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This threat implies that feminism is being imaged as a safe space for the affirmation of (white) women rather than a politics based on dismantling patriarchal oppression. The concept of social media “white flight” permeates a number of recent articles about the (current) toxicity of social media. Now that feminists of color, Black feminists in particular, have moved into the online feminist neighborhood, white feminists must now flee for the post-feminist hinterlands (somewhere off Twitter presumably). The threat to pick up one’s ball and go (where?) also seems to imply that white women are and should be the center of feminist politic and that women of color are its appendages or supporting cast.
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But this assumes that feminism is a country club rather than a politics committed to dismantling the structures of patriarchy as they intersect with all other forms of oppression. The implicit and perhaps even explicit threat looming in the article is if some Black feminists do not stop being “bullies,” white women and their allies will leave (online?) feminism.
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Calling out racism within feminist circles is unfairly portrayed as bullying. (We are sure that other contributors will address their reading of the article). She states: “Safety is commonly imaged as a condition of no challenge or stakes, a state of being that might be best described as protectionist.”Īnd who are the culprits who are making social media toxic? In Michelle Goldberg’s Nation article, it’s clear (to us) that, despite the range of feminists interviewed, ultimately the people who are making Twitter toxic are some Black feminists in particular, given that the article centers on one Black feminist as THE main embodiment of her article’s thesis. As Christina Hanhardt notes in her germinal book, Safe Space, these calls for safe space end up becoming both protectionist and carceral moves to excise those generally racialized populations that pollute the safe spaces of those who are more privileged. Rather than build movements to end all structures of oppression that cause societal toxicity (such as ending mass incarceration, gender violence and economic exploitation) we are invited to create artificial “safe” havens that amount to exclusive clubs. Thus, calls for “safe spaces” from toxicity are ultimately attempts to reinforce the status quo by those who have the privilege to avoid individuals that trouble and challenge them. There is no safe space from oppression anywhere. Feminists of color know that when we are not on “toxic Twitter,” there is no other place we can go where we won’t have to deal with the intersecting forces of racism, sexism and capitalism. How can social media exist independently of the dynamics and forces of oppression that structure the world at large? The answer is simple: it does not and cannot. So, the complaint that social media has become “toxic” and is therefore no longer a “safe space” strikes us as ahistorical and strange. The world was and is currently structured by white supremacy, settler colonialism, heterosexism and patriarchy. For the marginalized, the “good old days” are a lie. Social media also offers opportunities for some who do not have access to traditional publishing venues nor the resources to travel to share ideas beyond their geographic locales.Īs such, we are deeply suspicious of narratives that claim that there were “good old days” when things were much simpler and nicer. Social media offers the opportunity to expand our platforms to discuss ideas that can encompass thousands of individuals rather than the small and sometimes insular groups of people with whom we work. What has changed through the development of social media is the immediacy of the pushback and its more democratic nature. How can feminists grapple with the limitations inherent in the medium, while exploiting its potential to build support for critical fights? We invited four women-Andrea Smith, Mariame Kaba, Lori Adelman and Roxane Gay-to respond to the piece, and reflect on the role Twitter will and should play as the feminist movement continues to grow. And yet Twitter campaigns have sparked public outcry as ordinary women use it to reach wide audiences with their stories of abortion, sexual assault, racial stereotyping, and more.
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Many women told Goldberg that Twitter facilitates an ideological policing that borders on bullying and makes candid conversation impossible. Since that piece appeared, the social media platform has played host to ever more outbreaks of organizing, consciousness-raising, and outrage. Editor’s Note: Michelle Goldberg’s cover story on the explosive interaction between feminist activism and Twitter kicked up a roiling debate about how social media can empower grassroots feminists and shake up the established feminist agenda-while keeping the movement focused and effective in the fight for gender equality.