White tears brown scars : how white feminism betrays women of color / Ruby Hamad.

Originally published in Australia in 2019 by Melbourne University Press.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-284).

Part one. The setup -- Introduction: White tears -- Lewd Jezebels, exotic Orientals, Princess Pocahontas : how colonialism rigged the game against women of color -- Angry sapphires, bad Arabs, dragon ladies : boxed in by the binary -- Only white damsels can be in distress -- Part two. The payoff. -- When tears become weapons : white womanhood's silent war on women of color -- There is no sisterhood : white women and racism -- Pets or threats : white feminism and the reassertion of whiteness -- The rise of righteous racism : from classwashing to the lovejoy trap -- The privilege and peril of passing : colorism, anti-blackness, and the yearning to be white -- Conclusion: Brown scars.

"Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep "ownership" of their slaves, through the centuries of colonialism, when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women's active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long overdue validation of the experiences of women of color."--

"This explosive book of history and cultural criticism argues that white feminism has been a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against black and indigenous women and all colonized women. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. Taking us from the slave era--when white women fought in court to keep 'ownership' of their slaves--through the centuries of colonialism--when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics-- to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells the story of white women's active participation in campaigns of oppression. Examining subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and nineteenth-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad builds a powerful argument about the entrenched systems of white supremacy that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight." -- Publisher's description

ENH