Feminism Ain’t for Us—And Never Was

Let’s be real: feminism is a scam. A white woman’s movement wrapped in fake sisterhood, sprinkled with just enough feel-good rhetoric to fool Black and brown women into thinking we have a seat at the table. But here’s the truth—we were never meant to sit at that damn table. Feminism was built by white women for white women, and every time we try to squeeze ourselves in, we get used, discarded, or outright betrayed.

The Early Suffrage Movement: A Whole Lot of "Equality"—For White Women Only

Y’all love to bring up Seneca Falls like it was some groundbreaking moment for all women. Wrong. That convention in 1848? It wasn’t for us. Black women weren’t even invited to the damn meeting. The so-called pioneers of the women’s rights movement—Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony—weren’t fighting for equality. They were fighting for their equality. And if it meant keeping Black women at the bottom, so be it.

When the 15th Amendment rolled around, giving Black men (at least on paper) the right to vote, Stanton lost her damn mind. She and Anthony basically said, “Oh hell no—ain’t no way a Black man is getting rights before a white woman.” Stanton went even further, disgusted at the thought of a Black man like Frederick Douglass having a voice before her. She said,

“If your ‘Mr. Douglass’ can walk arm-in-arm with his wealthy white friends into the halls of Congress while educated white women are ignored, then the nation has gone mad.”

Read that again. She wasn’t mad about oppression. She was mad that a Black man might get something before she did. These women, who are celebrated as feminist icons, openly aligned themselves with white supremacists because they believed white women deserved power before any Black person—man or woman.

Meanwhile, Black women like Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells were out here fighting for real justice—getting ignored, pushed aside, and told to wait their turn.

And guess what? That same energy never left the feminist movement.

White Feminism: A Legacy of Gatekeeping, Gaslighting, and Bullsh*t

Fast forward to the ‘60s and ‘70s—second-wave feminism. White women were burning bras and demanding to enter the workforce. But let’s keep it a buck—Black women were already working, mostly in jobs these same white women wouldn’t touch.

• White women wanted “freedom” from housework? Cool. Guess who they expected to clean their homes and raise their kids? Us.

• White women fought for reproductive rights? Meanwhile, Black and Indigenous women were being forcibly sterilized by the government.

• White women wanted to “shatter the glass ceiling”? They climbed on Black women’s backs to get there.

And it didn’t stop. Third-wave, fourth-wave—whatever version of feminism you wanna call it—still left Black women behind. They want our labor, our voices, our fight—but never our leadership.

Today, white feminism is just a rebranded hustle. It’s a Taylor Swift girl-power anthem. It’s corporate “diversity” panels that tokenize Black women while keeping them underpaid and overworked. It’s white women crying about the wage gap while conveniently forgetting that Black women make even less than them.

Feminism Is a Bad Word—Stop Playing Yourself

If you’re a Black woman (or any woman of color) and you still think feminism is for you, wake up. History has already shown us that white women’s feminism will never ride for us. They love to call us angry when we speak up, divisive when we call them out, and ungrateful when we refuse to be their sidekicks in a movement that never served us.

When a white woman says she’s a feminist, ask yourself:

• Does she fight for all women, or just women who look like her?

• Does she check her privilege, or does she get defensive when race is mentioned?

• Does she actually show up for Black women, or does she just expect us to support her struggles?

Nine times out of ten, the answer ain’t in our favor.

We don’t need feminism. We need liberation. We need equity. We need movements that center us—not white women’s comfort.

It’s time to stop chasing a seat at a table that was never built for us. Let them have feminism. We’ll build our own damn table.

What do you think? Have you seen white feminism in action? Drop your thoughts below—let’s talk about it.