But Why Though?
After the election results came out from the 2020 presidential election I saw something that made me sad and confused. During this election even more white women voted for Trump then in 2016. About 55% of white woman voted for Donald Trump. That is the majority of white female voters in this country. After every derogatory thing that this man has said about women I would think that more of us would be upset by it. Upset enough to collectively agree that we don’t want a person like that to run our country.
While the majority of white women failed on this front (in my opinion) black women showed up as always. Black women overwhelmingly voted against Trump in 2016 and did again this time around in 2020. The question that I have is why is there a divide? While I understand that all women, regardless of race, are very different and we all have our own opinions, I would think that we would want to come together for one another when someone with multiple sexual assault charges against him and someone who has continuously been caught speaking down on women wants to then become president. I guess I am wrong according to the results of the past elections.
As a white woman I have had to educate myself on race as all white people should, and I understand that there is still so much I do not know. Growing up in a bubble of privilege often times shields us from the realities of the world outside of our own experience. This can be looked at in so many ways when it comes to different types of privilege, but while this blog is about women and race I am focusing on this area directly. If we were to go back in time when it comes to the history of this country it seems that oftentimes white women have chosen their race over their gender. When one aspect of a candidates policies benefit us it can become easy to then look at the areas that don’t benefit us as a sacrifice for the other things. If we cant have it all we might as well benefit off of something we can gain from even at the cost of others. This is insanely wrong (in my opinion) but it seems that this may be a little bit of an explanation as to why the vote is so split between women of different races.
As a woman I understand what it feels like to be looked at as lesser than and often times even disregarded or abused. As a white person though, I know what it is like to be born into a privilege that I was given rather than one I earned. I wish that more white women were able to show up for ALL women and see that we cannot overcome until we come together. I understand that politics is complicated and that there are many different policies that people might solely care about more than others, but to look past policies that hurt people just because they don’t directly affect us, seems wrong to me. There is so much beauty when women come together and hold each other up. When we choose to understand and advocate for all of us rather than just a select few. I hope that in the future things will get better and unity won’t seem so difficult to understand.
