Is it sometimes better to focus on one social issue at a time?

Movies like A League of Their Own and Iron Jawed Angels each have small little scenes which show that while women are breaking down barriers...black women are still suffering because of racial barriers.

In Iron Jawed Angels, Alice tells the black woman that they need every vote they can, and it would only be harder if they were fighting a problem that was worse than gender discrimination.

It was the same thing the WASPs (women flying planes during WWII) said about excluding blacks (although the hypocrisy in that was they allowed other non-whites).

It is a hard question to answer. Is it better to focus on one social issue at at time? Remember, black men got the right to vote after the Civil War...even though that isn't saying much since whites made sure they could not vote.

If women secured the right to vote, that meant by default black women could too (yet again, only in theory since it wouldn't be until the Votings Right Act in the 1960s that would abolish poll taxes, tests, and threats/harassment at the voting place).

Alice does have a point, by fighting basically 2 issues at the same time, it makes it much more harder to accomplish your goals.

When you look at black women, there is a reason most of them will speak and talk more about racism than sexism...we feel we are fighting a harder battle with racism. Have, I myself, a woman dealt with sexism? Yes. My most recent experience was in a cab, the driver (an unapologetic conservative who doesn't mind bad mouthing everything and everyone, especially women) wouldn't listen to me or my mom when we told him he was turning the card the wrong way.

It is much more easier to change peoples attitudes about gender than it is about race.

I guess when you focus on too many issues at once, its harder to put all your energy and resources into it and get the results you want. Not to mention, most in the North and the South, were segregationists...race would give them any easy way to denounce the fight. On top of that, its white women, why would they care about an entirely different social issue?

What about black women who deal with being both black and female? Like I said, there is a reason most black women will focus on one of the two issues much more than the other. Its very hard to fight two battles, even though we are living examples of people who have to deal with both issues all the time.

I remember when the Anthony Sowell case was happening a few months back, a white woman said on the news that this is an example of the police treating women badly for being women...to me it was more of a racial one, although it much more easier to get people to listen instead of denounce what you have to say when it is about sexism rather than racism.