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White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color
This explosive book of history and cultural criticism argues that white feminism has been a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women and all colonized women. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. Taking us from the slave era—when white women fought in court to keep "ownership" of their slaves—through the centuries of colonialism—when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics—to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars
Examining subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and nineteenth-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad builds a powerful argument about the entrenched systems of white supremacy that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight.
Examining subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and nineteenth-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad builds a powerful argument about the entrenched systems of white supremacy that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight.
284 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,563 reviews
February 28, 2021
I fluctuate between rating this 4 or 5 stars, but will go ahead and bump this to 5 because we need more race and feminism discussions that specifically focus on Indigenous and Middle Eastern women, especially from a non-US perspective. The book is insightful, concise, and comprehensive, blending both historical contexts for how these power dynamics came to be along with modern-day examples of the ways white women oppress or shut the door on women of color. It also does a great job at explaining how the vulnerability of white women is both a weakness (under white patriarchy) and a weapon (against people of color), then expertly marks the difference between “equality” for white women and “justice” for people of color.
I have minor issues with the consistency of the book, since not all chapters were as strong as others. Earlier chapters go over racial stereotypes across multiple races to provide context, but not all groups had as strong or in-depth of an argument. I liked the seeds that she planted with the China Doll vs Dragon Lady stereotype that Asians face, but thought it was a huge stretch to compare the Dragon Lady stereotype to the To All the Boys franchise (I don’t think that's true at all, and it’s a bit odd to critique a story written by an Asian woman). I wonder if the book would have been better if Ruby Hamad focused solely on Indigenous and Middle Eastern women and expanded upon those topics so we could get even more in-depth discussions. She did the most research on those groups (and has her own experience) with tons of examples and strong arguments, and that’s where the book really shined.
Still, the book is very solid, and I’ll leave this with one of my favorite quotes. I find this especially resonant after seeing white women celebrating the US government’s decision to bomb Syria. After she points out the multiple white women who take leadership positions in the FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security organizations, she asks: “What does it mean for the rest of us that white women can be in control of almost all of the weapons belonging to the world’s most powerful country and still claim to be an oppressed group on the same level as other women?”
I have minor issues with the consistency of the book, since not all chapters were as strong as others. Earlier chapters go over racial stereotypes across multiple races to provide context, but not all groups had as strong or in-depth of an argument. I liked the seeds that she planted with the China Doll vs Dragon Lady stereotype that Asians face, but thought it was a huge stretch to compare the Dragon Lady stereotype to the To All the Boys franchise (I don’t think that's true at all, and it’s a bit odd to critique a story written by an Asian woman). I wonder if the book would have been better if Ruby Hamad focused solely on Indigenous and Middle Eastern women and expanded upon those topics so we could get even more in-depth discussions. She did the most research on those groups (and has her own experience) with tons of examples and strong arguments, and that’s where the book really shined.
Still, the book is very solid, and I’ll leave this with one of my favorite quotes. I find this especially resonant after seeing white women celebrating the US government’s decision to bomb Syria. After she points out the multiple white women who take leadership positions in the FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security organizations, she asks: “What does it mean for the rest of us that white women can be in control of almost all of the weapons belonging to the world’s most powerful country and still claim to be an oppressed group on the same level as other women?”
March 29, 2021
“Non-white women as the object of the white male power fantasy, it seems, are simply expected to sacrifice themselves.”
Hamad's White Tears/Brown Scars depicts poignantly the effects white feminism has had on women of colour. It is a book that I would consider required reading, along with other books that discuss white feminism's link to white supremacy and the oppression of women of colour. This has also been recommended as reading for the StopAsianHate and other anti-racist movements, as this book discusses the stereotypes faced by women of colour (jezebel, dragon lady, etc.) and how the system is always rigged against them.
Whilst I did have a minor issue with some of the examples Hamad used, nonetheless, it is an important and fairly solid book. It is concise, easily understandable and Hamad ensures to use first-hand accounts and/or research to back her points. It clearly explores the power dynamics between white women and women of colour, and how white women often weaponise themselves and their tears. All in all, if your feminism isn't intersectional, it isn't feminism bestie.
Furthering my knowledge on the impact of white feminism on women of colour, I'm looking forward to reading Hood Feminism!
Hamad's White Tears/Brown Scars depicts poignantly the effects white feminism has had on women of colour. It is a book that I would consider required reading, along with other books that discuss white feminism's link to white supremacy and the oppression of women of colour. This has also been recommended as reading for the StopAsianHate and other anti-racist movements, as this book discusses the stereotypes faced by women of colour (jezebel, dragon lady, etc.) and how the system is always rigged against them.
Whilst I did have a minor issue with some of the examples Hamad used, nonetheless, it is an important and fairly solid book. It is concise, easily understandable and Hamad ensures to use first-hand accounts and/or research to back her points. It clearly explores the power dynamics between white women and women of colour, and how white women often weaponise themselves and their tears. All in all, if your feminism isn't intersectional, it isn't feminism bestie.
Furthering my knowledge on the impact of white feminism on women of colour, I'm looking forward to reading Hood Feminism!
October 30, 2020
One of the best books I've read on race and racism
Author Ruby Hamad wrote this book primarily for women of color, but it is also a book every white person should read, especially those of us who call ourselves feminists. Extremely insightful and comprehensive. It's White Fragility plus a whole lot more.
While I recommend this to all white people, I warn you: it's not the easiest book to read. It WILL put you in your place and call you out. You WILL feel uncomfortable. You might even get angry. That's OK, you still need to read it.
If you're just starting out on your anti-racism journey, I recommend reading So You Want to Talk About Race or White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism first to get you in the right mindset and knock down some of your defenses.
Most anti-racism books I've read have been mainly about racism towards African Americans. This book encompasses racism and stereotypes of all people of color: African Americans, Asians, Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans, Latinx, people of Arab descent.
Ruby Hamad writes with insight and clarity, sharing personal stories and the stories of several other women of colour. She decided to write this book to let women of colour everywhere know they aren't alone by explaining what is happening when they confront white tears and "distress" as soon as they try to assert themselves or confront the racism they are subjected to.
Ms. Hamad explains how and why the damsel in distress in need of protection was created and how white men use it to keep both women (all of us) and men of color in a subordinate position. As she explains, "White women’s tears have little effect on white men... because the damsel was never intended to implicate white men."
She further notes, "A white man raping a white woman is not a threat to white male power, and if it destroys or threatens to destroy the woman’s life, then so be it... It is only when white women are violated or even imagined to be violated by nonwhite men that white society suddenly seems to find its moral compass."
Ms. Hamad shows how white women have historically played into (and upheld) white supremacy by taking on this stereotype of delicate white woman in need of protection. She demonstrates how we continue to play this role when it suits us and use white tears to drown out the voices of people of colour. We do this to keep ourselves in the dominant spot. Often this is unconscious and thus it's even more important to read books like this and learn where we are complicit in upholding structural racism. We all are. And until we all do the work of unlearning racism, people of colour will continue to suffer and die. If we want to claim we're not racist, we need to do the work to not be racist. It's not enough simply to claim we aren't.
It's long past time we start caring more about actually not being racist than whether people think we are.
I leave you with these words from Ms. Hamad:
"For five centuries white society has forced women of color to dwell in its shadows. But our true lives are calling us and no longer will we be denied our place in the sun.... White women can dry their tears and join us, or they can continue on the path of the damsel—a path that leads not toward the light of liberation but only into the dead end of the colonial past."
Author Ruby Hamad wrote this book primarily for women of color, but it is also a book every white person should read, especially those of us who call ourselves feminists. Extremely insightful and comprehensive. It's White Fragility plus a whole lot more.
While I recommend this to all white people, I warn you: it's not the easiest book to read. It WILL put you in your place and call you out. You WILL feel uncomfortable. You might even get angry. That's OK, you still need to read it.
