Why Do White Women Need Protecting?

Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

It’s ingrained in our upbringing — this sensitivity to the feelings and emotions of white women. As BIPOC we, despite our best efforts, occasionally fall victim to that misheld belief that white women are more sensitive and fragile. Even worse, we sometimes try to rationalize our actions and behaviors so that we don’t have to reflect on the fact that we are furthering this belief that white women must be coddled. Or, we sacrifice a BIPOC to protect or “shield” a white woman.

Poor Chelsea Clinton?

While attending a vigil for the victims of the horrific murders at Christchurch, Chelsea Clinton was approached by Leen Dweik, a Muslim NYU student who wanted to confront her about some tweets Chelsea Clinton had made regarding Rep. Ilhan Omar, a fellow Muslim. She then stated that she felt that Chelsea’s tweets were directly responsible for the attacks.

Whether that hefty blame can be attributed to Chelse Clinton is debatable. But let’s be clear about what isn’t.

Unless there is another video, there was no violence or the threat of violence coming from Leen Dweik.

Nevertheless, people on all sides took to twitter to call out Leen’s violent behavior — crying that Chelsea Clinton was “cornered” and “in danger” from this woman “screaming at her”.

For those claiming this, maybe google some videos of what yelling and screaming look like. Leen was speaking forcefully, because of how she felt but she was not yelling or screaming. To claim that is to play on the “angry Black woman” or “angry woman of color” stereotype as well as the “fragile white woman” to garner sympathy for the latter and increased anger and hatred for the former.

Leen’s arms were moving wildly? If you’ve every talked with people from certain communities you would know many of us wave our arms around to emphasize our points. It is not a precursor to a violent outburst.

Why The Histrionics?

There are several reasons why this blew up and became a much bigger deal than it was so let’s list some possible motives, in addition to the aforementioned “protect poor white women at all costs”.

Centering a White Woman/But She’s Pregnant!