Innocent Subjects

In a time of intensified global white supremacist and patriarchal violence, anti-racist feminist movements and analyses have never been more vital. Feminists of color are at the forefront of such struggles both in Britain and worldwide—but to what extent are white feminists by their side? Tracing the story back fifty years, Teresa Jonsson shows how the deeply embedded racial structures of postwar Britain created racist attitudes visible in feminist movements such as the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s, even as racially diverse movements such as Black British Feminism were largely ignored and sidelined. In a cutting analysis, Jonsson discusses the impact of intersectional politics on contemporary white feminism and uncovers the complicit role of popular and academic liberal writers. By situating British feminism in its postcolonial and historical context, ‘Innocent Subjects’ points out what is exclusionary and even two-faced about mainstream feminism today.