“My own hope is to have the integrity to bear black anger and black pain without needing it to be anything else than what it is, and, bit by bitter bit, to root out my white arrogance.” by

Rootsie.

Amen.

“Why is it so difficult for many white folks to understand that racism is oppressive not because white folks have prejudicial feelings about blacks, but because it is a system that promotes domination and subjugation? The prejudicial feelings some blacks may express about whites are in no way linked to a system of domination that affords us any power to coercively control the lives and well-being of white folks. That needs to be understood.” by bell hooks

(via rev)

“I can’t for the life of me imagine that God would say, “I will punish you because you are black. You should have been White. I will punish you because you are a woman; you should have been a man. I will punish you because you are homosexual. You ought to have been heterosexual.” I can’t for the life of me believe that is how God sees things.” by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (For the Bible Tells Me So)

(Source: muffdiver, via thedame)

feminist historian: Why I Don't Blame Religion for Sexism

iamateenagefeminist:

I was browsing the feminist tag recently when I found this image:

The person who posted it did so to demonstrate the misogyny present in two major religious texts. I cannot deny that there is misogyny present in most religious texts, and that people often use religion as a justification for sexism. However, as a feminist, I dislike this graphic because it seems to imply that religion is the reason for sexism.

Religion can be used to justify sexism, but religion isn’t the root cause of sexism. Religion, like everything else, was created in a patriarchal culture. Thus, religion will be influenced by patriarchal norms. Religion isn’t inherently sexist, it only becomes sexist when the society that created it is sexist in the first place.

Atheists often use sexist or homophobic passages to highlight the absurdity or religion. I don’t like this because I feel it causes atheists to not look critically about the sexism, homophobia, and racism within their own groups. I have written before about how I feel uncomfortable around atheist groups because of sexism. Atheist groups often think they are immune from bigotry because bigotry, in their minds, is the result of religion. As most of us know, this isn’t true. Bigotry can impede any culture or subculture. Bigotry, ironically, doesn’t discriminate. It is ignorant to think that your group is immune from bigotry for any reason.

In conclusion, we need to stop blaming religion for bigotry that is the result of the greater society as a whole, and atheists need to remember that being non-religious doesn’t automatically make them less sexist than someone who is.

^THIS!

(via lipsredasroses)

“All white women in this nation know that their status is different from that of black women/women of color. They know this from the time they are little girls watching television and seeing only their images, and looking at magazines and seeing only their images. They know that the only reason nonwhites are absent/invisible is because they are not white. All white women in this nation know that whiteness is a privileged category. The fact that white females may choose to repress or deny this knowledge does not mean they are ignorant: it means that they are in denial.” by bell hooks (via grrrlstudies)

(via sister-bell)