If you're just starting out on your anti-racism journey, I recommend reading So You Want to Talk About Race or White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism first to get you in the right mindset and knock down some of your defenses.
Most anti-racism books I've read have been mainly about racism towards African Americans. This book encompasses racism and stereotypes of all people of color: African Americans, Asians, Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans, Latinx, people of Arab descent.
Ruby Hamad writes with insight and clarity, sharing personal stories and the stories of several other women of colour. She decided to write this book to let women of colour everywhere know they aren't alone by explaining what is happening when they confront white tears and "distress" as soon as they try to assert themselves or confront the racism they are subjected to.
Ms. Hamad explains how and why the damsel in distress in need of protection was created and how white men use it to keep both women (all of us) and men of color in a subordinate position. As she explains, "White women’s tears have little effect on white men... because the damsel was never intended to implicate white men."
She further notes, "A white man raping a white woman is not a threat to white male power, and if it destroys or threatens to destroy the woman’s life, then so be it... It is only when white women are violated or even imagined to be violated by nonwhite men that white society suddenly seems to find its moral compass."
Ms. Hamad shows how white women have historically played into (and upheld) white supremacy by taking on this stereotype of delicate white woman in need of protection. She demonstrates how we continue to play this role when it suits us and use white tears to drown out the voices of people of colour. We do this to keep ourselves in the dominant spot. Often this is unconscious and thus it's even more important to read books like this and learn where we are complicit in upholding structural racism. We all are. And until we all do the work of unlearning racism, people of colour will continue to suffer and die. If we want to claim we're not racist, we need to do the work to not be racist. It's not enough simply to claim we aren't.
It's long past time we start caring more about actually not being racist than whether people think we are.
I leave you with these words from Ms. Hamad:
"For five centuries white society has forced women of color to dwell in its shadows. But our true lives are calling us and no longer will we be denied our place in the sun.... White women can dry their tears and join us, or they can continue on the path of the damsel—a path that leads not toward the light of liberation but only into the dead end of the colonial past."
January 14, 2024
A great book about how white women weaponize their tears to harm women of color and avoid accountability. Ruby Hamad takes this premise and runs it through history and the present, discussing the damage white woman have enacted onto people of color (e.g., white women being complicit in and cruel to enslaved people, Hilary Clinton wreaking havoc upon Palestine and in the Middle East, white women calling the police on Black people going about their day to day, etc.) She discusses a wide range of topics such as the unique and awful stereotypes faced by different women of color.
I appreciated Hamad’s confident tone and how she doesn’t hold back in her arguments and analysis. I particularly enjoyed how she wrote about how the United States and western countries in general have a frustrating habit of viewing women of color in the East as “needing saving” by white men, when white male soldiers have inflicted so much horrendous pain onto women of color abroad. I thought she did a great job of highlighting how the demonization of men of color in comparison to white men also harms women of color and racial justice movements overall.
While I think this book may not offer too many new insights to people who are already well-read on white fragility and white women’s tears, I still am glad this book exists especially for white women, white people in general, and people of color who are aligned with white supremacy to educate themselves. I had a white woman weaponize her emotionality when I called her in (super gently, too!) about a racial justice issue and it sucks. So it’s nice that people are talking about this and it’s kind of Hamad to outline how white women can choose to stop perpetuating racist violence, too.
I appreciated Hamad’s confident tone and how she doesn’t hold back in her arguments and analysis. I particularly enjoyed how she wrote about how the United States and western countries in general have a frustrating habit of viewing women of color in the East as “needing saving” by white men, when white male soldiers have inflicted so much horrendous pain onto women of color abroad. I thought she did a great job of highlighting how the demonization of men of color in comparison to white men also harms women of color and racial justice movements overall.
While I think this book may not offer too many new insights to people who are already well-read on white fragility and white women’s tears, I still am glad this book exists especially for white women, white people in general, and people of color who are aligned with white supremacy to educate themselves. I had a white woman weaponize her emotionality when I called her in (super gently, too!) about a racial justice issue and it sucks. So it’s nice that people are talking about this and it’s kind of Hamad to outline how white women can choose to stop perpetuating racist violence, too.
January 4, 2022
TL;DR - Wasn't a fan. Examples of sloppy research/misinformation below
I read this for a book circle. I didn't really like the writing or the absolutist tone but can recognize this book has an important message and opportunity for reflection at its core. The historical stuff was quite interesting.
That being said, I want to say (since it doesn't seem to be indicated in all the 5s) that Hamad uses misinformation techniques to massage her argument.
No one will likely read or care but here are key examples:
1 - Omission = pg60, the historical origin of the word 'sq*aw' as presented on Oprah has been disproven by linguists. The Algonquin source word means 'woman'. A Mohican word (from a different geographical location and language family) sounds similar and does have the pejorative meaning. Yes, sq*aw has become a slur but it didn't originate as an explicit sexual reference as Hamad suggests.
2 - Speculation with No Sourcing = pg157, referring to a woman with a KKK-like hood and cloak at the 1913 NY Suffrage Parade. Assuming the image referred to is from the cited NYT Staples article, there's no one with anything resembling a hood. In the sole image, the potential suspect is a woman (whose face is obscured by a sign) with an open cape and a hat feather that peeks out like a hood tip. [I looked at other images and couldn't find anything else]
3 - Bad Fact-Checking = p43, the second half of the Edward Said quote about "women's sexuality" is not from Said's Orientalism. It's a misattribution I think stems from some awkward footnoting in a 1998 feminist article by Sunny Woan. Hamad also doesn't cite Woan, which isn't cool if she's her quote source. (Chris Hedges made the same error in his 2018 book but more plagiaristically; he's also not cited by Hamad)
On a whole, these items undermine the veracity of Hamad's examples to backup her claims, especially since most of her claims are bold and inflammatory.
I'd expect a reporter to fully explore and verify information on topics beyond their expertise before committing them to paper.
I get the (perhaps incorrect) impression that Hamad is capitalizing on readers' strong emotions about the subject matter and hoping they won't go looking for confirmation of her claims. (Which, let's be real, most people haven't and won't do)
I read this for a book circle. I didn't really like the writing or the absolutist tone but can recognize this book has an important message and opportunity for reflection at its core. The historical stuff was quite interesting.
That being said, I want to say (since it doesn't seem to be indicated in all the 5s) that Hamad uses misinformation techniques to massage her argument.
No one will likely read or care but here are key examples:
1 - Omission = pg60, the historical origin of the word 'sq*aw' as presented on Oprah has been disproven by linguists. The Algonquin source word means 'woman'. A Mohican word (from a different geographical location and language family) sounds similar and does have the pejorative meaning. Yes, sq*aw has become a slur but it didn't originate as an explicit sexual reference as Hamad suggests.
2 - Speculation with No Sourcing = pg157, referring to a woman with a KKK-like hood and cloak at the 1913 NY Suffrage Parade. Assuming the image referred to is from the cited NYT Staples article, there's no one with anything resembling a hood. In the sole image, the potential suspect is a woman (whose face is obscured by a sign) with an open cape and a hat feather that peeks out like a hood tip. [I looked at other images and couldn't find anything else]
3 - Bad Fact-Checking = p43, the second half of the Edward Said quote about "women's sexuality" is not from Said's Orientalism. It's a misattribution I think stems from some awkward footnoting in a 1998 feminist article by Sunny Woan. Hamad also doesn't cite Woan, which isn't cool if she's her quote source. (Chris Hedges made the same error in his 2018 book but more plagiaristically; he's also not cited by Hamad)
On a whole, these items undermine the veracity of Hamad's examples to backup her claims, especially since most of her claims are bold and inflammatory.
I'd expect a reporter to fully explore and verify information on topics beyond their expertise before committing them to paper.
I get the (perhaps incorrect) impression that Hamad is capitalizing on readers' strong emotions about the subject matter and hoping they won't go looking for confirmation of her claims. (Which, let's be real, most people haven't and won't do)
May 28, 2022
I received a copy of this book as part of libro.fm's ALC program.
