Feminist Thought

Black Feminist Thought

 

Long History of African-American Women Activists, Theorists, Authors

 

Suffragette and Abolitionist Sojourner Truth

ÒAinÕt I a WomanÓ

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?

 

 

 

Civil Rights Activist Fanny Mae Hamer

File written by Adobe Photoshop¨ 5.0

 

Activist and Historian Angela Davis

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English Professor, Writer, Feminist Thinker, Social Theorist bell hooks

 

Author Alice Walker

  

Womanism

 

Third Waver Rebecca Walker

 

Common Themes

     A critique of American feminism

     Bourgeois white feminism

 

     Angel in the House?  Pedestal?

     White middle class privilege

 

     Sexuality

     History of ownership of, abuse

     Stereotyped as hyper-sexual

     Tensions with black men

     Also hyper-sexualized, to be feared

    

     Intersections of

     Race, Class, SES, Sexuality

     CanÕt be separated

 

     Methods

     Voice, Listening

     Oral Tradition

     Call and Response

     Experience

     Standing in Solidarity with the Oppressed

 

Readings:

Pat Hill Collins

     Toward an Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology

     Criticizes the processes of Òthe academyÓ

     Credentialing, recognizing each otherÕs work, scholarly contributions

     Biased in favor of disembodied knowledge

     Argument, marshaling of evidence, debate

 

     Eurocentric

     Masculinist

     ÒobjectiveÓ

     emotionless

     dispassionate

     decontextualized

 

     Black womenÕs standpoint

has no chance of being recongnized as

valid, valuable, ÒscholarlyÓ by these standards

 

An Afrocentric epistemology

     Should be based on African values

     Pre-colonialism, pre-slavery

    

Rooted in everyday experiences of A-A women

     Òa heap see, but a few knowÓ

     practical wisdom, mother wit

      

     Narrative

     the story should be told and heard

     not torn apart (i.e., Òanalyzed,Ó de-constructed)

 

     Privileges contextualization, socialization

Rather than abstractions

    

     Dialogue

 

     Ethic of Caring

 

     Accountability

 

Angela Davis

     The Myth of the Black Rapist

 

     Critiques how the sexuality of black men and women

white men and women have been

constructed to support white menÕs political dominance

 

Black men: sexual predators, to be feared, lynched when the step out of line

    

     Black women as Jezebels, unrapeable

 

     White women: as virginal, maternal

theyÕre honor needs protecting

their sexuality possessed and

protected by their fathers, husbands, brothers, the mob

 

 

Deborah King

     Multiple Jeopardy

     How race, gender and class intersect for each person

 

Statistics on educÕl attainment

by gender and race and income (as proxy for class)

show these intersections

 

see pg 223-224 in FF

 

 

 

Group Experience (or the narrative of that experience)

Is not the same as women in the groupÕs experience

 

e.g. the group experience of slavery and lynching for blacks

genocide for native Americans

military conquest for Mexican-Americans and Puerto Riquenos

 

is not substantively comparable to

 

the physical abuse

social discrimination

cultural denigration suffered by women (of these groups)

 

One experience is not worse, better

 

Just Substantively Different

Need to be acknowledged, explored – because generally ignored

e.g.  black women slaves exploited for labor, flogged and mutilated

AND sexually abused, raped