My thoughts following the Hirshman chat

The chat is over, but you can still read it. Some of it was even more upsetting to me than the original article. A number of things really pissed me off. Here’s just a quick sampling.

An example suggested to me is that women of color are subjected to pressure NOT to reproduce — one such report spoke of long term norplant type stuff as a condition of parole. This is different from the pressure TO reproduce that is the subject of much choice energy. The women’s movement must protect women of color from this particularly female oppression, if the reports I received are true.

If??? Exhibit A of why a real knowledge of and concern with intersectionality is necessary. A prominent feminist doesn’t know if the fact that women of color are pressured, tricked, bribed, and who knows what else into not having children is disgusting.
In response to a question about reconciling feminism with “the fact that racism, poverty, etc., disproportionately affects women of color and poor women vs. men of color and poor men?”

I do not know that racism disproportionately affects women of color vs. men of color or poor women vs. poor men. It would be interesting to think about how you weigh the oppressions. Men of color are disproportionately in prison and disproportionately subject to the death penalty. [Emphasis mine, I’ll come back to this later]

Well see, that’s the point. Because race and gender intersect for women of color, and you can’t leave class out of this either, there’s a bigger bang to that oppression buck. Which you would be aware of if you weren’t so busy concentrating on the oppression of “women” by which you clearly mean middle class white women. Because if you didn’t know, you could ask somebody.
And, to clarify what I thought must surely be a misstatement basically blaming black women for Clarence Thomas being on the Supreme Court, she says

Several news sources, including the New York Times reported that polls showing that black voters backed Clarence Thomas were influential in determining the vote of the southern Democrats to confirm. It is a demographic fact that more black voters are female than male.

The same is true for white women. Yet I don’t see Hirshman taking the blame for Samuel Alito and John Roberts. I wonder why…
And, one last thing. I could do this for a long time, but I’m worried about experiencing a rage blackout.
In comments about making the choice to have a family Hirshman states

the heterosexual reproductive family is a fount in inequality. I think motherhood and family should be a central concern of feminism, starting with insisting that men shape their lives with the expectation that they will bear half the burden of child rearing and home making forever.

Right. But how does this ideal work with some men you specifically mentioned earlier? Men of color who are more likely to be incarcerated and given the death penalty? How can those men “bear half the burden of child rearing and home making forever”? What about their partners? You can’t share half the work with someone who is in prison or dead. But I guess that’s just a side note to be bargained in a coalition meeting.