Heather Huber
Panelists (left to right): Angela Lang, Ali Muldrow, Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff and Sabrina Madison with moderator Tracy Shih Cavnar.
In the 1980s and ’90s, the Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for Women was in its heyday, with more than 8,000 members and local chapters spread out all over the state. But over the years, membership dwindled and local chapters disbanded. These days, the only active chapter is in Madison, but even that group has struggled — between 2014 and 2016, the Madison chapter was essentially dormant, with membership hovering at around 200. The group continued to hold monthly meetings, but attendance had dwindled to just five people by October 2016.
“It’s a completely volunteer-run activist organization, and in Madison there are a lot of ways to get involved,” says Lindsay Lemmer, the Madison chapter’s president since May 2017. “I think [people] just didn’t have the energy at the time. Maybe they were working on other things, or didn’t see feminism as a priority.”
Things changed after President Donald Trump took office, and the wave of activism inspired by the election results — and the racist, sexist rhetoric of the campaign — has revived the local NOW chapter. Chapter membership is up 150 percent, the statewide email database has increased by 200 percent and there has been a renewed push for direct action events and fundraisers. In recent months, NOW members have protested outside Access Women’s Center, an anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy center” in Madison, phone-banked in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and hosted an intersectionality and white privilege training.
“It’s been really heartening, and we continue to see new faces at our meetings,” Lemmer says. As interest grows, the organization is taking steps to make sure that all those faces don’t look the same. As part of the push for inclusion, the Wisconsin NOW state convention, held April 21, included a panel discussion on “what women of color want white feminists to know.”
“NOW members are overwhelmingly white women,” says Lemmer, who was elected statewide president at the convention. “Feminism as a movement hasn’t been as inclusive in the past as it really needs to be — it’s almost hypocritical.”
White feminism is a buzzword — and somewhat of a misnomer. It doesn’t necessarily apply to a feminist who happens to be white, but instead refers to a problematic brand of feminism that elevates the priorities, experiences and well-being of white women at the expense of women of color, and ignores how structural racism intersects with sexism. This is not a new phenomenon, but drew attention during the Women’s March on Washington when activists criticized the primarily white organizers for a perceived lack of racial inclusion.
NOW panelist Sabrina Madison, a local entrepreneur and creator of the new Progress Center for Black Women, recalled similar issues with the Women’s March on Madison. “It was still a dope march, and still very worthy, but as a black woman I didn’t feel connected,” said Madison, who was asked to speak at the march but declined. Madison frequently shares information on Facebook about issues affecting young black men and ways people can help. She says the Women’s March organizers had long followed her page but had never supported her causes.
It’s a common complaint among activists working on issues that disproportionately affect people of color: White people don’t step up to help, but white people have no problem asking people of color for help. “It hurt me a little bit,” Madison said of the Women’s March interaction. “It was a little personal — like, ‘Damn, here we go again.’”
The panel also included Ali Muldrow, an LGBT youth advocate and former school board candidate; Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, who represents the near west side and serves as chief diversity officer for UW Health; and Angela Lang, a community organizer from Milwaukee. All three echoed Madison’s critique.
“When I heard the title of this panel, I realized that even again, we were solicited for service, being asked how can we better inform you, how can we better work with you,” Muldrow said to the crowd of about 50, mostly white women. “It is very rare that support is directed at us, but we are also here to be nourished and encouraged.”
Lang, who has done work with labor organizations and advocacy for low-wage workers, said that she, too, has felt frustrated by lack of support from white activists. “Where were you all when we were marching in the street for Dontre Hamilton, who was killed in broad daylight, shot 14 times [by a Milwaukee police officer]?” she asked. “People say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ but where are you?”
Feminist organizations frequently focus on reproductive health, but Bidar-Sielaff says that the health-care industry needs dramatic change to combat systemic racism. “The [health care] system was built mostly around the experiences of white women,” Bidar-Sielaff says. “Just by definition, who’s at the table ends up creating policies and processes.” She says the way to create change is to promote initiatives that specifically target racial disparities — such as low birth weight among African American babies — as well as implicit bias training for employees.
Muldrow says education is another system plagued by institutional racism. She dislikes the use of terms like “achievement gap” to describe the academic struggles of non-white children, because she believes that the problems are rooted in discrimination. “We need to start calling things what they are,” Muldrow says. “We need to start speaking in a way that allows [us] to accurately address the phenomenon.”
For white women wondering what they can do to help women of color, Madison says the answer is simple: Support them. Hire them. Vote for them. Invest in them. And she also wants to remind white people that Google exists.
“I want y’all to get educated. Y’all get on my nerves,” Madison said, eliciting laughter. “There are so many resources on how to be a better advocate. It’s really lazy if you don’t consume it.”
