“No woman has to be respectable to be valuable.”
―
Mikki Kendall,
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“One of the biggest issues with mainstream feminist writing has been the way the idea of what constitutes a feminist issue is framed. We rarely talk about basic needs as a feminist issue. Food insecurity and access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. Instead of a framework that focuses on helping women get basic needs met, all too often the focus is not on survival but on increasing privilege. For a movement that is meant to represent all women, it often centers on those who already have most of their needs met.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“There’s nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren’t going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Sometimes being a good ally is about opening the door for someone instead of insisting that your voice is the only one that matters.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Too often white women decide that when they feel uncomfortable, upset, or threatened, they can turn to the patriarchy for protection. Because they don't want to lose that protection (dubious as it is), they stand by when it's convenient, and challenge it only when it directly threatens them. Yet, they know they benefit from it being challenged, and thus rely on others to do the heaviest lifting. They fail to recognize the conflicted relationship they have with the patriarchy includes a certain cowardice around challenging not only it, but other women who have embraced it.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Poverty is an apocalypse in slow motion, inexorable and generational.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“An intersectional approach to feminism requires understanding that too often mainstream feminism ignores that Black women and other women of color are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine of hate.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Feminism as a career is the province of the privileged; it's hard to read dozens of books on feminist theory while you're working in a hair salon or engaged in the kinds of jobs that put food on the table but also demand a lot of physical and mental energy.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Mainstream, white-centered feminism hasn't just failed women of color, it has failed white women.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“America loves the myth of a meritocracy more than anything else, because it lets us ignore the reality of the impact of bigotry.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“For women of color, the expectation that we prioritize gender over race, that we treat the patriarchy as something that gives all men the same power, leaves many of us feeling isolated.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“No one can live up to the standards set by racist stereotypes like this that position Black women as so strong they don’t need help, protection, care, or concern. Such stereotypes leave little to no room for real Black women with real problems. In fact, even the most “positive” tropes about women of color are harmful precisely because they dehumanize us and erase the damage that can be done to us by those who might mean well, but whose actions show that they don’t actually respect us or our right to self-determine what happens on our behalf.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“The tone policing of respectability ensures that the fight for equality becomes the responsibility of the oppressed.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“If your child is killed by police, if the water in your community is poisoned, if a mockery is made of your grief, how do you feel? Do you want to be calm and quiet? Do you want to forgive in order to make everyone else comfortable? Or do you want to scream, to yell, to demand justice for the wrongs done? Anger gets the petitions out, it motivates marches, it gets people to the ballot. Anger is sometimes the only fuel left at the end of a long, horrible day, week, month, or generation.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot
“Politeness as filtered through fragility and supremacy isn't about manners; it's about a methodology of controlling the conversation.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Ignoring the treatment of the most marginalized women doesn't set a standard that can protect any woman.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“The problem has never been the ways that victims don’t tell, so much as it has been that some victims aren’t seen as valuable enough to protect.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Mainstream white feminists will have to confront the racism of white women and the harm it does, without passing the buck to white men.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“We expect marginalized voices to ring out no matter what obstacles they face, and then we penalize them for not saying the right thing in the right way.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“One of the biggest issues with mainstream feminist writing has been the way the idea of what constitutes a feminist issue is framed. We rarely talk about basic needs as a feminist issue. Food insecurity and access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. Instead of a framework that focuses on helping women get basic needs met, all too often the focus is not on survival but on increasing privilege. For a movement that is meant to represent all women, it often centers on those who already have most of their needs met.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“There’s nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren’t going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Sometimes being a good ally is about opening the door for someone instead of insisting that your voice is the only one that matters.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Too often white women decide that when they feel uncomfortable, upset, or threatened, they can turn to the patriarchy for protection. Because they don't want to lose that protection (dubious as it is), they stand by when it's convenient, and challenge it only when it directly threatens them. Yet, they know they benefit from it being challenged, and thus rely on others to do the heaviest lifting. They fail to recognize the conflicted relationship they have with the patriarchy includes a certain cowardice around challenging not only it, but other women who have embraced it.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Poverty is an apocalypse in slow motion, inexorable and generational.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“An intersectional approach to feminism requires understanding that too often mainstream feminism ignores that Black women and other women of color are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine of hate.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Feminism as a career is the province of the privileged; it's hard to read dozens of books on feminist theory while you're working in a hair salon or engaged in the kinds of jobs that put food on the table but also demand a lot of physical and mental energy.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Mainstream, white-centered feminism hasn't just failed women of color, it has failed white women.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“America loves the myth of a meritocracy more than anything else, because it lets us ignore the reality of the impact of bigotry.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“For women of color, the expectation that we prioritize gender over race, that we treat the patriarchy as something that gives all men the same power, leaves many of us feeling isolated.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“No one can live up to the standards set by racist stereotypes like this that position Black women as so strong they don’t need help, protection, care, or concern. Such stereotypes leave little to no room for real Black women with real problems. In fact, even the most “positive” tropes about women of color are harmful precisely because they dehumanize us and erase the damage that can be done to us by those who might mean well, but whose actions show that they don’t actually respect us or our right to self-determine what happens on our behalf.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“The tone policing of respectability ensures that the fight for equality becomes the responsibility of the oppressed.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“If your child is killed by police, if the water in your community is poisoned, if a mockery is made of your grief, how do you feel? Do you want to be calm and quiet? Do you want to forgive in order to make everyone else comfortable? Or do you want to scream, to yell, to demand justice for the wrongs done? Anger gets the petitions out, it motivates marches, it gets people to the ballot. Anger is sometimes the only fuel left at the end of a long, horrible day, week, month, or generation.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot
“Politeness as filtered through fragility and supremacy isn't about manners; it's about a methodology of controlling the conversation.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Ignoring the treatment of the most marginalized women doesn't set a standard that can protect any woman.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“The problem has never been the ways that victims don’t tell, so much as it has been that some victims aren’t seen as valuable enough to protect.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“Mainstream white feminists will have to confront the racism of white women and the harm it does, without passing the buck to white men.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
“We expect marginalized voices to ring out no matter what obstacles they face, and then we penalize them for not saying the right thing in the right way.” ― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
