Sisters in Hate: American Women and White Extremism

by Seyward Darby

“What does a racist joke do,” writes journalist Joe Bernstein, “except create the cognitive distance necessary to do harm, dissolve the bonds of moral obligation?”26

Choice feminism flattens or obscures the complex factors that curate and curtail women’s existences: sexism, racism, occupational segregation, late-stage capitalism, economic inequality, and more. It seeks instead to make women feel empowered by will alone, a simple and intoxicating notion. In practice, choice feminism is too often about safeguarding privilege under the guise of individual liberty.

“The negative outcome of a public act or utterance that spreads prejudiced or hateful ideas is the same, no matter the motivation or intent,” researcher Chip Berlet writes in the book Home-Grown Hate.2 This truth was made plain in a story that I heard in Harrisonburg.