What if Sandra Bland had blue eyes and blonde hair? If Kylie Jenner called out Amandla Stenberg for taking a photo appropriating Armenian culture, would Jenner’s public indignation be met with sympathy, or would a celebrity talk show host still call her a “jackhole” and an overwhelming amount of people dismiss her as angry and irrational?

Two weeks ago, Amy Poehler, the executive producer of “Difficult People,” greenlighted a joke that has viewers in an uproar and speaks to the necessity of an inclusive and unified feminism. In the new series on Hulu, a main character tweets that she could not wait for Blue Ivy to be old enough for R. Kelly to urinate on her. While the point of the show is to highlight the main character’s less-than-desirable personality, even with this context, it doesn’t make the joke OK.

To make Blue Ivy the focus of a joke may have been the show acknowledging that she has become an object that people treat as if she belongs to the public, open to all the praise and criticism that her parents face. To an extent, she can’t escape it, but this is where intersectional feminism could have protected her. For the sake of a joke, Blue Ivy, as a young girl of color, was ignored.

Feminism has historically been centered around white women demanding the same treatment as cisgender white men. While some white feminists fought to share the same privileges as men, women of color had to, and still do, fight just to be seen as human. In the United States, white women have been disenfranchised and objectified, but were treated with so much fragility that some decades ago, a young black man named Emmett Till was severely beaten and thrown in the water just for whistling at one.

Compare this to African and Native American women who were frequently raped and brutalized by white men only to have their stories never told because there was a time in history where they simply did not matter. You will then see the bigger issue of Poehler allowing this joke to surface. At its core, it’s not about Blue Ivy–and that is exactly the problem–it originally never was.

Poehler’s joke plays into a grander scheme in which women of color are left out of “feminist issues.” For example, when the discussion revolves around women earning 78 cents for the man’s dollar, we universally acknowledge that this is just one demographic disparity. While white women are only paid 78 cents, Black and Latina women earn even less than that.

Thinking of such things is a progressive example of changing the narrative from “white feminism” to the type of feminism that is inclusive to all women, especially those who are systematically ignored. This includes women who identify as lesbian, transgender, asexual and bisexual, and women with physical or intellectual disabilities.

Of course, not all white feminists are exclusive, including actress Emma Watson and YouTube personality Laci Green who use their positions and platforms of influence to speak out on issues that face all women.

Feminism cannot continue to be the ostrich with its head stuck in the sand. It is not a mere issue of black and white, but race must become part of its fabric to be effective. Whether Poehler apologizes for the joke or not, it is just the first step of many in trying to reconcile the obstacles that have prevented feminists from being united.

Elaina Crockett is a senior television, radio and film major and African American studies minor. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at ekcrocke@syr.edu.

Published on August 31, 2015 at 12:20 am