4.5 stars
This was well written and informative. I picked this up after some conversation on TikTok following a trend where white women were fake crying and then "turning it off." While it started as a harmless acting trend, these conversations about the history of white tears was exactly right. And Hamad's work spells out why, in a comprehensive way.
The one weakness of this book doubles as a strength. Hamad is writing from a specific POV as an Arabic, Australian woman, but she does a really wonderful job positioning that and pulling in other experiences. In doing so, it also means that there are times we are more wide than deep. And while her attempts at intersectionality at often successful, there were moments I wished we had a bit more of that depth.
I ended up listening to passages of this multiple time as the historical elements and the overall argument were incredibly thought provoking.
[March 2022] Marking for reread.
4.5 stars
This was well written and informative. I picked this up after some conversation on TikTok following a trend where white women were fake crying and then "turning it off." While it started as a harmless acting trend, these conversations about the history of white tears was exactly right. And Hamad's work spells out why, in a comprehensive way.
The one weakness of this book doubles as a strength. Hamad is writing from a specific POV as an Arabic, Australian woman, but she does a really wonderful job positioning that and pulling in other experiences. In doing so, it also means that there are times we are more wide than deep. And while her attempts at intersectionality at often successful, there were moments I wished we had a bit more of that depth.
I ended up listening to passages of this multiple time as the historical elements and the overall argument were incredibly thought provoking.
[March 2022] Marking for reread.
December 6, 2021
4.5 stars
This is feels like the next step in anyone's work in learning about racism and how it manifests itself in our society. I loved how this book had a more international POV and covered a variety of racial backgrounds. This does mean it takes a broader view on the topics but it is a great read
Watch me discuss it in my November wrap up: https://youtu.be/RXAPTOsWqH0
This is feels like the next step in anyone's work in learning about racism and how it manifests itself in our society. I loved how this book had a more international POV and covered a variety of racial backgrounds. This does mean it takes a broader view on the topics but it is a great read
Watch me discuss it in my November wrap up: https://youtu.be/RXAPTOsWqH0
November 20, 2020
“The crimes of white supremacy have not gone unrecorded. They are etched into the bodies of brown and black people the world over. Our scars, past and present, physical and emotional, bear witness to the violence white men and women insisted they were not inflicting. … white people will eventually have to reckon with the true horror of their own brutal history. Frances Harper’s challenge rings as clear in its truth now as ever, whether white women are ready to face it or not. For women of color to be free of racism and for white women to be rid of patriarchy, it is the damsel who must be damned.”
Reading Ruby Hamad’s White Tears/Brown Scars was a clarifying experience, one that gives voice and vocabulary to the physical, emotional, and generational trauma so many Black people and people of color are enduring today. I read this book with mad, reddening eyes and with clenched fists. Yet, for all its honesty and horror, I read this book with the harbinger that it might haunt me. But I do not feel haunted, I feel empowered.
Ruby is an incredible researcher, a savant of truth, an ally of authority and merit. For all I thought I knew of white supremacy and its female co-conspirators, I learned so much from reading this book — from settler-colonial theory to maternal colonialism to the unforgotten accounts of white women disguising themselves as feminists while remaining complicit in causing irreparable harm to women of color and maiming entire generations of peoples under the pretense of harmless femininity.
Today, we call them “Karens,” but they’ve been around for centuries. They are our coworkers, family members, and — as Ruby painstakingly points out — some turn out to be our friends. To anyone who’s ever been gaslit by white folx (of any gender), to anyone who's ever felt anchored by the "bootstrap theory" and to those of you striving to unlearn your implicit racial biases, let Ruby's words be the ones to guide you.
Reading Ruby Hamad’s White Tears/Brown Scars was a clarifying experience, one that gives voice and vocabulary to the physical, emotional, and generational trauma so many Black people and people of color are enduring today. I read this book with mad, reddening eyes and with clenched fists. Yet, for all its honesty and horror, I read this book with the harbinger that it might haunt me. But I do not feel haunted, I feel empowered.
Ruby is an incredible researcher, a savant of truth, an ally of authority and merit. For all I thought I knew of white supremacy and its female co-conspirators, I learned so much from reading this book — from settler-colonial theory to maternal colonialism to the unforgotten accounts of white women disguising themselves as feminists while remaining complicit in causing irreparable harm to women of color and maiming entire generations of peoples under the pretense of harmless femininity.
Today, we call them “Karens,” but they’ve been around for centuries. They are our coworkers, family members, and — as Ruby painstakingly points out — some turn out to be our friends. To anyone who’s ever been gaslit by white folx (of any gender), to anyone who's ever felt anchored by the "bootstrap theory" and to those of you striving to unlearn your implicit racial biases, let Ruby's words be the ones to guide you.
September 26, 2023
4/5 ⭐️
- This was an incredible book about race and racism. I love how the author weaved the cultural stories with her knowledge of journalism. Really love how this book dives deep into not only racism against Black people, but encompasses stories about indigenous communities, people of Arab descent, Asian communities, and so many other groups of color. If you’re a person of color, this book will make you feel seen and if you are not a person of color, this book will make you uncomfortable. But it’s such an important book to read for any feminist.
- What I wish that I had seen more of in this book were tactile ways that white people can better support all communities of color. I think this book provides so much deep thought into why it’s important to dismantle white supremacy, but it can easily leave the reader feeling as if white supremacy is so engrained in our society (which it is very very deeply rooted) that it’s impossible to create any change.
- I love love loved how this book really walked the reader through history and how history has lead us to where we are today. When the book began, I felt like I knew a lot of the information and the book would be more of a way to feel seen than to learn more about the world and I was so wrong! I found myself learning so much about history and the world around me today. I also love how the entire back of the book is filled with where the author found the basis of her quotes and historical information so you can dive even deeper if you wanted. If you’re at the beginning of your anti racism journey, I would recommend books like “Nice Racism”, “So You Want To Talk About Race”, or “White Fragility” before diving into this book, but this is a must read for all.
- This was an incredible book about race and racism. I love how the author weaved the cultural stories with her knowledge of journalism. Really love how this book dives deep into not only racism against Black people, but encompasses stories about indigenous communities, people of Arab descent, Asian communities, and so many other groups of color. If you’re a person of color, this book will make you feel seen and if you are not a person of color, this book will make you uncomfortable. But it’s such an important book to read for any feminist.
- What I wish that I had seen more of in this book were tactile ways that white people can better support all communities of color. I think this book provides so much deep thought into why it’s important to dismantle white supremacy, but it can easily leave the reader feeling as if white supremacy is so engrained in our society (which it is very very deeply rooted) that it’s impossible to create any change.
- I love love loved how this book really walked the reader through history and how history has lead us to where we are today. When the book began, I felt like I knew a lot of the information and the book would be more of a way to feel seen than to learn more about the world and I was so wrong! I found myself learning so much about history and the world around me today. I also love how the entire back of the book is filled with where the author found the basis of her quotes and historical information so you can dive even deeper if you wanted. If you’re at the beginning of your anti racism journey, I would recommend books like “Nice Racism”, “So You Want To Talk About Race”, or “White Fragility” before diving into this book, but this is a must read for all.
