Women’s History Month: Why real sisterhood across race is so elusive

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you know that I co-facilitate a course with Robin Alpern titled, “The Arc of white womanhood.” Our goal for the course is to challenge the ways white feminism shows up and is perpetuated by white cisgender women. This workshop aims to educate, inspire and empower white women, to bend our arc toward justice (to borrow from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).  

When Robin first asked me to work on this course with her, I had only a vague understanding of white feminism as well as white women’s deep roots in crafting and supporting white supremacy. Doing the research for this course has felt like throwing my body into a pool of ice water - it has been a huge wake up call.  

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, I mourn the loss of what could have been and the sisterhoods we (white women) could have forged. I sit in the ways in which we have caused harm to women of color while holding myself accountable for the ways in which I have personally perpetuated that harm. My heart breaks when I fully embrace this. I think I understand why many women of color say they don’t trust white women.  AND, as I continue to teach this course, I have  gained some hope that things can change. It never gets easier to teach “The Arc of white womanhood”, but it does feel like a vitally important way to connect and organize with other white women; a place where we can  learn together, build a community of accountability and support of each others commitment to change as we “bend our arc toward justice”. I believe the onus is on white women to take full responsibility of our history and embrace healing. If we ever want to reach back out to our lost sisters of color then we must, to borrow Dr. Kenneth V. Hardy’s words,  “name and claim” our history so that we can move from “Racial Oblivion to Awareness, to Sensitivity, and eventually towards Racial Responsibility.”  We have a lot of work to do, but we must do it if we want to create a world where we can really be sisters across race.

I hope you’ll join me on the journey.

-Robin

If you want to learn more about The Arc of white womanhood you can read Robin Alpern’s chapter about our work in: Rise for Racial Justice: How to Talk About Race With Schools and Communities Chapter 8. https://www.tcpress.com/rise-for-racial-justice-9780807767146?fbclid=IwAR2A-3j1S2e18zc-J1yTUhkuWnupY-9yteWKfGqgOhlBYzOQrBTSmDgrAbw

THERE ARE A FEW SPOTS LEFT FOR THESE UPCOMING WORKSHOPS! REGISTER TODAY TO CLAIM YOUR SPOT!

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THERE ARE A FEW SPOTS LEFT FOR THESE UPCOMING WORKSHOPS! REGISTER TODAY TO CLAIM YOUR SPOT! 〰️

I published an article in the Three-Fifths Magazine. Be on the lookout for my April article, "I'm not like 'those' people".

Robin Schlenger