The Combahee River Collective Statement discussed Black women’s struggle and negative relationship to the political system that is ruled by white males, the belief that it’s difficult to separate race from class, sex, and oppression because black women experience them simultaneously. The statement also discussed how difficult it is to organize around Black feminist issues such as addressing a whole range of oppression.
“We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women by white men as a weapon of political repression”.
(1977) “The Combahee River Collective Statement”
The reason it’s so difficult to separate race from class, sex, and oppression is because of Black women’s history. Black women have history of being enslaved and repeatedly raped by white men. We can’t minimize history, or the fact that it happened, because history doesn’t want to hold white men accountable for executing this act. This racial-sexual oppression upholds racism, sexism, and also enhances white superiority over Black women.
We have to talk about race. How can we understand or have meaningful conversations about race, cultures, “the system”, if we don’t know what it is? It may be difficult to have this type of conversation, especially if the focus is on people of color in our society, but Ijeoma Oluo said:
“Trust me, no conversation on race has ever ended nearly as bad for you as it ends for people of color”.
(Oluo, 21:21-21:28)
People of color may be reluctant to have a conversation about race, but if they are willing to talk to a white person about race, it’s generosity. People of color, specifically Black people, have received death threats, been harassed, killed, fired from their jobs, or unable to get hired from a job based on their race. This is only the half of the everyday things Black people go through. It affects not only themselves but their livelihood and ability to take care of their families.
Uluo mentions that we live in a world defined by whiteness because everything we view is based on whiteness. This goes from our calendars, holidays, fine art versus ethnic art, and even as far as professionalism. If you are white and know that the world is defined by your whiteness, understand how and why it’s a generosity to receive an explanation or conversation with a Black person on race. The world is different for Black people, and not acknowledging that brings back the pain this society isn’t built for them or defined by them. As a Black woman myself, conversations on race need to happen way more than they already are.
In “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference ” by Audra Lorde, oppressors must take responsibility for their actions instead of Black and Third World people having to educate white people on their mistakes. We must acknowledge our differences such as class, race, sex, and even our economic differences to move forward in our society. Audra Lorde noticed that white women have difficulty reading Black women’s literature because in their word’s classes can’t “get into” them (117) or because they come out of experiences that are “too different” (117). Lorde believes that white women are reluctant to see Black women as different from themselves which is why it’s difficult for them.
“To examine Black women’s literature effectively requires that we be seen as a whole people in our actual complexities– as individuals, as women, as human- rather than as one of those problematic but familiar stereotypes provided in this society in place of genuine images of Black women”.
(Lorde, 118)
Many people refuse to acknowledge the history of Black women and even Black men. It’s like the racism women or people of color never existed. White women who don’t want to acknowledge the situations Black women face and how different their lives are different from Black women or women of Color, will never be able to admit that they are inferior. It’s important that conversations like this happen because as Lorde states:
“Refusing to recognize difference makes it impossible to see the different problems and pitfalls facing us as women”.
Learning more about Momo and everything that she’s done is so refreshing to see! Momo is an award-winning art director, game designer, and so much more. The game she designed, Hair Nah, is a response to people touching a Black woman’s hair without permission. As a black woman myself, this game couldn’t be any more relatable. There have been countless situations where white people have tried (some successfully) touching my hair without acknowledging how disrespectful it is. Black women are not animals that you can just pet and touch all over. This is the micro-aggression that needs to be addressed. The game was a perfect representation of the control people think they have over Black women and black bodies. Who are you to touch anything on anyone without permission?
“Hair Nah” creator Momo Pixel
Question:
Have you ever had a conversation about race? Could be with friends, family, etc. How did that conversation go? Did it go downhill? Was there new enlightenment after the conversation? New beliefs? Feel free to talk about tough conversations you’ve been in.
What can I say about this weeks assignment? As a black woman in America, the first thing I’d like to say is THANK YOU. The readings and music resonated with me as a woman because I am that woman. While reading and listening to the music as well as playing the game, I’ve been that woman in some capacity. I have tried to take a different perspective in this reading in that I want to tie in the readings, music, and game but I’d also like to hit on something that I totally did not understand or maybe need to discuss more. So here we go….
(1977), “The Combahee River Collective Statement.” What caught my eye?? I highlighted and starred so many statements in this entire reading but I focused more on sections 1. The genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism “There is also undeniably a personal genesis for Black Feminism, that is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal experiences of individual Black women's lives. Black feminists and many more Black women who do not define themselves as feminists have all experienced sexual oppression as a constant factor in our day-to-day existence. As children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated differently. For example, we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being "ladylike" and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. As we grew older we became aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse by men. However, we had no way of conceptualizing what was so apparent to us, what we knew was really happening.” I can resonate as one of the black women who does define myself as a feminist but I have experienced sexual oppression in my day-to-day existence as an only girl growing up with three boys and the “ladylike” image. And as i grew older, I became fully aware of the threat of sexual abuse in that I was raped by a family friend.
2. What We Believe “This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever consIdered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g. mammy, matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bulldagger), let alone cataloguing the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, Indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western hemisphere. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us.Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work.What I took away from this section is that they haven’t seen a movement that has worked to end oppression and these women came to a realization that they are the only people who care enough to work for their own liberation…why??? Because of Self-Love!!!
Audre Lorde (1980), “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” Before reading this piece, I listened to Ijeoma Oluo (2018), “So You Want to Talk About Race” and while I was reading, some of the comments from Oluo came to mind. On page 114 of Lorde says “Traditionally, in american society, it is the members of oppressed, objectified groups who are expected to stretch and bridge the gap between the actualities of our lives and the consciousness of our oppressor.” Who is the Oppressor? Well, in my household growing up, this was “The Man…the white man”. I felt like Lord’s comment tied in well with Oluo presentation because she talks about racism, lived experiences, and the differences of how something may seem bad to the white person who is trying to talk about race but is afraid because he/she may be called a racist. Oluo says Oluo states if a white person is afraid they will be called a racist when they try to talk about race to a person of color. She says “Trust me, no conversation on race has ever ended nearly as bad for you as it ends for people of color.” that if a person of color is willing to talk to you about race, even if they don’t seem very friendly while they’re doing it, it’s a generosity.” And I believe that when a person of color is willing to talk, they are attempting to bridge the gap between the actuality of their live and the consciousness of the oppressor.
Nina Simone (1966), “Four Women” (lyrics)… My manner is tough. I’ll kill the first mother’ I see. My life has been rough. I’m awfully bitter these days because my parents were slaves. What do they call me My name is PEACHES! Who is Peaches? I want to know more about Peaches. I could visualize everyone else (Aunt Sara, Soffronia, and Sweet Thing) described in the song except Peaches. I absolutely loved this song and it was my first time hearing it. However, in reading the comments, I saw that Jay Z sampled the song. Does anyone know which of his songs, sampled Four Women?
Tupac Shakur (1993), “Keep Ya Head Up” (lyrics) I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it’s time to kill for our women Time to heal our women, be real to our women.. So this ties in well with the (1977) “The Combahee River Collective Statement”We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black women's lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women by white men as a weapon of political repression.
As a black woman born in the 70’s and a woman who has “lived-experiences”, I appreciate the readings and resonated with the hair, the racism, the politics, the different wages, etc. I feel like we are considered the lowest in the class. I don’t let that get me down, I keep moving forward and I am a PROUD BLACK WOMAN!!!
I would like to end with this one comment from this week’s work. “It is very hard to survive as a woman of color in this world, and I remember saying once if I stopped to feel, really feel the pain of the racism I encounter, I would start screaming and I would never stop!!!!” Ijeoma Oluo (2018). https://youtu.be/0P4A1K4lXDo
In this week’s text for the Combahee River Collective Statement, something that was mentioned that stood out to me; “we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppressions and see as our particular task the development of integrated practice.” I believe this was the most highlighted piece of text throughout this article because it shows that so many groups in today’s society is still oppressed no matter the race, religion, sex, sexuality, etc.
Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference
In Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference says, “For us, increasingly violence weaves through the daily tissues of our living, – in the supermarket, in the classroom, in the elevator, in the clinic and the schoolyard…” The text explains how black women and men are oppressed. The questions, the odd looks, the deadly traffic stops. We as black women have to go through so much in this society because of racism and sexism.
Connection
For my connection, I used Tupac’s Keep Ya Head Up. In this song, he stated “and if we don’t, we’ll have a race of babies that will hate the babies. And since a man can’t make one, he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one.” I love this quote because it speaks volumes to society about how black women should stay positive throughout the things life throws at us. Never allow the world to change or alter us just because we are oppressed.
Question:
How do you go about your everyday life dealing with oppression?
This story talks about a collective of Black Feminists that have been meeting since 1974.They talked more about four things which were the genesis of contemporary black feminism, what’s believed i.e, the specific province of our politics, the problems in organizing Black Feminists, including history of our collective and the issues they had plus practice. ” Above all else, Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s may because of our need as human persons for autonomy.” (In The Combahee River Collective Statement ) This quote definitely goes with the topic of this reading .
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The book was about why its so tough for people to be able to talk about race and why it needs to be talked about. Oluo talked a lot about how Black Women are treated , looked at and how her life goes daily . A lot of things said were things every black girl has to go through. She tried to ignore it but it always seemed to come back around in her life. ” the realities if race haven’t always been welcome in my life but they have always been there.”(1:23).
Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining
This story talks about how much of Western European history conditions us to see human differences in simplistic opposition to each other. They discussed how it wasn’t just race that was a problem things such as age and etc.. ” We find ourselves having to repeat and relearn the same old lessons over and over that our mothers did because we do not pass on what we have learned, or because we are unable to listen. For instance, how many times has this all been said before? For another, who would have believed that once again our daughters are allowing their bodies to be hampered and purgatoried by girdles and high heels and hobble skirts?”(pg:117) This is definitely something I agree with and have heard recently as well. Opposed groups are often left to teach their opposers.” The literatures of all women of Color recreate the textures of our lives, and many white women are heavily invested in ignoring the real differences.”
Connections
The connections the text’s of the week were that they all talked about the differences Black Women had to go through. Oluo’s topic was race but later went more into life as a black women. The Combahee River Collective statement talked about the specific provinces if our politics and the issues of black feminist. Lorde and Oluo really tied in for the same topic to me. They all were on the same page when it came to Black Feminism.
Nina Simone – Four Women (1966)
“Four women ” by Nina Simone connects to all text we read for the week. Nina talked about the color of her skin , her name and how her father pushed up on her mother. She described the difference when it came to the women one was called ” Sweet Thang” and another was” Peaches”.
QUESTIONS :
Which song did you enjoy listening to most ?
What are some of the issues that black women are facing today that they didn’t address ?
The Combahee River Collective Statement splits black feminist issues into four major talking points. First, “The genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism” where they basically talk about the origin of the movement in the 1960s as well as the personal genesis that takes place within an individual. Secondly, the passage “what we believe”. This could not be better summarized than with a quote: “Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s may because of our need as human persons for autonomy.” They believe sex, class, and race politics are simultaneously experienced. Political-economic systems of capitalism only add to this, and ultimately they fight and believe in the ending of these oppressions. The last two topics, “Problems in Organizing Black Feminists” and “Black Feminist Issues and Projects” are fairly self-descriptive, listing their respective issues.
She begins this talk by reading the introduction to her book. She speaks on her personal experiences with racism, as well as the joys her community has brought her. She dives deeper by questioning why it is so difficult to talk about race. One of the main reasons why is that we live in a system of power that is designed to benefit some while others suffer and because of that we are denied the tools and education we need to properly identify and dismantle this system. It is intentionally kept vague and hard to describe so we don’t know how to stop it. It’s not that everyone is evil and bad, it’s just that we are put into a system that intentionally makes us want to sit back and do nothing. If we don’t accurately describe the issue then people are more likely to keep failing and keep supporting this system of oppression. The other reason she outlines as “why it’s so hard to talk about race” is that we want this all to be about intentions. We all understand that racism is bad but it’s not just about you being a good person with good intentions. It’s about making an actual political impact.
I specifically relate the stories of her childhood and the racism she experienced with the game: Momo Pixel (2017), Hair Nah
“We have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate” (Lorde Pg. 115)
I love this quote from the text because it really puts our system into words. We live in a profit economy that whats us to reject differences to create minorities and to create a “pecking order.” This specifically reminds me of how wealth hoarders and white supremacists use social Darwinism to excuse their awful deeds. As Lorde said, “history conditions us to see human differences in simplistic opposition to each other.”
Question: Do you think at some point in your life you have been good-intentioned but passive to these issues? Do you feel like you now have the proper tools to be actively engaged to make a political impact?
The Combahee River Collective Statment starts off by defining who they are. They are a group of black feminists that formed in 1974 and have been “political work,” working alongside “other progressive organizations and movements” (1977). The work talks about the “issues black feminists face, the practices they do, their beliefs, and the genesis of contemporary black feminism” (1977). It further informs the reader that there is more than just feminism that they face. Alongside fighting for equal rights as a woman, they also faced racism and homophobia. Because of this, they had great “difficulty in their political work” because they had no “racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely on” (1977).
Quote(s):
1.) “Our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s may because of our need as human persons for autonomy.”
The message of this quote was very striking. Instead of viewing obtaining liberation as an act of fairness but as a necessity as a human being was very hard-hitting. Liberation is a human right.
2.) “The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions.”
This quote stood out to me because I find it very inspiring. Addressing oppression as a whole is a very difficult task. I agree it is important as it can create further disadvantages for those who are already oppressed.
The overall message of this video was how the conversation of race is ignored and treated with little care because people don’t want to be labeled as a racist for mentioning anything about race and that the system of power in regards to race is for meer “sheer convenience” because it is easy to find a scapegoat to take the fall while the other rises (Timestamp: 11:51). There are people that do want to talk about it, though. However, people fail to start a conversation about race because of the lack of tools provided to do so. The speaker in this video speaks about the conversation about it being silenced because people are “deliberately denied the tools needed to talk about it.” (Timestamp: 11:35).
Quote(s): “What if I get called racist? Oh, the last time I tried a couple of times, it ended really badly. Trust me, no conversation on race has ever ended nearly as bad for you as it ends for people of color.” [Timestamp: 21:07-21:24]
This quote stood out the most to me. I agree wholeheartedly that people of color, when speaking about race, have it worse than those who are white. I have witnessed people of color being shut down and silenced because they dared to speak out while a white person said whatever they wanted and received little to no backlash.
It is better to speak out about injustice than to sit back and let it happen, no matter the risk. It will help ignite the flame to bring about change in the world.
This text spoke a majority about how every type of oppression should be recognized instead of generalizing it and that we must take into account every aspect that could affect it. The author lists many factors to account for, such as: “sexual preference, race, class, and age” (Page 116). By ignoring other aspects of it and only accounting for one, it isolates other people from a similar situation. For example, the author speaks about how white women “define woman in terms of their own experience alone,” which then isolated women of color because their experiences would be far too “alien to comprehend” (page 117). By doing this, it is creating even more oppression as they silence fellow women’s voices.
Quote(s):
1.) “By and large within the women’s movement today, white women focus upon their oppression as women and ignore differences of race, sexual preference, class, and age. There is a pretense of homogeneity of experience covered by the word sisterhood that does not in fact exist.” (Page 116).
This quote is about how people focus on only one aspect of oppression instead of looking at oppression through a wider lens to see how it affects other groups of people in a similar way.
2.) “Refusing to recognize differences makes it impossible to see the different problems and pitfalls facing us as women.” (Page 118)
This quote helps bring a better understanding of how ignoring and avoiding the issues in society will bring about inequality for longer. If society refuses to recognize the issues that are currently hurting women and other oppressed groups, less work will be done to fix such injustice and possibly leading to more inequality in the long run.
The game, Hair Nah, is a great game that lets players get a view into situations that people of color face. The song also illustrates this. However, it allows the listener to get a deeper meaning as the singer relates their hair to their own soul.
“Define women in terms of their own experience alone” Audre Lorde (1980)
This game and song help illustrate specific struggles that white women would never face. As Audre Lorde said, some would base the definition based on their own specific experiences, which would disregard black women’s struggles like this- people touching your hair without permission because it’s different from their own hair.
The Combahee River Collective, Ijeoma Oluo, and Audre Lorde would all agree with each other. They all mention looking at oppression from a wider scope. Instead of focusing on one given characteristic of a person, they should focus on more than that, as other factors call also play into oppression, like sexuality and race. Ijeoma Oluo and Audre Lorde also would agree on how people shouldn’t sit back and avoid tough conversations. They do contain their own unique characteristics but generally provide insight into how speaking out is essential to progress society forward.