May 22, 2022
3.5 stars! i'm glad this book exists, and i will certainly be drawing upon its ideas in discussions with white feminists in my life.
white tears/brown scars is thoroughly researched and compellingly articulated, but not altogether groundbreaking for me. i also personally did not go in expecting the majority of the book to rehash history; the initial chapters, for instance, delve into the historical origins of racialized and gendered stereotypes (e.g., the "china doll"), while one of the last chapters details a history of slavery in africa without clear connections to gender and feminism.
i especially appreciated the writings about and inclusion of Indigenous and Aboriginal women in australia and north america, and also arab women across the globe. the author's explicit and consistent centring of colonialism - its material harm, erasure from western history, and continued perpetuation - was also powerful.
white tears/brown scars is thoroughly researched and compellingly articulated, but not altogether groundbreaking for me. i also personally did not go in expecting the majority of the book to rehash history; the initial chapters, for instance, delve into the historical origins of racialized and gendered stereotypes (e.g., the "china doll"), while one of the last chapters details a history of slavery in africa without clear connections to gender and feminism.
i especially appreciated the writings about and inclusion of Indigenous and Aboriginal women in australia and north america, and also arab women across the globe. the author's explicit and consistent centring of colonialism - its material harm, erasure from western history, and continued perpetuation - was also powerful.
March 19, 2021
yeah i need everyone to read this book
May 20, 2020
As a black woman living in a racist everyday life I found so much commonality in this book. I was first introduced to this author like many others when I google searches topics on white women fragility and this came up and I used a phrase to send to my white female boss for how she would never see my side of any incident involving white women and I was made to feel like I did something wrong because I was immediately made to be the aggressor interesting the way language is used in these cases by saying they are microaggressors not once did their lies and attacks seem micro. This book made me emotional where I many time could feel myself swaying between grieving, one minute I will be mad then depress mad again, hopeless and determined. The part on white-lighting is heroic in its exact description for how I become a white women's prey each and every time without consciously being aware because the ones who you are made to believe are not usually going to do harm 100% are. I look at white women tears of attack like being raped. I’m not sure if this commonality speaking to the colonization described in the book but it’s a form of harassment that can wear you down over a period of a long time and it takes a lot to ever be believed. The gaslighting is so on point because white people as described are narcissistic in how they are master manipulators and will victimize themselves quickly. They will profess fear when they are the ones who past and present are dangerous. There is a resentful jealousy with white women who seem to project whatever their spiteful dishonest asses comes up with. The white culture as noted colonized to then appropriate and deceive the world as if it their own. It pisses me off how fragile they are really not. The language used to minimize their deceitful dangerous nature has to end. They will say words like implicit, fragile, micro, unintentional as to make it appear they don’t know what they do. These egregious incidents feel like trying to prove sexual harassment. Each time I experience a WW attack it feels as though all of them come back. I have to fight my way back emotional to deal with them. I had the pleasure to be in one of Catrice Jackson’s sister circle and was introduced and own her book Becky Code. It has become a sort of dictionary to define a white woman attack. Brilliant. I conclude as I am fighting a Becky Karen situation as I write this I hope that we no longer have to be subjected to this mess. The part pet or threat... me being me I will never be the pet and there are sisters out here proud to be Karen’s pet. One bad Becky episodes makes it hard for me to trust and like white women. Because I am a dominate black straight female who sometimes is mistakenly said to be a lesbian because I am an alpha type women where when I speak I boldly with confidence I’m seen through a perception versus a reality. The white women’s imagination is lethal and if she loves you your safe but if she doesn’t it’s a rap.
I LOVED THIS BOOK it will be used as a reference for my book and many future discussions.
May you ladies find healing in the words of this work of literature. I’m hoping soon when I begin my black women affinity groups this will be a reference to heal our souls.
I LOVED THIS BOOK it will be used as a reference for my book and many future discussions.
May you ladies find healing in the words of this work of literature. I’m hoping soon when I begin my black women affinity groups this will be a reference to heal our souls.
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December 30, 2023
October 22, 2020
White Tears/Brown Scars is an explosive book of history and cultural criticism that argues that white feminism, from Australia to Zimbabwe to the United States, has been a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against black and indigenous women, and women of colour. Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep “ownership” of their slaves, through the centuries of colonialism, when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women’s active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of colour. Using examples of impressive breadth and depth, Hamad’s extensive research informs the narrative superbly.
Discussing subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and 19th-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad undertakes a new investigation of gender and race. She shows how the division between innocent white women and racialised, sexualised women of colour was created, and why this division is crucial to confront. Along the way, there are revelatory responses to questions like: Why are white men not troubled by sexual assault on women? (See Christine Blasey Ford.) With rigour and precision, Hamad builds a powerful argument about the legacy of white superiority that we are socialised within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight.
Hamad has written a fascinating, searingly honest and vitally important book inspired by her 2018 Guardian article "How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of Colour” which became a global flashpoint for discussions of white feminism and racism. It is a timely, thought-provoking and exhaustive look at how White women perpetuate White supremacy at the expense of women of colour. Utilising personal anecdotes and geopolitical histories, Hamad’s accessible, engaging, yet authoritative, prose lures you in and forces you to confront some genuinely ugly truths. This is an eye-opening must-read for anyone who claims to be an intersectional feminist and those intent on dismantling White supremacy. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Trapeze for an ARC.
Discussing subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and 19th-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad undertakes a new investigation of gender and race. She shows how the division between innocent white women and racialised, sexualised women of colour was created, and why this division is crucial to confront. Along the way, there are revelatory responses to questions like: Why are white men not troubled by sexual assault on women? (See Christine Blasey Ford.) With rigour and precision, Hamad builds a powerful argument about the legacy of white superiority that we are socialised within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight.
Hamad has written a fascinating, searingly honest and vitally important book inspired by her 2018 Guardian article "How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of Colour” which became a global flashpoint for discussions of white feminism and racism. It is a timely, thought-provoking and exhaustive look at how White women perpetuate White supremacy at the expense of women of colour. Utilising personal anecdotes and geopolitical histories, Hamad’s accessible, engaging, yet authoritative, prose lures you in and forces you to confront some genuinely ugly truths. This is an eye-opening must-read for anyone who claims to be an intersectional feminist and those intent on dismantling White supremacy. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Trapeze for an ARC.
December 16, 2020
Intersectional Feminism is where it's at sis! I will never get tired of saying this!
February 27, 2021
Book 70 of 2021
4.5 stars rounded up
A must read! I learnt so much from this book wow. It is so intersectional, and talks about the danger of white women's refusal to acknowledge their privilege.
Let me start by saying my review can't even begin to cover the very many important topics covered and explored by Ruby Hamad in this book. I enjoyed it a lot and I think everyone should read this book for themselves because there is so much for them.
So many topics were covered in this book, both in modern day and with historical context.
The media - news, books, TV, and movies - and it's portrayal of women of color throughout history and how women of different racial origins have some stereotypical role they always seem to play. The angry/sassy black girl/woman, the sexy latina/the Latina maid, the overachieving Asian, the oppressed Arabian girl/woman forced to wear a hijab, the whitewashed role of pocahontas and so on and so forth.
A lot of historical context and references were given by Ruby Hamad in this book, digging deep into the origin of the "white damsel in distress" and the roles white women have played at different points in time in upholding the patriarchy and racist structures. For instance, white women weren't just passive during the slave trade Era, many of them owned slaves as well and mistreated slaves as badly as white men did. To cover up the fact that they were having consensual sex with black men, they would rather accuse these men of rape and have them hanged.
White women's position in the hierarchy of power and refusal go acknowledge their privilege. In the universal hierarchy of power from centuries ago up till today, it's been - white men, white women, men of color, women of color (this hierarchy makes no mention of trans and non binary people, and this exclusion wasn't mentioned by the author). White women continue to refuse to admit the amount of privilege they have and instead choose to play victim all the time.
White women as gatekeepers of racism and white supremacy is another concept explored in this book. For many decades, white women have been harmful and instrumental in racist institutions, and instead of taking the side of fellow women, the prefer to side with white men and institutions that uphold white supremacy.
White women and their treatment of women of color in the workplace was also explored in depth in this book. Touching women of color's hair, making racist and snide remarks, and micro aggressions of different forms. When called out on this, they turn on the white tears and take on the role of the victim, further propagating the angry women of color myth when woc try to stand up for themselves
These issues and so many more were raised and discussed in this book, and it is a must read!
4.5 stars rounded up
A must read! I learnt so much from this book wow. It is so intersectional, and talks about the danger of white women's refusal to acknowledge their privilege.
Let me start by saying my review can't even begin to cover the very many important topics covered and explored by Ruby Hamad in this book. I enjoyed it a lot and I think everyone should read this book for themselves because there is so much for them.
So many topics were covered in this book, both in modern day and with historical context.
The media - news, books, TV, and movies - and it's portrayal of women of color throughout history and how women of different racial origins have some stereotypical role they always seem to play. The angry/sassy black girl/woman, the sexy latina/the Latina maid, the overachieving Asian, the oppressed Arabian girl/woman forced to wear a hijab, the whitewashed role of pocahontas and so on and so forth.
A lot of historical context and references were given by Ruby Hamad in this book, digging deep into the origin of the "white damsel in distress" and the roles white women have played at different points in time in upholding the patriarchy and racist structures. For instance, white women weren't just passive during the slave trade Era, many of them owned slaves as well and mistreated slaves as badly as white men did. To cover up the fact that they were having consensual sex with black men, they would rather accuse these men of rape and have them hanged.
White women's position in the hierarchy of power and refusal go acknowledge their privilege. In the universal hierarchy of power from centuries ago up till today, it's been - white men, white women, men of color, women of color (this hierarchy makes no mention of trans and non binary people, and this exclusion wasn't mentioned by the author). White women continue to refuse to admit the amount of privilege they have and instead choose to play victim all the time.
White women as gatekeepers of racism and white supremacy is another concept explored in this book. For many decades, white women have been harmful and instrumental in racist institutions, and instead of taking the side of fellow women, the prefer to side with white men and institutions that uphold white supremacy.
White women and their treatment of women of color in the workplace was also explored in depth in this book. Touching women of color's hair, making racist and snide remarks, and micro aggressions of different forms. When called out on this, they turn on the white tears and take on the role of the victim, further propagating the angry women of color myth when woc try to stand up for themselves
These issues and so many more were raised and discussed in this book, and it is a must read!
January 23, 2021
Another one for the 2021 favourites list. RTC.
August 4, 2021
White Tears/Brown Scars is a scathing indictment of what White Womanhood means, from its weaponisation against people of colour to its role as an enforcer of white supremacy. Throughout various spatial and temporal configurations, white women have in turn acted like the damsels in distress when confronted about their racism and the damsels in defence when the stewards of white male domination were challenged, and it is systematically women of colour who pay the highest price of this teary game of bait-and-switch. It begins with an overview of some of the stereotypes used to dehumanise women of colour, placing them as the foil to what womanhood should represent through the pure, innocent, GOOD white woman, and works its way towards the various layers that have led to and enforced the subordination of women of colour to this day, and the ramifications of racism from the workplace to the environment.
This reading experience was both triggering for me - as a woman of colour who has evolved in overwhelmingly white, Western European academic and professional spaces - and cathartic, with testimonials that I could relate to on-page. It is saddening and enraging that this phenomenon of white female victimhood is so widespread but heartening (in a weird way) to see that our struggles are so interconnected and that we can find strength in our shared experiences. It made me think "at least we have one another". I especially appreciated the emphasis on anti-blackness/colourism and how people of colour are also guilty of perpetuating this particular brand of racism for the sake of proximity to whiteness and all that it entails (increased social status, upward economic mobility at the expense of our own communities, etc.) towards the end, which I think is always an important point to make in order to not present the situation as a simplistic monolith.
The book itself has a strong throughline with the different chapters being connected in a logical manner and leading up to a well-thought progression. I did feel like chapter 7 was the weakest part, with Hamad's clumsy analysis of class struggles and the erasure of class solidarity - which earned the rather silly moniker of "classwashing" from Hamad and which I do not find useful in any way in terms of structural and materialist analysis - and fumbling to tie it to... rape culture? Not the brightest moment of this book imho, but it didn't particularly throw me off as there still were interesting bits to this chapter.
Overall, I think Hamad did a brilliant job at unpacking the concept of white tears, how it has historically and continues to affect to this day people of colour - with an emphasis on the impact of women of colour, but let us not forget that it was a white woman's false cries that caused the murder of Emmett Till and countless other black children and men, among many other examples and testimonials cited in this book - and most importantly what white woman can do to grow beyond the compulsive, narcissistic appeal of aligning with whiteness rather than their gender to further their own vested interests. What does it matter to the liberation of the oppressed and the disenfranchised that the head of the CIA is a white woman? Why should we cheer for it when the victims of US imperialism are people from the global south? Why should whiteness continue to be the default and why should white women's comfort (aka inability to confront their own racism) be more important than an actual reckoning of their racism? In the godless year of 2021, I think it is time white women answer these questions THEMSELVES and come up with solutions THEMSELVES. I do not care that it is a woman who is allowing the bombing of black and brown people in the Middle East and East Africa. It is not a "win for womanhood", it is a win for Western imperialism. White comfort cannot trump the urgent need for respect and dignity that has been denied to people of colour for so long for the sake of coddling white fragility and enforcing white supremacy.
Hamad concludes the book with a strong point on what women of colour have done up until now to grow their awareness of the limitations imposed upon them. Now, it is up to white women to answer the challenge of decrying a system that has in turn oppressed and utilised them, and with which they continue to align themselves to uphold white supremacy. It's not enough to write "intersectional feminist" in your Twitter bio. It is highly laughable to see white women decry the sins of "mediocre white men" as if they hadn't actively participated in upholding said white mediocrity as a whole. Step the fuck up, or stop crying when people of colour call you out on your bullshit. No more time for white fragility. You have a choice to make: fess up, or keep on being a large part of the problem.
Tl;dr: "Throughout settler-colonial history, white women have had a choice either to uphold this disorder we call white supremacy and with it their own subordination, or to reach across and take the hands of come of colour in order to work toward the liberation of all. Not only have they, as a group, invariably chosen the former, but they have done so with at least as much gusto as their white male counterparts. [...] Is it more likely that this was coincidental, or that when white women join white men in the ranks for power, whiteness coalesces, hardens, and metastasizes? It's not that the women are any more racist than the men, it's that White Womanhood consolidates white domination." Read the book!
This reading experience was both triggering for me - as a woman of colour who has evolved in overwhelmingly white, Western European academic and professional spaces - and cathartic, with testimonials that I could relate to on-page. It is saddening and enraging that this phenomenon of white female victimhood is so widespread but heartening (in a weird way) to see that our struggles are so interconnected and that we can find strength in our shared experiences. It made me think "at least we have one another". I especially appreciated the emphasis on anti-blackness/colourism and how people of colour are also guilty of perpetuating this particular brand of racism for the sake of proximity to whiteness and all that it entails (increased social status, upward economic mobility at the expense of our own communities, etc.) towards the end, which I think is always an important point to make in order to not present the situation as a simplistic monolith.
The book itself has a strong throughline with the different chapters being connected in a logical manner and leading up to a well-thought progression. I did feel like chapter 7 was the weakest part, with Hamad's clumsy analysis of class struggles and the erasure of class solidarity - which earned the rather silly moniker of "classwashing" from Hamad and which I do not find useful in any way in terms of structural and materialist analysis - and fumbling to tie it to... rape culture? Not the brightest moment of this book imho, but it didn't particularly throw me off as there still were interesting bits to this chapter.
