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A review by littleblackduckbooks
Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism by Aileen Moreton-Robinson
5.0
Talkin' Up to the White Woman critically analyses the institution that is White Feminism in Australia and calls on white women to acknowledge the integral role that whiteness plays in legitimising their racial and post-colonial presence that allows them greater power when differentiating the 'norm' from the 'other'. Whiteness must be made visible as the central racial category upon which all institutions, not just feminism but all that it advocates for and against and within (politics, sexual freedom, education, economic equality, anti-violence), are built on and continue to be defined by, in Australia. By normalising this strain of feminism, that of the white, middle-class woman, it automatically sets Indigenous women apart as the radical 'Other'. For Indigenous women to participate in feminism they must either be 'civilised into white womanhood' or overtly racialised as the token 'Black representative' - invited for the sake of image than any meaningful involvement.
In order to be truly inclusive and representative, feminism must firstly recognise its inherent whiteness and then interrogate the structure of racial power that is fused with the feminist debate. If feminism believes that no female is equal until all female is equal, then it must shift its focus to centralise the voices of Indigenous females in this country, adopt a willingness to listen and to invite Indigenous peoples to speak about what they know about, rather than be talked over or pushed to the margins by non-Indigenous folk who think they know what's best for us.
In order to be truly inclusive and representative, feminism must firstly recognise its inherent whiteness and then interrogate the structure of racial power that is fused with the feminist debate. If feminism believes that no female is equal until all female is equal, then it must shift its focus to centralise the voices of Indigenous females in this country, adopt a willingness to listen and to invite Indigenous peoples to speak about what they know about, rather than be talked over or pushed to the margins by non-Indigenous folk who think they know what's best for us.