Quote for Day: "Said Another Way: Sexism Affords As Much Bondage As Racism"

Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993):

Many black women in the African-American denominational churches have been duped to believe that first black people must expend all of their effort getting rid of racial oppression. They have been told that later the community can work on the oppression of women. However, nineteenth-century black women like Sojourner Truth have warned black women that "if the men get their rights and women don’t, things will be no better for black women than they were during slavery." Said another way: sexism affords as much bondage as racism (194).

As I noted some weeks back, I read Williams's book recently; I noted previously that she also observes the following:  

The fact remains: slavery in the Bible is a natural and unprotested institution in the social and economic life of ancient society—except on occasion when the Jews are themselves enslaved (130).

And, of course, these observations echo strongly in Wil Gafney's illuminating analysis of rape culture in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures, which I discussed earlier today.

The photograph of Delores Williams is from this video of her uploaded to YouTube.