In search of Becky and the others: the internal turmoil of the hardened, white antiracist woman

Abstract

In this essay, told from my perspective as a white woman, I spend time critically analyzing the caricatures of racist white women as I hold them up against stories of actual white women. My goal is illuminate how stereotypes of white racist women serve as a normative yardstick for the construction of another kind of white woman: the antiracist one. Aspiring antiracist white women spend much time in search of white racist women embodied in such stereotypes. They search for them to learn how to be and how not to be. Ultimately, this is a distraction from the actual work of antiracism, which relies on relationality and intimacy. I argue white antiracist women would be better served to banish these stereotypes so our time can be spent – not in search of them to measure ourselves – but with our own complexity, inner conflicts and distorted psyches. Until we do that work, antiracist white women will be little help to racial justice movements.

Keywords:

• White femininity
• antiracism
• stereotypes

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my colleague, Dr. Stephen Hancock, for his careful and critical read of this manuscript and his thoughtful feedback on how to improve it.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For a link to information sources that connected the BLM protests to the destruction of Virgin Mary monuments, see https://www.churchpop.com/2020/06/23/blm-activist-calls-for-destruction-of-jesus-mary-statues-priest-exorcist-respond/ and https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/08/vasko-kohlmayer/loathing-the-west-the-real-reason-why-anti-racism-protestors-desecrate-christian-churches/

2 http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Orangeburg-South-Carolina.html

3 It is important to recognize in telling this story that this interpretation of motherhood is racialized by white supremacy. Young, black mothers are often a cultural symbol of poverty, but Adrienne Rich (1979) urges us to consider "motherhood as enforced identity and as political institution” (p. 195). Not all young, black mothers share the pathologizing lens with which they are often viewed by white, middle-class America.

4 This study is currently under review for publication.

5 Caskie is a pseudonym.

6 The relationship-building I write about here is between white women. My description of Becky and the others is, undoubtedly, performed through a white gaze. Ultimately, my argument is not about Becky or the others but about the construction of white antiracist identities. It is also important to note that Becky, in particular, is a caricature of a white woman rooted in upper middle class, hyper-segregated suburban spaces. The women I describe are characterized by rurality and are from mixed-class backgrounds. This is important complexity to take up because white people are not a monolithic group; however, because the central argument is about the serviceability of white, racist stereotypes for white woman, rather the nuance of the stereotypes themselves, I do not centralize the intersection of race, class, and geography in this manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin T. Miller

Dr. Miller (she/her/hers), PhD, has ten years of experience engaging in scholarship and teaching related to antiracist pedagogy, critical whiteness studies, and racial identity development. She is an Associate Professor in the Reading and Elementary Department at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte