Extra Credit Blog: Race and Feminism

Since we just ended our segment on feminist critiques and are about to start our unit on critical race theory, it seems appropriate to discuss the intersection of the two. While discussing one, it is easy to forget about what we have learned about the other. No one is exempt from this, so all we can do is hope that we can view the issue with representation of the sexes and representation of various races as non-independent issues. I unsuccessfully brought up an example a while back about Miley Cyrus and the reaction to her twerking on stage with a married Robin Thicke, who received a significantly lower amount of criticism despite his involvement in the act. The reason this was brought up is because 3rd wave feminism protected her choice to do this, but some of the words used, not necessarily by my classmates, but concerning the dance style she attempted to perform were "ghetto," low-class," "trashy," etc. If you thought about any of those words, stop and look at the broader scale. I hesitated to do so in class, but given that this is a blog that may go unread by most of my classmates, I will say it here, twerking is a stye of dance that is commonly attributed to African American women and that fact has a large amount to do with why it is viewed negatively. What is funny about this is that all of a sudden, twerking hit the mainstream with more and more women (primarily white women) attempting this dance while either defending it by changing its origins entirely or laughing it off by remarking how "ghetto" they were.
Why do I bring this up? It is a great example of what happens when feminism goes wrong. In the pursuit of gender equality, racial equality takes a back seat, or worse yet gets thrown under the bus entirely. I could segue this into a discussion on how various things in minority cultures are being commandeered and re-purposed by mainstream America, but I won't because this video actually shows it better. http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6976820/columbusing-discovering-things-for-white-people (Warning for language).