This month’s theme is Women. Which is a statement in itself. Once, referring to blacks and whites, in whatever context, seemed regrettable; the idea was to erase the distinction. Now, at least some blacks are proud of it, and so, twenty-one years after the Supreme Court desegregation ruling, there are blacks calling for all-black schools, all-black everything, and forget the white bread.
The Women’s Movement, likened so often to the Black Movement, shares similar historical tensions. The writer Jill Johnston suggested women won’t be free until they’re all lesbians. Even women who’ll agree that’s outlandish don’t think twice about excluding men from their consciousness-raising groups, for reasons that are as politically sensible and morally fatuous as racially segregated clubs.