Overall, I think Hamad did a brilliant job at unpacking the concept of white tears, how it has historically and continues to affect to this day people of colour - with an emphasis on the impact of women of colour, but let us not forget that it was a white woman's false cries that caused the murder of Emmett Till and countless other black children and men, among many other examples and testimonials cited in this book - and most importantly what white woman can do to grow beyond the compulsive, narcissistic appeal of aligning with whiteness rather than their gender to further their own vested interests. What does it matter to the liberation of the oppressed and the disenfranchised that the head of the CIA is a white woman? Why should we cheer for it when the victims of US imperialism are people from the global south? Why should whiteness continue to be the default and why should white women's comfort (aka inability to confront their own racism) be more important than an actual reckoning of their racism? In the godless year of 2021, I think it is time white women answer these questions THEMSELVES and come up with solutions THEMSELVES. I do not care that it is a woman who is allowing the bombing of black and brown people in the Middle East and East Africa. It is not a "win for womanhood", it is a win for Western imperialism. White comfort cannot trump the urgent need for respect and dignity that has been denied to people of colour for so long for the sake of coddling white fragility and enforcing white supremacy.
Hamad concludes the book with a strong point on what women of colour have done up until now to grow their awareness of the limitations imposed upon them. Now, it is up to white women to answer the challenge of decrying a system that has in turn oppressed and utilised them, and with which they continue to align themselves to uphold white supremacy. It's not enough to write "intersectional feminist" in your Twitter bio. It is highly laughable to see white women decry the sins of "mediocre white men" as if they hadn't actively participated in upholding said white mediocrity as a whole. Step the fuck up, or stop crying when people of colour call you out on your bullshit. No more time for white fragility. You have a choice to make: fess up, or keep on being a large part of the problem.
Tl;dr: "Throughout settler-colonial history, white women have had a choice either to uphold this disorder we call white supremacy and with it their own subordination, or to reach across and take the hands of come of colour in order to work toward the liberation of all. Not only have they, as a group, invariably chosen the former, but they have done so with at least as much gusto as their white male counterparts. [...] Is it more likely that this was coincidental, or that when white women join white men in the ranks for power, whiteness coalesces, hardens, and metastasizes? It's not that the women are any more racist than the men, it's that White Womanhood consolidates white domination." Read the book!
March 8, 2024
White women can oscillate between their gender and their race, between being the oppressed and the oppressor. Women of color are never permitted to exist outside of these constraints: we are both women and people of color and we are always seen and treated as such.
an insightful and eye-opening critique and history of white imperialism, capitalism, racism, & feminism spanning the globe.
i would recommend all my white moots add this to their tbr.
an insightful and eye-opening critique and history of white imperialism, capitalism, racism, & feminism spanning the globe.
i would recommend all my white moots add this to their tbr.
August 14, 2020
I love Ruby Hamad for this attempt to navigate the knotty nexus of gender, race, and feminism. I felt more like I was talking with a friend than I was reading a manifesto. That approach has pros and cons.
It reminded me of the reading experience I have with Richard Dawkins. With both of these authors I feel they are making assumptions about what’s obvious to them—that everyone already knows this thing they’re talking about—and in other cases they overexplain what really does feel obvious. I just didn’t fit well with Hamad’s assumptions about her general reader.
Another thing I found interesting here is that Hamad sometimes wrote as “we” in her sentences, and sometimes addresses “you” or “women,” and I wasn’t always sure who belonged to “we” or “you” or “women.”
On the whole it was enjoyable and enlightening.
It reminded me of the reading experience I have with Richard Dawkins. With both of these authors I feel they are making assumptions about what’s obvious to them—that everyone already knows this thing they’re talking about—and in other cases they overexplain what really does feel obvious. I just didn’t fit well with Hamad’s assumptions about her general reader.
Another thing I found interesting here is that Hamad sometimes wrote as “we” in her sentences, and sometimes addresses “you” or “women,” and I wasn’t always sure who belonged to “we” or “you” or “women.”
On the whole it was enjoyable and enlightening.
July 20, 2020
With all the fuss over “Karens”, those insufferably vile American white women whose bigotry surpasses the worst of the all-male white supremacist alt right, it is very timely that Ruby Hamad is releasing her book White Tears/Brown Scars. Its thesis is that white women use tears as a first line weapon to deflect from their racism. This is a new angle for me; I’d never heard of it before. And certainly never seen it myself. It is as fascinating as it is horrifying.
Hamad, and a couple of dozen women of color from around the world whom she interviewed, have long noticed this curious phenomenon. At first, every one of them thought they had overstepped and offended a white woman, and thereby damaged an important relationship with a potentially useful and powerful ally. And so they pulled back rather than hurt their own cause. But over the years, they have come to realize they are not the problem, but that they have been the continual victims of a white female ruse. White women cry when accused of insensitivity or racism. They turn the tables on their accusers: “White feminists have learned to silence us by claiming that our pain is hurting them, “ Hamad says.
It is both amazing and sad how many times and ways this tool gets employed. It seems to be instinctive rather than conspiratorial. And it seems to work every time. Pity the poor white woman. Faced with a real victim – a woman of color – she instead positions herself as a lifelong victim, being accused of victimizing other women! How could anyone think that of her? And so she bursts into tears in the midst of the conversation, effectively ending it before any accusation can be examined for what it might be worth. It is one-upmanship over victimhood, like something out of Monty Python.
Hamad says it shows white women are part of the problem, not the solution. They have decided they are a rung above women of color, and have hitched their wagons to white males on the top wrung. It is more important for them to be associated with white supremacy than female equality. They would rather fit into the hierarchy of the patriarchy where they are a poor second, than with women of color, who are an even poorer third. Women of color are a lower caste, definitely not worth associating with. The result is this odd habit of white women suddenly bursting into tears when accused, challenged or even just discussing their own racism.
Hamad’s book, which evolved out of a magazine article that took her on a whirlwind of global interest, led of course to attracting all kinds of trolls, from whom she learned a lot. But it also gave her thesis depth. It led her to investigate the history of white feminism, going back in history and around the world. She found the same things everywhere she looked: white women dominating slaves and other women of color, crying crocodile tears, and posing as white supremacists beside their white supremacist males. And when it wasn’t tears, it was the damsel in distress. Poor, weak, innocent and fragile white woman in a hostile land. They carved their own little niche in the patriarchy, and defended (and continue to defend) it with every wile and tool at their disposal. Tears are easy for them to produce, and the results are quick to let them off the hook and deflect to another conversation, away from themselves.
To her credit, Hamad also found that racism is not merely white over color. All over the world, as I have written numerous times, master races dominate and discriminate against other races. The Malaysians discriminate against their Chinese co-citizens right in the constitution. Mexico has an entire caste system based on skin shades. So does India, where skin lighteners are in constant demand. Japanese men are simply superior to everyone else in the world, especially their own women. It’s not just American whites.
As for European whites, everywhere they settled, they dominated everyone else, by extreme force. Women could accuse any man of another color of assault or rape, and they would all but automatically be sentenced to death or long prison terms. Protecting the supposed virtue and saintliness of white women got baked into laws promulgated by top wrung white men. Raping a black woman wouldn’t raise an eyebrow (Jezebel that she must be). But accusing young black Emmett Till of just whistling at a white woman, even though it wasn’t even true, cost him his life. Simply bumping past a white woman in a crowded hallway could mean execution.
Hamad, who repeatedly mentions she is olive-skinned with voluminous hair she pointlessly struggled to tame for years, found her fellow victims attacked with the same labels: toxic, bully, hostile, troublemaker, aggressive, irrational, divisive. The coincidences are global. The so-called sisterhood of feminists is an exclusive club for hypocritical white women. They will climb the corporate ladder, pushing women of color aside and burying them, rather than mentoring them. Is it any wonder that so many women leading major corporations has not resulted in equality for women employees?
It doesn’t stop at tears, either. The claimants in most US racial discrimination lawsuits resulting from affirmative action are white women, Hamad found. It appears “We can be both targets of racial abuse and perpetrators of it.”
Ironically, perhaps, it is the women of color, most especially Indigenous women, who are at the forefront of environmental rights,” because their own rights are inseparable from the battle for the environment.” They don’t have time for the games white women play. Their families and their lives are at stake, and they make real headway and real progress without the drama white women engender. Because they have to.
