Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"One of the most important books of the current moment." Time

"A rousing call to action... It should be required reading for everyone." Gabrielle Union, author of We're Going to Need More Wine

"A brutally candid and unobstructed portrait of mainstream white feminism." Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist

A potent and electrifying critique of today's feminist movement announcing a fresh new voice in black feminism

Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?

In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.

"This book is an act of fierce love and advocacy, and it is urgently necessary." Samantha Irby, author of Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life

"In prose that is clean, crisp, and cutting, Kendall reveals how feminism has both failed to take into account populations too often excluded from the banner of feminism and failed to consider the breadth of issues affecting the daily lives of millions of women.... Throughout, Kendall thoughtfully and deliberately takes mainstream feminism to task...[but] if Hood Feminism is a searing indictment of mainstream feminism, it is also an invitation. For every case in which Kendall highlights problematic practices, she offers guidance for how we can all do better." NPR

"Mikki Kendall tells it like it is, and this is why she has long been a must-read writer for me: incisive, clear-eyed, and rightly willing to challenge readers when necessary. Her exploration of how feminists' fight for liberation has too often left poor people, Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color behind is critical reading for anyone who is or wants to be involved in work addressing complex and longstanding inequalities." Nicole Chung, author of All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir