I try to see the world through a series of causes and effects. What happens here is usually tied to something that happened there. These causes and effects, for me, take place simultaneously across a spatial and historical continuum. For me, a racist incident today is tied to five or six centuries of racist hierarchies, colonial interventions, the history of philosophies and Empires, geopolitical relationships, etc. An Irish or British racist throwing a hatchet through a Nigerian woman’s window does not exist in isolation. His hatchet is a continuation of the policies that enslaved this woman’s ancestors, the ideologies that placed this woman as “Other”, the neglect of the consequences of said policies and colonial interventions, the objectification of the bodies of Women of Color and, more specifically, Black women. For me, the racist’s hatchet is not merely a hatchet: it is an instrument that, in a brief moment now, brings together six hundred years of history.
So, when I scream until I am blue in the face that the European catastrophe that is the ongoing death of undocumented migrants is a feminist issue, many are either confounded or dismissive. Few disagree that it is a humanitarian catastrophe but they stop short of acknowledging why it’d be a problem for feminism. Feminism, they argue, is about women’s equality and migrant women are no different than migrant men in terms of disprivilege, so why would this be a feminist issue per se? Because even while dying at sea, in the most precarious conditions, left at the mercy of geography and weather conditions, women are disproportionately affected in ways that are very specific to their gender. From the latest news about the mass deaths of migrants in Lampedusa, Italy:
Simona Moscarelli, a spokeswoman from the International Organization for Migration in Rome, told the BBC that in order to escape the fire, “the migrants moved, all of them, to one side of the boat which capsized”.
She estimated that only six of about 100 women on board survived, adding that most of the migrants were unable to swim.
“Only the strongest survived,” she said.
Those few who do survive are now at risk of rape and sexual abuse that they won’t be able to report (see here and here), they will not have access to reproductive healthcare, they will be placed in detention camps where they will be at risk of physical and psychological violence and their children (if they did survive) will face unspeakable violence at the hands of the State. And yet, this is not a feminist issue?
“There is no miraculous solution to the migrant exodus issue,” said Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino. “If there were we would have found it and put it into action.”
That is quite true. There is no miraculous solution. The only solution I can think of would involve a radical re-thinking of white supremacist, heteronormative, capitalist patriarchy and the administration and flow of resources from the countries these people are leaving behind. The solution (if we can call it such), would entail a deep examination of the historical processes that brought us to today and who has benefited and continues to benefit from this inequality. But that, apparently, is not a feminist issue. Instead, we should “Lean In” towards the corporations and State interventions that make this situation possible. “Break the glass ceiling, sister! those who bleed from the shards are not a feminist problem, after all”.
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