Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the Twitter battle/argument/debacle/discussion that happened on July 21 between Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj. If you do in fact live in a cave, let me give you the gist of the situation: rap queen Nicki took to Twitter to express her disappointment in not being nominated for the MTV VMAs Video of the Year for the record-breaking video of her song “Anaconda.” She tweeted, “When the 'other' girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination,' accompanied by a smiling emoji, which could either be in reference to the video whose record she broke, Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” which was nominated and won the 2014 VMA Video of the Year, or Taylor Swift’s song “Bad Blood,” which broke Minaj’s VEVO record and was nominated for Video of the Year. Minaj then tweeted, “If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year,” expressing that her dissatisfaction wasn’t simply in not being nominated, but that it stemmed from a bias against women with thicker bodies--and undeniably black women.

That’s when red-lipstick-wearing pop singer T. Swift chimed in her defense, tweeting “@NICKIMINAJ I've done nothing but love and support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot...” Long story short, after a few tweets back and forth and other artists getting involved, Swift apologized and Nicki accepted--so why am I bringing this all back up? Because it brings attention to white feminism and intersectionality.

Now, before I get an inbox filled with offended feminists who are white, it doesn’t necessarily mean any feminist who is white isn't oppressed. But the reality is that, while white women understand oppression, they won’t ever know what it’s like to live as women of color, who face oppression from multiple sides. White people benefit from white privilege--white feminists are feminists who don’t acknowledge that their privilege gives them an upper hand. They have the ability to say things like “racism doesn’t exist” because it’s something that they don’t face.

But no matter how much people protest it, racism does exist and continues to affect a huge portion of this country. That’s why intersectionality, the belief that feminism shouldn’t simply be about sexism, is very important. Many feminists aren’t straight, white, middle-class, able-bodied, and cis-gendered women, which means that besides sexism, they face things like transphobia, homophobia, racism, ableism, and of course, sexism. That’s why feminism and feminists need to involve them, not exclude them.

Intersectionality means listening to the voices of people whose experiences differ from yours. It means opening your eyes to a world that you may have never seen otherwise. It means speaking up with rather than for minorities. It’s understanding that #BlackLivesMatter TOO, not that #AllLivesDontMatter.

The problem with Taylor’s response to Nicki Minaj’s tweets is that, even without meaning to, she made the conversation about her. Just look at all of the headlines about it; they all describe it as Nicki throwing shade or a celebrity fight, which it wasn’t. Nicki was complaining about the disparity in the treatment between black artists and white artists. Nicki’s video, which as I stated earlier was incredibly successful, involved her embracing her sexuality and her body; which a lot of people took to be trashy booty-shaking unworthy of any awards.

But let’s take a look at other VMA winners and nominees: Britney Spears was nominated for multiple VMAs, including Video of the Year in 2004 for “Toxic” in which she dances around in sheer hose covered in jewels; and in 2008 she took home three VMAs, including Video of the Year for “Piece of Me,” in which she wears short shorts and a bra during most of the video. Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” aside from being pretty rape-y, was nominated in 2013 for Video of the Year, and featured naked women used basically as background props. So is the problem really in that she shook her butt in “Anaconda” or that it is inherently viewed as more sexual and more dirty because she is a black woman? I’ll let you decide.

I’m not saying that Taylor Swift or white feminists are bad people. I love Taylor Swift--I follow her on all social media, and have all of her CDs, and I think she’s done many, many great things with her fame and I love that she’s called out sexism time and time again. But I think that being white and benefitting from her privilege, she and other white feminists are constantly blind to many things that feminist POC face. White feminists, rather than learn about their privilege, become defensive and feel like they’re being attacked, which ends up leading to no one wanting to listen.

If you’re interested in learning more about white feminism in a more eloquent way than I can talk about it, feel free to read this pretty cool blog post I found!