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“Empowered Women Empower Women” Is Not To Be Used As an Out When As White Women We Need to Hold Each Other Accountable For Our Internalized White Supremacy
Yeah “empowered women empower women”, and “girls support girls” is great, but it shouldn’t get in the way of us also holding each other accountable. I have noticed how cis white women skirt around the issue of how we center whiteness in our language, behavior, and thoughts. I hear us saying that we are “tearing each other down” when we address the harm that a fellow white woman is causing. This is something I have heard in response to the recent essay I wrote on Terra Incognita Media. Appeals for sisterhood in these circumstances are really just asking for white solidarity.
I admit and acknowledge that I have been problematic and have made cringe-worthy, white-centering mistakes. I continue to learn from these harmful instances, some of which have caused pain to people who I have considered dear friends who no longer want to speak to me. I have written extensively about how my own missteps and lessons have, at times, come at an inexcusable cost. You can see more of my writing on this here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. And more, right here on my Medium page.
When I address the harm I see in the climbing community or in other white people, I am…
