Israeli journalist thinks black women should thank white feminists for their 'rights'

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An Israeli journalist took to Twitter to denounce feminists who criticize white feminists and to call those critics racist.

In response to a tweet from writer Ijeoma Oluo that read, “Lord be a twitter block to save me from White Feminism,” Rebecca Griffin began a series of tweets defending white feminists.

“When black women attack “white feminism”, they are forgetting who made it possible for them to have rights — as women. And, they are racist,” she began.

https://twitter.com/dorothyofisrael/status/623176368126357504

When the backlash started, Griffin went on the defensive: “To everyone replying to this — Feminism is about ALL women. When you put race in that — you are doing injustice to women. Period.”

Then, in response to people pointing out that the feminist movement has not always been very race-inclusive, she said, in a series of tweets, “In order to have 2nd, 3rd, and 4th wave — with the necessary adjustments — you have to have a 1st wave, and founders. Was part of original feminism discriminatory? Yes. Did it bring women’s rights to the forefront? Yes. Did criticism lead to change? Yes. Every movement evolves, hopefully for the better. That doesn’t change who brought attention to the issues to begin with.”

While it’s certainly true that all women do need feminism and that women of every background can and should be part of the movement for more equality, Griffin does not seem to understand that the fight for equality is harder and longer for some women than for others, and she is ignoring the long history of black women and other minority women being excluded from the fight.