Women vs. Women

I have to say that as a woman I was somewhat offended after reading Shahrazad Ali’s opinion of domestic violence against women of color in Kimberle Crenshaw’s essay Mapping the Margins. I think that every women, no matter the race should be offended by her views of domestic violence. Ali believes that that Black men don’t have control over Black women and that is part of the problem in the Black community. She believes that Black men should be physically with the women when they are disrespectful. I believe she is wrong on so many levels. How can a woman actually support and encourage a man to beat another woman? What happened to a sisterhood where woman stand up for each other. Is race really that big of an issue where any woman deserves to be abused? Ali believes that this force is needed to establish authority over Black women. Does she not understand the point of feminism? Women are trying to get out of the control of men. She does not believe that Black women should be entitled to the feminist movement and don’t deserve the benefits from the movement. I don’t care what race, age, or sexual preference, no women deserves to be a victim of domestic violence. I just cannot believe that a woman would accept this to happen to another woman. I’m going to make an educated guess and assume that Ali has never been a victim of domestic violence, because if she has, I don’t see how she could even say this. Ali may be a antifeminist, but she must not realize that in her effort to hold other back she is also holding herself back. Men hold a lot of power in this society and the only way to change anything is if women stick together. If women go around discriminating against each other, there can be no real force to make a change. Men will be the ones laughing because instead of fighting them, women will be too busy fighting against each other for who should get the benefits of feminism. Newsflash for all women out there; there will be no benefits to feminism if women turn on each other and forget what the real issues are.