Questions:
How can we stop oppression from occurring? Is that even possible? If not, why?
Can schools help in any way of mitigating oppression? Will teaching students about it help or make it worse?
Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference by Audre Lorde
This work discusses and analyzes American society and gives a voice to the oppressed and objectified groups within it from the perspective and experiences of a black, lesbian, feminist woman. Lorde explains how there is a “norm” that exists that widely excludes and displaces members of our society who are not white, straight, young, male, or financially stable. The author states, “Certainly there are very real differences between us of race, age, and sex. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation” (Lorde, p. 115). By saying this, Lorde points out that the oppressions can never be corrected if acknowledgement is never given to implications of difference. Something that is also talked about by Ijeoma Oluo.
So You Want to Talk About Race | Google Talks by Ijeoma Oluo
In this video, Ijeoma Oluo introduces her book, shares her personal experience with racism as a woman of color in the United States, and analyzes the answers behind the question- Why is it so hard to talk about race? Oluo’s words were very moving when she described our society as one that was “defaulted for whiteness” and how ignoring difference or the topic of race is impossible for people of color (Oluo, 2018). This work made me further realize the privilege that I posses as a white person who is not expected to or burdened with the responsibility of stretching out and bridging the gap between myself or peers and those who have oppressed or harmed us like Lorde spoke about in her work.
The Combahee River Collective Statement | 1976
The Combahee River Collective Statement defines and discusses the political and social struggles and stances of black women. In this work, difference and the implications of difference are acknowledged. The statement reads- “The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions” (1975). This gave me a whole new perspective on black feminism because I realized that there are lines of separation even in groups of people that seem to be united-like sexism between black men and women or racism between feminist. This statement made it even more clear that ignoring the real problems behind oppression only perpetuates the system.
One idea that stood out to me from The Combahee River Collective Statement was about how the oppression a black woman in America faces is different because they face oppression from multiple difference sources. Tupac seemed to be commenting on this same fact in his song “Keep Ya Head Up”. Tupac was an activist and wrote songs like this one that often commented on social and political issues among the black community. In this song, I can relate it to this week’s reading because he is asking why black men are treating black women so poorly when they should be united together.
“You know it makes me unhappy? When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy. And since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?” (Tupac)
KEYWORDS
DIFFERENCE, OPPRESSION, RACE, SEX, CLASS
QUESTION: Why do you think it's hard for our society to talk about race and how do you (or would you) deal with the social affects that often follow hard or ill-received conversations?
This specific text touches on the struggles of black women in feminist spaces. Oftentimes the space that white women made in the movement remained strong since there weren’t factors of racism getting in the way. Black feminists were faced with multiple instances of oppression and this made it very difficult to progress forward. Not only were there problems with racism outside of the black community, but on the inside there were black men who also were not fond of what black feminist represented. “As Black feminists we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism, which requires among other things that they have a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and Black history and culture” (Combahee River Collective). I think this particular quote is important because it adds perspective to the experiences of black feminists. On the outside the frustration surrounding seeing white women making progress while they aren’t proved itself to be daunting.
Audre Lorde (1980), “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”
Lorde touches on the topic of oppression in relation to not only the topic of race but also in relation to things like age, class, and identity. Oppressed groups are often left to educate their oppressors, which only acts as a way to drain their energy. This statement is definitely something I agree with. While there is a need for oppressors to be educated on just how much harm they can cause, it is not the job of those who are oppressed. Dealing with oppression is hard enough, and attempting to get someone who’s experiences differ to change their mind is even more draining. “We find ourselves having to repeat and relearn the same old lessons over and over that our mothers did because we do not pass on what we have learned, or because we are unable to listen” (Lorde 117). This quote relates to the idea of educating oppressors although she is not directly referencing oppressors when mentioning it. There is a level of knowledge that they already possess but that knowledge isn’t truly drilled into their minds. Listening and taking in information is a big part of truly trying to understand.