Hamad ends with two contradictory thoughts, as befits this mind-numbing discovery: ”I’d be lying if I said I knew how to reconcile all this,” she says.
And “White women can dry their tears and join us, or they can continue on the path of the damsel, a path that leads not toward the light of liberation, but only into the dead end of the colonial past.”
David Wineberg
Hamad, and a couple of dozen women of color from around the world whom she interviewed, have long noticed this curious phenomenon. At first, every one of them thought they had overstepped and offended a white woman, and thereby damaged an important relationship with a potentially useful and powerful ally. And so they pulled back rather than hurt their own cause. But over the years, they have come to realize they are not the problem, but that they have been the continual victims of a white female ruse. White women cry when accused of insensitivity or racism. They turn the tables on their accusers: “White feminists have learned to silence us by claiming that our pain is hurting them, “ Hamad says.
It is both amazing and sad how many times and ways this tool gets employed. It seems to be instinctive rather than conspiratorial. And it seems to work every time. Pity the poor white woman. Faced with a real victim – a woman of color – she instead positions herself as a lifelong victim, being accused of victimizing other women! How could anyone think that of her? And so she bursts into tears in the midst of the conversation, effectively ending it before any accusation can be examined for what it might be worth. It is one-upmanship over victimhood, like something out of Monty Python.
Hamad says it shows white women are part of the problem, not the solution. They have decided they are a rung above women of color, and have hitched their wagons to white males on the top wrung. It is more important for them to be associated with white supremacy than female equality. They would rather fit into the hierarchy of the patriarchy where they are a poor second, than with women of color, who are an even poorer third. Women of color are a lower caste, definitely not worth associating with. The result is this odd habit of white women suddenly bursting into tears when accused, challenged or even just discussing their own racism.
Hamad’s book, which evolved out of a magazine article that took her on a whirlwind of global interest, led of course to attracting all kinds of trolls, from whom she learned a lot. But it also gave her thesis depth. It led her to investigate the history of white feminism, going back in history and around the world. She found the same things everywhere she looked: white women dominating slaves and other women of color, crying crocodile tears, and posing as white supremacists beside their white supremacist males. And when it wasn’t tears, it was the damsel in distress. Poor, weak, innocent and fragile white woman in a hostile land. They carved their own little niche in the patriarchy, and defended (and continue to defend) it with every wile and tool at their disposal. Tears are easy for them to produce, and the results are quick to let them off the hook and deflect to another conversation, away from themselves.
To her credit, Hamad also found that racism is not merely white over color. All over the world, as I have written numerous times, master races dominate and discriminate against other races. The Malaysians discriminate against their Chinese co-citizens right in the constitution. Mexico has an entire caste system based on skin shades. So does India, where skin lighteners are in constant demand. Japanese men are simply superior to everyone else in the world, especially their own women. It’s not just American whites.
As for European whites, everywhere they settled, they dominated everyone else, by extreme force. Women could accuse any man of another color of assault or rape, and they would all but automatically be sentenced to death or long prison terms. Protecting the supposed virtue and saintliness of white women got baked into laws promulgated by top wrung white men. Raping a black woman wouldn’t raise an eyebrow (Jezebel that she must be). But accusing young black Emmett Till of just whistling at a white woman, even though it wasn’t even true, cost him his life. Simply bumping past a white woman in a crowded hallway could mean execution.
Hamad, who repeatedly mentions she is olive-skinned with voluminous hair she pointlessly struggled to tame for years, found her fellow victims attacked with the same labels: toxic, bully, hostile, troublemaker, aggressive, irrational, divisive. The coincidences are global. The so-called sisterhood of feminists is an exclusive club for hypocritical white women. They will climb the corporate ladder, pushing women of color aside and burying them, rather than mentoring them. Is it any wonder that so many women leading major corporations has not resulted in equality for women employees?
It doesn’t stop at tears, either. The claimants in most US racial discrimination lawsuits resulting from affirmative action are white women, Hamad found. It appears “We can be both targets of racial abuse and perpetrators of it.”
Ironically, perhaps, it is the women of color, most especially Indigenous women, who are at the forefront of environmental rights,” because their own rights are inseparable from the battle for the environment.” They don’t have time for the games white women play. Their families and their lives are at stake, and they make real headway and real progress without the drama white women engender. Because they have to.
Hamad ends with two contradictory thoughts, as befits this mind-numbing discovery: ”I’d be lying if I said I knew how to reconcile all this,” she says.
And “White women can dry their tears and join us, or they can continue on the path of the damsel, a path that leads not toward the light of liberation, but only into the dead end of the colonial past.”
David Wineberg
May 16, 2021
To say this book is a must read feels like a gross understatement. I have never felt more seen and acknowledged as a woman of color, than when I was reading this amazing literary work.
Hamad brilliantly examined the “pivot” between the one-up, one-down relationships between white women, white men and people of color as she analyzes the role white femininity plays in stereotypes, politics and anti-blackness. She explains the symbolism of the term “white tears” and how fragility can be both wielded as a weapon and used as a step-stool. And she doesn’t mince words when describing the role white feminism has played in international conflict and domestic degradation.
I absolutely love and recommend this book to anyone who has a yearning to learn about the dichotomy between white supremacy and white feminism. This book should honestly be a required reading for sociology, women’s studies, African American studies, international history, and so many other majors as it really invites the reader to check their own biases and question how they perceive women from the lens of their own cultural indoctrination.
If I could give it 6 stars, I would. This book deserves all of the praise for gutsy and well-researched subject matter. A resounding 5-star read!
Hamad brilliantly examined the “pivot” between the one-up, one-down relationships between white women, white men and people of color as she analyzes the role white femininity plays in stereotypes, politics and anti-blackness. She explains the symbolism of the term “white tears” and how fragility can be both wielded as a weapon and used as a step-stool. And she doesn’t mince words when describing the role white feminism has played in international conflict and domestic degradation.
I absolutely love and recommend this book to anyone who has a yearning to learn about the dichotomy between white supremacy and white feminism. This book should honestly be a required reading for sociology, women’s studies, African American studies, international history, and so many other majors as it really invites the reader to check their own biases and question how they perceive women from the lens of their own cultural indoctrination.
If I could give it 6 stars, I would. This book deserves all of the praise for gutsy and well-researched subject matter. A resounding 5-star read!
July 26, 2023
Read this!!!
This gave me a better understanding of what my POC friends/family go through in an eye opening way. Did I see things I have done (or stood by without speaking up) that may have contributed to the problem?
Yup.
Knowing how to recognize them is important, but Ruby also explains when it is not okay to speak up too, which I found interesting. Speaking up as a white person can sometimes take away the voice of the POC having the issue. It's okay to back them up, but be careful not to take over, so the main issue isn't lost or overshadowed.
The intersectional feminism is presented with a variety of world views/first hand accounts that make it very easy to absorb. It's something I will need to read several times and will likely take something new from it every time.
It is a great way to learn more about how racism developed/continues to present today.
This book will help you be a better human by unlearning the racial biases that have been inherited through the decades.
This gave me a better understanding of what my POC friends/family go through in an eye opening way. Did I see things I have done (or stood by without speaking up) that may have contributed to the problem?
Yup.
Knowing how to recognize them is important, but Ruby also explains when it is not okay to speak up too, which I found interesting. Speaking up as a white person can sometimes take away the voice of the POC having the issue. It's okay to back them up, but be careful not to take over, so the main issue isn't lost or overshadowed.
The intersectional feminism is presented with a variety of world views/first hand accounts that make it very easy to absorb. It's something I will need to read several times and will likely take something new from it every time.
It is a great way to learn more about how racism developed/continues to present today.
This book will help you be a better human by unlearning the racial biases that have been inherited through the decades.
Read
March 14, 2021I finished reading this book after watching Oprah's Meghan Markle interview and it's quite fitting because the British media leveraged white tears/brown scars against her. I'm not going to rate this book because I need to research more sources and books about some of the points Hamid discusses and cites in her notes. Hamad also cites Robin DiAngelo, and I intensely dislike that woman for being both a hypocrite and disingenuous.
