Introduction to “Privatizing the State: Reproductive Rights, Affirmative Action, and the Problem of Democracy”

Introduction to “Privatizing the State: Reproductive Rights, Affirmative Action, and the Problem of Democracy” Zillah Eisenstein (bio) From 1989 to 2022 . . . my thoughts and feelings are almost inchoate as I reread this piece. I am remembering the historical moment in which I wrote this—a systematic right-wing attack on liberal democracy against abortion and affirmative action, which was and is racist and misogynist. So much is the same, and yet different in its extremism. The attack is more fascist-democratic than neoliberal/neoconservative. And, yes, none of these terms make sense because of the structural biases of democracy itself. I remember writing this in a bit of despair given the elation about the revolutions in 1989 supposedly bringing new democracies across the Soviet empire. Meanwhile democracy was being challenged here, again, especially for people of color and all women. My article is a reminder that the fight to dis-mantle Roe v. Wade and civil rights law is part of the DNA of this country. Today, we live in the aftermath of the COVID crisis that has uncovered environmental disaster, racial upheaval, and racialized sexual violence. And, yet, there is fifty years of antiracist feminist struggle that is part of the history of Roe v. Wade. So, in the recent midterm elections there was not a Red surge of fascism, but rather an antiracist and feminist stance for a truer democracy. There is an overriding public commitment to pro-abortion, pro-citizen rights for every woman needing an abortion. I wrote, also decades ago, in The Color of Gender, that if we were really wanting to create a fully democratic society that we should use “a black woman’s pregnant body” as our guide: meet her needs (which are specific and particular) and as long as her needs are met, everyone will be included—from the specific to the universal. So, it is sad that for half of a century this struggle continues. And yet, the fight for reproductive rights is robust. You can make abortion illegal, but that does not stop abortion, or the people who fight for it. [End Page 124] Thank you for reposting this piece to remind us all to keep resisting the assaults on people of color’s and women’s—trans, cis, non-binary, gender variant, all of us—bodies and their freedoms. The struggle for freedom continues. [End Page 125] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 126] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 127] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 128] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 129] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 130] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 131] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 132] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 133] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 134] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 135] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 136] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 137] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 138] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 139] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 140] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 141] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 142] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 143] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 144] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 145] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 146] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 147] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 148] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 149] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 150] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 151] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 152] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 153] Zillah Eisenstein zillah eisenstein is an internationally recognized political thinker, writer, and professor/activist. She is always looking to find new, antiracist...