Ijeoma Oluo (2018), “So You Want to Talk About Race”
Ijeoma Oluo talks about the realities of being a woman of color. No matter how much she wanted to steer away from the topic of race, it became such a prominent art of her life. There are factors in the world that bring the topic of race to the surface. Additionally, she urges people who are not people of color to realize that despite their attempts to prove that they want to do no harm, it doesn’t change how others feel. She touches on the difficulties of talking about race and includes that concept as a factor. An important point she made was, “very often, white people come to talk about race to try to make sure the person they’re talking to knows that they are not the person that’s harming them.” I think this ties into the main reason for speaking on the topic in general. She tries to lead white people into a direction of handling topics of race in the proper way.
Making Connections
I think that the thing tying each of these texts together is the topic of oppression and the difficulties of trying to find a place in a space that isn’t particularly inclusive. Oluo’s purpose of talking about race in the first place is to acknowledge that clear disconnect. Oluo’s message also mentions the need for people of color’s feelings to be included. The Combahee River Collective strives to acknowledge that black feminists were not being included and accepted in crucial space. The text by Lorde ties into the same idea as Oluo’s text. When the oppressors are trying to push education from those they oppress, there is not an inclusion of the oppressed individual’s feelings.
Nina Simone (1966), “Four Women”
This song ties into the ideas of Oluo’s text the most. Oluo mentions trying to remain quiet and dress in a certain way to be deemed as acceptable. Nina Simone’s song is all about stereotypes amongst black women. Essentially it separates the views of black women into four categories. Aunt Sarah takes on the stereotypical role of an Aunt Jemima. Saffronia deals with the complexities of a child that was conceived through a white man forcing himself onto an enslaved woman, which happened fairly often. Sweet Thing represents the overly sexualized views placed upon Black women and Peaches takes on the more aggressive stereotypical views. Each of these factors really put Oluo’s reasons for wanting to seem a certain way into perspective. There are very harsh and confining stereotypes placed onto black women, as seen in the song. Oluo’s text is a great example of the extent of harm that can be done because of those limiting ideas. I really enjoy this song, I heard it for the first time a relatively long time ago. I find myself relating to the song and when connecting it to Oluo’s text, I find myself resonating with it even more.
Question:
If you have experiences that align with any of the readings, in what ways do you relate to them? If not, how has your knowledge expanded after reading and watching the texts?
In Ijeoma Oluo’s “So you Want to Talk about Race,” one of the main purposes of the video is to talk about how systems are made and adapted for white people. A major point is how systems and professional looks were made for white people. “It was the bosses who told me that I was too loud, the comments that my hair was too ethnic for the office” (1:54). The idea of what is professional in the workplace was made for white men and women. Many times colored women get discriminated against in the workplace because their hair is seen as unprofessional. Although their hair might be seen as unprofessional in the workplace, outside many people are intrigued by it. They try to touch and play with colored women’s hair.
Connection
Solange’s song “Don’t Touch My Hair,” goes along with part of the text that explains why black women do not want others to touch it. “You know this hair is my shit”, (1:05) is a quote from Solange’s song, showing that many women are proud of their hair. The game of Hair Nah by Momo Pixel shows what many women with different hair go through everyday. Having to stop people from touching and messing up their hair.
Audre Lorde “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”
In “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” by Audre Lorde, the text explains how different identities overlap and affect people, especially those of color. One of the texts point is how black men use violence to prove manliness. “Exacerbated by racism and the pressures of powerlessness, violence against Black women and children often becomes a standard within our communities, one by which manliness can be measured” (pg. 120). Black men will use violence to prove they are manly to white men and as long as this continues, men will continue to dominate women. Although there are other topics discussed in this text, this quote grabbed my attention because a common stereotype for black men is that they are violent. I believe it is important to understand why some men abuse women and their children.
In thThe statment, “They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hardworking allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing Black women,” (pg. 4-5) shows that to change many men would need to change their current ways and views. They would have to start seeing women as their equal, not as only a housewife, or only as mothers. In my interpretation of this quote, many men do not support feminism becuase of the fear of having to change. They fear Black feminism because they fear women will no longer need men and they will leave.
Connection
From the songs of this week, “Keep Ya Head Up,” by Tupac shows how society need to start treating women better. Men need to stop raping, leaving women to raise children alone, and to stop taking away from women, since everyone came from a women. “Time to heal our women, be real to our women” (1:08), is part of the lyrics to Tupac’s song, saying we need to be real and help our women heal from the unequal treatment they have suffered from everyone. This song goes along with the statement from the Combahee River Collective Statment because they both talk about how men have to change their views and ways in order for growth to happen.
