60 Years of Hope and Truth Telling with Zillah Eisenstein

In our fifth episode, we talk with Zillah Eisenstein, an American political theorist and gender studies professor, about her life, her work, her activism, and her writing. Eisenstein's parents were members of the American communist party, and she shares about her experiences growing up as a child of the communist party during the Civil Rights movement, and how that has shaped her politics throughout her life. Eisenstein discusses the importance of being willing to risk in building collaborative activism and comradeship, and touches upon her ambivalence about the discourse around "white fragility" within white organizing spaces. Join us for this fascinating episode, as we explore how intersectionality (or "marbling", as Zillah prefers to refer to it) touches on every aspect of modern life, and how to practice hope as a strategy for effective resistance and change. Zillah Eisenstein is one of North America's most prolific anti-racist feminist writers and activists of her time. She is well recognized for her earlier activism and writing about the rape camps in Bosnia, breast cancer activism in Cuba, the impact of globalization on women workers across the globe, the racialized gender politics of affirmative action in the US, neo-liberal assaults against feminisms of all sorts and feminist struggles in the former Soviet Union, India, Turkey and Iran. Her books include Against Empire (2004), Sexual Decoys (2007), Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, ed. (1978), The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism (1981), The Color of Gender (1994) and Hatreds, Racialized and Sexualized Conflicts in the 21st Century,(1996). Zillah Eisenstein teaches political theory and anti-racist feminisms in the Politics Department of Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "Fierce Compassion" at antiracistconversations.com/fierce-compassion-podcast. For more information about our Antiracist Conversations book series, visit antiracistconversations.com Stay up to date with Sarah and Roxy's personal work at Sarahpeyton.com and Roxannemanning.com Like this podcast? Rate "Fierce Compassion" on this podcast app, leave a review, and share it with your friends!