Ask A Feminist: Patricia Williams Discusses Rage and Humor as an Act of Disobedience with Carla Kaplan and Durba Mitra

Abstract

This interview reflects on Patricia Williams’s long history of directing our attention to rage, and especially the rage of women of color. She discusses various grim predictions she has made, which have come to pass in recent years. She also discusses the potential power of humor during these times of outrage and cruel racist and sexist jokes. Black women, Williams notes, have been silenced for decades, putting extra pressure on their dissenting voices. Donald Trump’s all-too-successful performativity depends on recycling existing sexist and racist tropes. As we create spaces of learning and protest, Williams argues, we need to remember those histories, the uneven affective burdens they impose, their challenges to privacy, and allow one another to make mistakes. Only then can we do the crucial work of coalition building, work that is always difficult but that now is absolutely necessary.