Unlearning White Supremacy and Patriarchy: Our Feminist Origin Stories

On this episode of Messy Liberation, Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown share their feminist origin stories: how each of them came to see the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and what unlearning and relearning has looked like since. Taina talks about getting fired from her evangelical church and finding intersectional feminism at a women's college. Becky traces her path from "we don't see color" white feminism to Ferguson, bell hooks, and coming out as pansexual.

In this episode, we get into:

What "unlearning and relearning" means, and why it looks so different depending on your identitiesGetting fired from a church, and how churches run like any other exploitative workplaceA congregation with "90 nations represented" and white men at the topWhy "my Black friend voted for Trump" isn't a real argument, and how internalized oppression worksTaina's move from evangelical faith to women's studies, and the three readings that gave her language for what she'd livedWhere intersectionality actually came from: Kimberlé Crenshaw's legal scholarshipBecky's mom, colorblind second-wave feminism, and what happened when Becky brought home a Black boyfriendWhite saviorism, campaigning for Obama, and the disillusionment afterwardFerguson, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and starting a feminist reading groupBeing queer before you know you're queer, internalized homophobia, and no longer feeling like you're co-opting a community that's yoursTimestamps:

01:00 – Origin stories, and why our journeys look different02:53 – Growing up evangelical04:33 – "I didn't think racism was still a thing"07:15 – Holding an identity doesn't protect you from internalizing oppression10:00 – An intense friendship and the first signs of queerness12:30 – The three classes that changed Taina's life16:34 – Leaving the church: "People are flawed, but God isn't"23:21 – Becky's origin story: raised outside religion26:02 – Second-wave feminism and "we don't see color"29:38 – White savior complex and campaigning for Obama32:38 – Ferguson and the murder of Michael Brown36:31 – Our pansexual identities42:37 – You don't need a PhD to belongResources mentioned:

Paula Gunn Allen, "Who Is Your Mother? Red Roots of White Feminism"The Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of SentimentsThe Combahee River Collective Statement"Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex" by Kimberlé Crenshaw"Feminism Is for Everybody" by bell hooks"Sister Outsider" by Audre Lorde"Pleasure Activism" by adrienne maree brown"