This book first started out as a newspaper article online, but it resonated so much with women of color across the world that Hamid decided to write a book about it. I like this lead in, and the centering on these women's experiences/sharing their stories, instead of just being another book trying to educate white people. I think the story that stuck with me the strongest was Zenia, a Palestinian-Canadian woman, who lost her job for filing a complaint against a coworker that touched her hair in the bathroom before washing her hands.
Overall, I think Part One/The Setup was slightly stronger than Part Two/The Payoff because it provides historical basis for the Jezebel, Exotic Orientals, Angry Sapphires, Bad Arabs, and Dragon Lady stereotypes that still permeates the global consciousness and usually takes form in media and art.
In Part Two, I think 5. There Is No Sisterhood, 7. The Rise of Righteous Racism, and 8. The Privilege and Peril of Passing were the most informative with a focus on interactions and attitudes in the professional workplace, nonprofit organizations, on social media, and in the beauty industry.
Reading this book also reminded me of the comedian, Bill Burr, and his SNL speech about white women feminism.
“I’ve got to tell you, the way white women somehow hijacked the woke movement ... generals around the world should be analyzing this,” Burr said. “The woke movement was supposed to be about people of color not getting opportunities... finally making that happen. And it was about that for about eight seconds. And then somehow, white women swung their Gucci-booted feet over the fence of oppression and stuck themselves at the front of the line."
"Trashing white guys ... the nerve of you white women,” he added. “Let’s go back in history here. You guys stood by us toxic white males through centuries of our crimes against humanity. You rolled around in the blood money and occasionally when you wanted to sneak off and hook up with a black dude, if you got caught, you said it was nonconsensual. That’s what you did! So why don’t you shut up, sit down next to me and take your talking to.”
This book first started out as a newspaper article online, but it resonated so much with women of color across the world that Hamid decided to write a book about it. I like this lead in, and the centering on these women's experiences/sharing their stories, instead of just being another book trying to educate white people. I think the story that stuck with me the strongest was Zenia, a Palestinian-Canadian woman, who lost her job for filing a complaint against a coworker that touched her hair in the bathroom before washing her hands.
Overall, I think Part One/The Setup was slightly stronger than Part Two/The Payoff because it provides historical basis for the Jezebel, Exotic Orientals, Angry Sapphires, Bad Arabs, and Dragon Lady stereotypes that still permeates the global consciousness and usually takes form in media and art.
In Part Two, I think 5. There Is No Sisterhood, 7. The Rise of Righteous Racism, and 8. The Privilege and Peril of Passing were the most informative with a focus on interactions and attitudes in the professional workplace, nonprofit organizations, on social media, and in the beauty industry.
Reading this book also reminded me of the comedian, Bill Burr, and his SNL speech about white women feminism.
“I’ve got to tell you, the way white women somehow hijacked the woke movement ... generals around the world should be analyzing this,” Burr said. “The woke movement was supposed to be about people of color not getting opportunities... finally making that happen. And it was about that for about eight seconds. And then somehow, white women swung their Gucci-booted feet over the fence of oppression and stuck themselves at the front of the line."
"Trashing white guys ... the nerve of you white women,” he added. “Let’s go back in history here. You guys stood by us toxic white males through centuries of our crimes against humanity. You rolled around in the blood money and occasionally when you wanted to sneak off and hook up with a black dude, if you got caught, you said it was nonconsensual. That’s what you did! So why don’t you shut up, sit down next to me and take your talking to.”
February 19, 2021
How is it that we have been so conditioned to prioritize the emotional comfort of white people? Why does the sight of a white woman crying provoke such placatory responses, even in a context such as this where people have every reason to be seared, upset, and even angry?
In White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color, Ruby Hamad does a phenomenal job creating a space to discuss the weaponizing of white women’s tears. Using historical evidence and anecdotal support, Hamad makes a more than compelling case that when challenged by a woman of color, a whites woman will oftentimes than not lean into her racial privilege and turn the tables to accuse the other woman of bullying or attacking her. She explores many concepts to outline her case to create a very convincing story that reveal white women’s active participation in campaigns of oppression including but not limited to: white fragility, respectability, jezebel, angry black woman, angry brown woman, mammy, and sapphire.
I found this book to be exceptionally comprehensive and very well researched. It will make some uncomfortable sure, but that is all the more reason to read it and read it again. You’ll also in the very least gain understanding on a very general level why it is extremely offensive to touch a black woman’s hair, for example. Incredible read. I encourage you to grab a copy!
In White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color, Ruby Hamad does a phenomenal job creating a space to discuss the weaponizing of white women’s tears. Using historical evidence and anecdotal support, Hamad makes a more than compelling case that when challenged by a woman of color, a whites woman will oftentimes than not lean into her racial privilege and turn the tables to accuse the other woman of bullying or attacking her. She explores many concepts to outline her case to create a very convincing story that reveal white women’s active participation in campaigns of oppression including but not limited to: white fragility, respectability, jezebel, angry black woman, angry brown woman, mammy, and sapphire.
I found this book to be exceptionally comprehensive and very well researched. It will make some uncomfortable sure, but that is all the more reason to read it and read it again. You’ll also in the very least gain understanding on a very general level why it is extremely offensive to touch a black woman’s hair, for example. Incredible read. I encourage you to grab a copy!
September 30, 2021
"Strategic White Womanhood makes personal what is political. It reframes legitimate critiques as petty gripes. It takes the onus off the structures and systems that hold back racialized women and places it firmly on the behaviour of these same women."
hamad makes some great points throughout (especially in regards to maternal colonialism and imperialism), and her argument is strong and well-defined, but i cant help but feel like something was missing from this book. i think i wanted more of a critical and in-depth analysis of a few specific examples rather than a broad overview of the intersection of race and sexism through many, but less in-depth, examples. i also felt like sometimes hamad's points got repetitive and seemed tangential or unrelated to the topic at hand (e.g. a whole chapter in the end that talks about the history of slavery without really relating it to gender in any way).
hamad makes some great points throughout (especially in regards to maternal colonialism and imperialism), and her argument is strong and well-defined, but i cant help but feel like something was missing from this book. i think i wanted more of a critical and in-depth analysis of a few specific examples rather than a broad overview of the intersection of race and sexism through many, but less in-depth, examples. i also felt like sometimes hamad's points got repetitive and seemed tangential or unrelated to the topic at hand (e.g. a whole chapter in the end that talks about the history of slavery without really relating it to gender in any way).
December 2, 2021
"Whiteness is more than skin colour. It is a system that privileges those racial, cultural and religious identities that most resemble the typical characteristics associated with the white Western Europeans who created the system in their image. And this system of white supremacy is now so ingrained it can exist without white people."
i had high expectations for this book, but although i do think it was written pretty well, it's probably more beneficial for white women to read this rather than woc bc the majority of the information was stuff i was already aware of. it was def satisfying to finally read proper, fleshed out criticism of white women and their role in upholding racist systems tho <3
i had high expectations for this book, but although i do think it was written pretty well, it's probably more beneficial for white women to read this rather than woc bc the majority of the information was stuff i was already aware of. it was def satisfying to finally read proper, fleshed out criticism of white women and their role in upholding racist systems tho <3
April 30, 2024
"White men brutalized, while white women 'civilized'"
September 7, 2022
The hypocrisy of white feminism is on full display in this concise piece. Belongs on the shelf alongside the work of Angela Y Davis and Isabel Wilkerson. Highly recommended!
Audiobook read by Mozhan Marnò.
Audiobook read by Mozhan Marnò.
October 21, 2023
Excellent. Glad I didn't read this; I would be highlighting the entire book! rtc
4.5 Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Mozhan Marno was excellent!
4.5 Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Mozhan Marno was excellent!
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