The recent, manufactured controversy over Imane Khelif reminded me of a speech by the great abolitionist Sojourner Truth. She made this speech to a white audience in 1851, but the message was especially directed toward white women. In it, she describes how many Black women were subjected to heinous bigotry especially if they did not conform to a specific and narrow white standard of femininity. Sound familiar?

No woman can ever totally meet such rigid and exclusionary standards. Imane, though assigned female from birth, isn’t what many men (and sadly some women) think a woman should look like. She is strong, confident, athletic and she is competing in a sport that used to be only for men.

But we cannot ignore that Imane is a woman of colour, and how many other women of colour have faced similar attacks? The attacks on Imane are most definitely rooted in large part in a deep-seated and pernicious racism that persists to this day. Sojourner Truth’s speech is but one example of this.

Sojourner could plow a field better and eat as much as any man. She could hold her own. But this didn’t conform to the patriarchal notion of white femininity. And this is what it all comes down to. The anti-trans mob isn’t out there trying to “protect girls and women”, they are out there to police gender. They demand a ridiculous litmus test for “purity” that echoes the calls of white nationalists and other racist ideologies, and it doesn’t just negatively affect transgender women, it negatively impacts cis-women as well, as Imane has unfortunately discovered these last few weeks.

Sojourner brought the house down with this speech because, despite being discriminated against as a Black woman, she wanted to unite ALL women in solidarity to make this world a better place for everyone.

The real transcript was lost to history, but there are many reliable accounts of what she said. Here is one.

“Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth.

“Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or Negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.”

*Title image is of Sojourner Truth and is courtesy of the African American History Collective.

Kenn Orphan, August 2024