influenced by what happens in the govenment. But anyway none of this is going to happen.

adam6275 on March 11, 2008 at 6:21 pm

My friend Alfreda Ferrell– Ida B.Well’s grand-daughter and I were discussing Paula Giddings’ book. So this site was referenced..As I was reading the comments..well….
What is really eerie is that someone used the word “Feminazi” darn,I thought I
had come up with word all by my lonesone!!!!!
I created it in 2003!! no accidents in the Universe!!

Marta on September 15, 2008 at 9:57 pm

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