Great response article to the attack on 9-year-old Oscar nominee, Quvenzhane Wallis…
Disclaimer: Dear white feminists, this post is in keeping with my organizational background. I do an analysis of media organizations and not, say, you and your friends, your individual experiences, or of tweets. You are welcome to conduct that analysis but you will not find it here.
Children are sacred. They are off-limits for behaviors and treatment that are perfectly acceptable for adults. Although this cultural norm is violated frequently enough to make us question how seriously we take the rights of children, it is fairly uncontested that at least in theory our society considers children deserving of special laws, care, and treatment.
So, when The Onion published its now infamous tweet in which it called he Oscar nominated phenom nine-year-old Quvenzhané Willis a c*nt, it raised a few hackles. This has been documented, discussed, and debated. Kirsten West Savali wrote one of the most articulate essays on this issue. It is really a beautifully written essay. In it, West Savali starts from a provocative position that mirrors a conlusion many have drawn: white feminists weren’t nearly as outraged by a gendered slur being lobbed at a black child as they would have been had Quvenzhané been white.
Read the rest of the article at:
Did White Feminists Ignore Attacks on Quvenzhané Wallis? That’s An Empirical Question
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