“This feminist activist was perpetuating the very oppression she protested… Probably viewing her servant as a mere extension of herself, the feminist could hardly be conscious of her own active role as an oppressor.”
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This book was devastatingly honest and is incredibly important for anyone who considers themselves an ally and/or feminist. I was almost entirely unaware of the very intentional racist rhetoric and subversion of rights by prominent white feminists. With this knowledge, so much is more clear to me. 

I appreciated that Davis addressed the myth of matriarchal families in enslaved African families and corrected this. Her focus on rape as a tool for political terrorism and to break the spirit of opposition in enslaved people and in Vietnam was really hard but important to witness. Davis called out bourgeois identity as a unique subverter of actual nature. 

The moment where she noted that white women complained of their existence and genuinely compared it to slavery, when real slavery was a state they could never comprehend, infuriated me on behalf of the oppressed. She made a compelling point that this comparison to something truly evil and awful actually devalues that thing and reduces its power in the collective consciousness. That’s something I’ll be thinking about for a while, that reduction of true victimhood to add legitimacy for concocted victimhood. 

Davis was also very clear about white feminists’ refusal to support black men and their astonishment that black women wouldn’t take their side, as if they dare not fall in line with white women. 

This book was educational, harrowing, and unflinching. Everyone should read it.