Eight years of Madoff-like mess, where billions of taxpayer dollars have been lost to corruption, scrutinizing the system fully is our obligation. Having fun and using art/culture in the process is part of all this of course. The environment that’s fertile ground for scandals to permeate in the “for profit free world” is what peaks the interest and I’m with the camp that taking a close look at the foundation that’s rotting before speaking of equality is a smart step. For one, I am not interested in seeing an equal playing field in a sea of financial political and social corruption. The root, let's get to it. On the surface, the racial and gender dynamics in the corruptions are not alarming. It’s been a select group of (white and male) insatiable crooked capitalists. It's pretty safe to say, that if it were people of color and/or women pulling the strings of corruption I’m sure their punishment would be worse, no doubt about it. The affects on the rest of the population would be the same though. That’s what I’m interested in, not in out crying how unfair it would be if it Madoff was a Latina woman.
In the last eight years, we’ve seen and experienced the mortgage crisis which has translated to tens of thousands of families losing their homes, increasing poverty, homelessness on the rise, wages not keeping up with price of living, projections of 500,000 jobs being lost each month this year, then the ICE raids, unbelievable debt that we will pay for, Oscar Grant's death and other state abuses of people of color, the list goes on. Adding the international context to our reality, with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and Palestinian struggle as we speak in the Gaza strip, and the ways these wars abroad feed into our way of life and resources consumed.
It's a fact that the recession has affected mostly everyone in some way and that the projected economic downturn is going to have a bigger toll on many more. Immigrant communities, families and communities in the lower economic echelons of society, and single headed households with dependents are taking a big hit already. It has been a very real and raw worry that more people are stressing over having to keep their jobs/roofs over their heads (me included and that of many of my loved ones) and as feminists and (non-feminists alike who believe in everyone’s freedom) while also never letting go of the struggle of fighting sexism in our homes and communities. The battle to keep roofs over our heads, maintain steady incomes, and be free of violence in all its forms from within our homes/communities and from the state are interlocking struggles. Our lives are not in silos ever. These stark times are indicating even more fiercely that multi-issue struggles that require multi-issue approach solutions.
In other words, having an equal number of Madoffs running the show and causing a lot of damage in this country and abroad as individuals that are born female, or brown men, or brown and female, or any other gender and race is a fight that is not worthy of anybody’s time. Not claiming that that’s the case with mainstream feminists here, my point is that centering equality between men and women in such a corrupt world is inherently off when not working within the context to eliminate poverty, racism, heterosexism, violence (interpersonal and from institutions/ and other structures) as well as sexism while healing in community, art and culture. It is a mouthful yes, but we all know groups and individuals doing this now. I mentioned a few in my previous entry and it would be great to continue highlighting groups, collectives and individuals for inspiration.
There's a story I want to share of an older friend of mine who lived during the 1968 occurrences and did a stint as a woman in the black panther movement. Her wisdom poked at tangible actions at play. She shared that her parents witnessed sheriffs entering peoples’ homes as they took out personal belongings and furniture when the banks were foreclosing homes, neighbors were organized to take the furniture back into the homes once the sheriffs were gone, during the depression era. As we fight sexism and poverty, how can we bring back community and be there for each other, in these times? Is it time, we brush up on gardening, sewing and cooking? When more and more people that we know, including ourselves lose our jobs than consequently our kitchensin essence our homes; what does that mean for the communities we choose to belong in? My good friend recommended that we take inventory of skills to prep. I wonder, how feminism ideals would play out in our survival and healing as the economy continues this way.
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I was actually having a conversation with a friend of mine describing your last post, and I was saying that it doesn't surprise me that there might not be total harmony between all "feminists" or all women because -- as you pointed out before -- we all have multiple identities based on gender, race, class, education, etc. etc. that are of varying importance in different contexts. I can't imagine that someone who is on the winning end of capitalism would have the same feminism as someone who is on the losing end. Even though they're both "feminists" it makes sense that they would be fighting a lot of proxy battles based on the other components of their identity.
But the other thing that I realized was that out of ALL the multiple components of our identities and multiple politics and multiple struggles for justice, feminism actually seems to have the most power for transformative change. Patriarchy touches EVERYONE -- all races, all classes, etc. -- so if we expand feminism to include the priorities of women of color, low-income women, etc. feminism could be an entrypoint for a wide range of people (with wide ranging self interests) to understand and even support justice for people of color, low-income people, etc.
I get what you're saying: Who cares if there are an equal number of women who are profiting from stealing? Is our actual goal limited to letting a few select people of color get a piece of the action at the top 1%? Are we just looking for a chance to get in on the winning side of unjust systems, or are we actually trying to work for justice?
However, for all of our qualms with mainstream feminism, I think that feminism and the struggle against patriarchy might be the most powerful entry point to include as many potential allies in the struggle for justice. Feminism might just be the approach that makes the most sense to attack these other dimensions of inequality.
What do you think?
You have no doubt that a Latina Madoff, a US Eva Peron so to speak, would have gotten a much worse penalty than 150 years in prison?