I posted the following on the subreddit Gc_woc:
Ten days ago, I was banned from r/Radical_Feminists for calling out First World privilege and pointing out their greater responsibility for climate change: np.reddit.com/r/Radical_Feminists/comments/bcxqvq/i_hate_to_ask_this_but/ekv3osf/
That mod is also a mod at r/GenderCritical; you can read about my previous experience with the GC mods at my blog post here: I was censored for calling out GC activists’ willingness to get in bed with far-right anti-feminists, racists, fascists and Western chauvinists. I repeat my call for an apology from the GC mods for that original act of censorship.
This is only one example of the mainstream gender critical movement’s racism/imperialism problem. It’s not just on Reddit communities; I’ve seen this on twitter and facebook – the silencing, erasing, ignoring, co-opting of Third World woC experiences and our pain, and then excluding us and censoring us when we call it out.
They don’t want to admit there is at all a difference between White Western women and Third World woC, but our experiences are different in every way. Climate change is the most obvious example – I am from the south of India, and we were hit by severe floods during last year’s monsoon. Now, we are facing a drought; our well ran dry just yesterday. For the next two months, we (my family) are going to have to scrimp and save every drop we consume and pray that we can make it through. If the next monsoon is delayed, our suffering will be unimaginable. As a woman from a middle-class propertied family, I will suffer much less than my working-class and otherwise marginalised sisters in India, but what any of us are suffering in India is something Western women does not, and are probably not even aware of. Tropical latitudes (where the majority of Third World people live) are having much more severe climate change effects than more temperate climates.
But it’s not only a matter of geography. The legacy of colonialism and continuing neo-colonialism (neoliberal capitalist “globalisation”, rule by multi-national corporations) means that we lack political agency to force our governments to act in our interests rather than the interests of the Western MNCs who own them. For hundreds of years, Western countries have committed genocide on Third World peoples, including creating large-scale famines that had nothing to do with climate. They are still bombing (and funding the genocide of) the poorest of our countries, creating crises like the one in Yemen which has resulted in the deaths of more than 85,000 children from starvation.
Climate change is not merely “anthropogenic” or man-made; it was created by a certain group of human beings, and calling it anthropogenic collapses distinctions and inequalities of power between human beings, as well as the historical reality of how capitalist/imperialist ideologies caused the crisis. Climate change is the new imperialist genocide, and Western people didn’t care about it until it threatened to affect them. For hundreds of years, Western academics have been blaming population increase in the Third World for environmental problems, putting the blame at the feet of the poorest people in the world, who consume next to nothing in comparison with the average person in the capitalist West. Even now, Western people blaming the blameless for the mess that they made. The Western attitude is defined by a vacuum of moral responsibility.
That is why the term “Third World” is still extremely relevant today. Those of you who joke about “First World problems”, please stop; these jokes are dehumanising and trivialise the reality of neo-colonialism. The reality is that there is a huge inequality in power between First World/Western/White capitalist settler-colonial states and Third World/ex-colonised states. The historical responsibility for rampant carbon dioxide emissions due to industrialisation lies with the West; the Western lifestyle is based on industrialisation and capitalism and (continued) exploitation of the Third World. The problem cannot be collapsed into rich and poor within nation-states and a complete denial of global patterns and power inequalities. India has a few millionaires and billionaires protected and bankrolled by their Western friends, but due to our “underdevelopment”, we could never match the carbon emissions people in the West produce per capita.
I’m not asking anyone to feel guilty for these realities. Guilt is counterproductive, and I don’t believe in shaming or judging people for their privilege. It is a mistake to believe that my speaking the truth is intended to make you feed bad; what I am calling for is a recognition of reality, taking responsibility for the effects of your actions, changing those actions which lead to our suffering and standing in solidarity with us as we work towards equal material power for all human beings. It’s time for accountability, starting with a political will to end capitalism and live a more sustainable, equitable lifestyle – not just within your own nation-state, but globally.
A good start is to stop censoring, banning and tone-policing Third World women who speak out about these realities, and start listening to us instead. Stop mistaking my critique and my legitimate anger as a “attack” on Western women; the truth I am speaking is for me standing up for myself and for other Third World women of Colour. White Western radical women: I am your sister. I speak for the good of our movement, with all sincerity and love (self-love above all). Gender critical feminists who say they are in solidarity with women of Colour and Third World women need to speak out against this silencing of Third World woC voices, and make sure that our voices can be heard.
Further reading:
A critique of the anthropocene narrative
Churchill’s policies to blame for 1943 Bengal Famine
Carbon emissions per capita, per country
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, by Walter Rodney
A People’s History of the Third World, by Vijay Prashad
Woman and Wilderness 