While I'm sure I'm now going to write a series of posts about stuff surrounding this election, fallout and reactions, they're still all pretty rambling -so please bear with me if this interests you because I think these ideas are interrelated but I don't have a roadmap as to how.
White cis women, we fucked up. (White men, you fucked up too but that's not a group to which I belong so I'm not as into owning that the same way) (also I'm going to focus on race issues in this post mainly because I identify as queer which means throwing in LGBT as a group to which I don't belong isn't okay but also I don't read as queer which gives me privileges that others don't have and the degree and kind of hatred that trans folk face both due to Trump's election and society more greatly is sufficient that I'm not comfortable suggesting that you can put all LGBT issues in the same category regarding this election).
I get that your and my initial reaction is to point out how it's not us. I voted for Hilary. I'm with her. I'm not even a swing voter. I go dem all the time. White college educated women voted for Hilary and I'm part of that group. White queer women probably voted for Hilary (I don't actually have stats on this claim but I have seen breakdowns for the rest nor have I seen breakdowns based on cis/trans but I'm going to make an educated guess trans women aren't the white women who voted for Trump).
I don't think that distancing is okay. I get the desire to and how uncomfortably it sits to think that this is our fault. But I don't think that we can really rest on the above arguments.
Why don't I think that?
White cis women voted for Trump. Yes, when you break it down by education level as well as gender and race, the difference means that smaller group of white women to which I belong didn't vote more for Trump than we did for Clinton but I don't really think that because I belong to a more privileged group that's a subset of a larger group somehow absolves me of the issues for that larger group (maybe this also explains why I'm focusing on white women and not white folks generally).
I also think it continues class divides in ways that aren't actually helpful and allows folks to feel superior and smug rather than forcing us to identify with the group to which we belong and are recognized by others as belonging to. While there have been times that I've lacked money, I've never been poor and I've never been lower class and there are lived experiences that are substantially different from childhood up to adult for folks belonging to classes other than mine. Acknowledging those differences in constructive ways isn't what's going on when I try to not own the fact that white cis women voted for Trump and instead focus on uneducated white cis women. Blaming poor people and lower class people is.
Distancing ourselves from white women who did vote for Trump is part of what allows us to be "not our America" and "not my president" without really considering what those things mean. The majority of people who 'look' like me voted for that guy. The majority of people who have the same race privileges, and cis privileges and lack the same gender privileges voted for that guy. I don't think I get to say "it wasn't me so it's not my burden and my bad." I don't get to opt out of a group identity like that in this circumstance. My group made things worse for persons of color, for transpeople, for already marginalized groups.
We (I'm assuming most people reading this are feminists btw) believe that in conversations about rape, assault, patriarchy, it's not okay for guys to say "not all men" or "but I don't do that." We believe that a male ally needs to call out sexist shit when they see it and hear it.
More specific to me, I believe that it's not a marginalized group's job to educate. I don't owe men an explanation of how particular acts are sexist. I don't owe men an explanation of how particular words are misogynistic. I'm welcome to provide those things but it's not my job and men while having an obligation to be educated, don't have a right to demand that I educate them.
If I believe the above, then it stands to reason I don't get to distance myself from other white women when it comes to racism. Nor do I get to distance myself from cis women when it comes to transphobia. It doesn't matter that college educated women voted for Clinton. White cis women voted for Trump. Furthermore, the fact that under-educated women voted for Trump suggests I (and other college educated white cis women) have probably done a really bad job at recognizing class differences that are salient to being an ally when discussing racism and transphobia with white cis women of other classes. I don't get to be like "oh there's a class difference, not my job then" I should be working harder to understand how class is intersecting with gender and race in order to be better ally (for lower class folks, persons of colour and transpersons).
I think not owning the role white cis women played and distancing ourselves from the white women who did vote for Trump means we miss where we are falling short on our obligations as allies. It obfuscates what work needs to be done and by whom. It allows us to shirk educational duties and say things like "not my president" to make us feel better. In a shallow way, yeah, he's not my pres because I didn't vote for him but anyone meeting me on the street should be making the opposite assumption based on the data. He is the white cis woman's president right now and part of my job is to change that.
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