4 responses to “Racial Equity Anti Hero: Susan B. Anthony”

1. 

   Christina Sonas

   February 16, 2021

   And therein we see the bindweed of white supremacy and white capitalism, so that even in someone so powerfully motivated to beat back the hierarchy that oppresses her, all the other hierarchies — oligarchies — are perfectly fine. I don’t remember seeing the tagline at the bottom before today — to show which USAn (read “white”) heroes are “racist bastards”. That’s likely on me. It’s just as sparking as any one of the highlighted individuals. This could be Ms. Washington’s life’s work — to out one each day — and I don’t believe she’d hit the end of that list. Conversely, it wouldn’t need to be one’s life’s work to spotlight those USAn heroes who were anti-racist, because there will be so very few of them; although, it would probably take a lifetime to sift them out from all the others.
   It is incumbent upon me to reject and obstruct the heroism that is built here upon racism. Ultimately, some of our heroes are actually heroes *because* they were racist. Most, even. And others, their racism is allowed to stay in the dark or even forgiven because of their other achievements. I consider the hero archetype to be a tool of hierarchy — patriarchy originally, white supremacy and capitalism later on — all the way back to Homer’s heroes. And like all the master’s tools, it must be set aside. I never knew how many tools the master had, until I stepped into antiracism work, nor how many of them I was using with complete satisfaction.

2. 

   Emily Holzknecht

   February 13, 2021

   That was good thinking to follow the money. That probably often tells a clear story. I’ll have to start doing that.

3. 

   Rebecca McClinton

   February 12, 2021

   Upon some further hunting, I read how Susan Anthony on many occasions intentionally was willing and eager to appeal to racist individuals and political parties in order to promote her agenda and gain financial backing (eg: Democratic Convention, which opposed Black suffrage at that time, also individuals like George Francis Train). Reminds me how Lace talks about how racism as a financial construct. Susan Anthony, chasing the dollars and influence in the name of women’s suffrage did so on the backs of Black people.

4. 

   Emily Holzknecht

   February 12, 2021

   My children have had to learn about Susan B Anthony in school. To my knowledge, learning about her is a standard part of public elementary school education here. But what is presented in school conveniently ignores her racism, so I had to supplement at home to give more perspective. Anthony seems to be in the curriculum at my kids’ school in first and second grade. Talking about it in the context of Tiffany Washington’s posts makes me think of a third grade activity that was repeated with different people throughout the year in my older child’s class. The children were given very short biographies to read and then had to write what they learned about that person’s character from the biography. The goal was reading comprehension, I think, getting the students to draw conclusions from what they have read. You probably see where I am going with this though because if the biography you read about someone is a couple paragraphs long, it is going to be one-dimensional and probably lionizing. The goal may be reading comprehension, but the reality of what is being taught is lack of critical thinking and a promotion of white supremacy culture’s ways of looking at people. I was particularly uncomfortable when one of these sanitized one dimensional biographies that came home for homework was about JK Rowlings who has done so much harm to the trans community and here it’s being sent home with my child who has a trans sibling! And my older child is supposed to read it and determine the character of the person of JK Rowling from that couple paragraph biography that says nothing about her using her wealth and her platform to harm trans people. I talked with the teacher about that one, and she didn’t know about JK Rowlings’ public transphobia but she stayed teachable and also let my older child talk to the class about it. I don’t see it as a problem solved though because I don’t know if there are trans or GNC kids in that class and the teacher doesn’t necessarily know either because children have not necessarily shared that information. The sanitized biography is harmful, but also making her transphobia a lesson can also be harmful to transGNC kids through curriculum violence. If we are going with the 80 to 20 no-violence to violence ratio, there is no way that class has had enough trans-positive curriculum moments to balance out the critical thinking lesson.

   I don’t want to go too far astray with Rowlings and transphobia although of course transphobia also harms Black and brown people. Pivoting back around, I want to know who else is represented in the 3rd grade biographies where children are supposed to determine the character of a person from a brief and sanitized glimpse. I want to look at them all and use my fictive imagination to see them through Tiffany Washington’s eyes. My younger child will be in 3rd grade next year and you can bet I will be asking to know whose biographies are going to be shared, doing some of my own research and coming back with thoughts BEFORE the biographies are given to the children with both sanitization and curriculum violence potential in mind.