The song “Four Women” by Nina Simone could be connected to the themes of all our texts. The different verses of the song talk about her hair, how her father forced upon her mother, and about how her life had been rough because of her identity. Having a rough life because of a colored women identity is a topic in all of our readings this week.
“My life has been rough. I’m awfully bitter these days”
(Simone, 3:54).
Questions: Why do men act one way when they are with only women but act differently when there are other men? Do you think it has to do with being seen as weak?
Summary: As Dr. Martin commented in lecture notes, the Combahee River Collective Statement basically outlines and introduces the idea of intersectionality:
The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face.
From The Combahee River Collective Statement
The Collective formed in response to disillusionment with the white, middle-class mainstream feminist movement which they found didn’t adequately concern itself with recognizing the different oppressions women of color faced and who particularly did not want to carry the banner for lesbians.
While the Black feminist movement the Collective embodied drew from the Black liberation movement, they were critical of the role they played in Black society, saying “We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism.” However, they noted that “Although we are feminists and Lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors.”
What I found very interesting in this text, is the focus and acknowledgment of the problems in organizing Black feminists. Particularly their awareness and verbalization of the psychological and physical toll of navigating their day-to-day lives, which are filled with micro-and macro-aggressions, while simultaneously trying to do the work to fight and dismantle those systems:
The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess anyone of these types of privilege have.
The psychological toll of being a Black woman and the difficulties this presents in reaching political consciousness and doing political work can never be underestimated. There is a very low value placed upon Black women’s psyches in this society, which is both racist and sexist. As an early group member once said, “We are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women.” We are dispossessed psychologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to struggle to change the condition of all Black women.
Summary: Ijeoma Oluo asserts that it’s difficult to talk about race because we have intentionally been “denied the tools we need to talk about it.” She says that race is a system of power that is designed to benefit only some at the expense of others. When oppression is established on differences like skin color, that can be hard to overcome because you can’t change that.
“My blackness is woven into how I dress each morning, what bars I feel comfortable going to, what music I enjoy, what neighborhoods I hang out in.”
– Ijeoma Oluo, “So You Want to Talk About Race”
She says when we talk about racism being ingrained in the system we cannot be obtuse, we cannot be vague, we need to name the systems we’re talking about — economic, cultural, and political. When we break down and identify where oppression lives, it makes it more tangible and manageable — people can choose who to vote for, where to spend their money, what our values are, what constitutes professionalism, what we want our children to be taught, etc. She says “this collection of everyday decisions we make turns into a system of race.” If we don’t question how and why we make the choices we do, the systems perpetuate with “a hefty payout for a very select few.” By not questioning race and racial oppression, we only continue to serve those who are currently in power.
“These are very scary times for a lot of people who are just now realizing that America is not and has never been the melting pot utopia that their parents and teachers told them it was. These are very scary times for those who are just now realizing how justifiably hurt, angry, and terrified so many people of color have been all along. These are very stressful times for people of color who have been fighting and yelling and trying to protect themselves from a world that doesn’t care to suddenly be asked by those who’ve ignored them for so long, what has been happening your entire life?”
– Iljeoma Oluo, “So You Want to Talk About Race”
This part of her discussion really resonated with me: Oluo says we are taught that racists use racial slurs and burn crosses. But that’s not the whole of racism. Racism is much more insidious. She tells us: “in a system that only requires that you do nothing in order to perpetuate itself, your intentions don’t mean squat.” To not be a racist you have to stop participating in and propping up systems that are racist and racially oppressive. You have to reconsider what those things actually look like. Then you have to act.
She also says that talking about race is hard because people come to the table with “personal goals” and too often these goals result in white and Black people having “two completely different conversations that will never meet.”
Importantly, Oluo points out that the repercussions of talking about race are much greater for people of color. That when Black people actually sit at the table to discuss race, it is an overwhelmingly generous act.
Summary: Talks about how we can and must embrace differences to create social change.
Audre Lorde begins this writing by pointing out that in our society, we put the burden on oppressed people or people who white people have deemed different, to teach the oppressors about their mistakes and to educate them about the oppressed’s humanity. She writes: “Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world” (p. 115). This, she says, drains the energy of those doing the educating and detracts from their ability to focus on “redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future” (p. 115). It is also a waste of energy to pretend ”differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all,” when that energy could be spent “recognizing and exploring” differences” (p. 115).
Lorde argues that rejecting difference is a requirement in a profit economy where someone/ some group has to be marginalized. She says this system programs us to “respond to human differences with fear and loathing.” Similarly to what Ijeoma Oluo offered, she says we are not given the tools to look at this system critically. In fact, she says we are intentionally confused in the “service of separation” (p. 115).
“In a society where the good is defined in terms of profit rather than in terms of human need, there must always be some group of people who, through systematized oppression, can be made to feel surplus, to occupy the place of the dehumanized inferior. Within this society, that group is made up of Black and Third World people, working-class people, older people, and women” (p. 114).
Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”
Lorde tells us that “Refusing to recognize difference makes it impossible to see the different problems and pitfalls facing us as women” (p. 118). She says that only in recognizing our differences can we bring about change and we must recognize that in being different we are still equal: “As women, we must root out internalized patterns of oppression within ourselves if we are to move beyond the most superficial aspects of social change. Now we must recognize differences among women who are our equals, neither inferior nor superior, and devise ways to use each others’ difference to enrich our visions and our joint struggles” (p 122).
Keywords: Intersectionality | Age | Race | Class | Sex | Black Feminism
Tying Things Together
I think the women would all agree that being a Black woman, and Black woman feminist, navigating the world via racist and oppressive systems is exhausting and tiring work.
I believe they would all agree that the burden should not be on them to educate white people about all the systemic ways they are oppressed.
I think they would all agree there is work to be done in their communities as well as in broader society.
And I think they all agree that traditional feminism doesn’t represent their lived experiences.
Discussing Audre Lorde & Tupac Shakur
It’s possible that Audre Lorde heard Tupac Shakur’s song “Keep Ya Head Up,” on the radio, was caught off guard by the lyrics, and then happily turned the sound up.
Hearing a Black man acknowledge the treatment of Black women, something she wrote about in 1980’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” Had to be affirming.
In “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” Lorde had a lot to say about Black women’s status in the Black community:
Because of the continuous battle against racial erasure that Black women and Black men share, some Black women still refuse to recognize that we are also oppressed as women, and that sexual hostility against Black women is practiced not only by the white racist society, but implemented within our Black communities as well. It is a disease striking the heart of Black by racism and the pressures of powerlessness, violence against Black women and children often becomes a standard within our communities, one by which manliness can be measured. But these woman-hating acts are rarely discussed as crimes against Black women.
Audre Lorde
And, at least in this song’s lyrics, Tupac Shakur agrees:
I give a holler to my sisters on welfare Tupac cares, if don’t nobody else care And uh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot When you come around the block, brothas clown a lot But please don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up Forgive but don’t forget, girl, keep your head up And when he tells you you ain’t nuttin’ don’t believe him And if he can’t learn to love you, you should leave him ‘Cause sista you don’t need him And I ain’t tryin’ to gas ya up, I just call ’em how I see ’em (you don’t need him) You know me makes me unhappy? (What’s that?) When brothas make babies And leave a young mother to be a pappy (oh, yeah, yeah, yeah) And since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman (yeah, yeah) I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? (Why? Why?) I think it’s time to kill for our women (why? Why? Why? Why?) Time to heal our women, be real to our women And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies That will hate the ladies, that make the babies (oh, yeah, baby)
“Keep Ya Head Up” by Tupac Shakur
I think it’s important to note, like the women of the Combahee River Collective, that she identifies Black men as allies. But to bring about change, she has done the hard work of scrutinizing details of Black women’s lives to identify points of conflict.
What are the particular details within each of our lives that can be scrutinized and altered to help bring about change? (p. 122).
Audre Lorde “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”
Question
In her discussion, Ijeoma Oluo encourages others to take ownership of their education when it comes to issue of race and oppression. She specifically offers up Google as a research tool.
My question is: When it comes to race or gender, what have you Googled? If you have relied on other resources, what are they?
I’ll go first: I have Googled to define terms like intersectionality, identity politics, first-and second-wave feminism, and I’ve Googled for additional background onthe majority of the authors we’ve read. What I’d like to learn more about (really to be armed with specific examples) is how racism and oppression are built into our social and political systems.
