Different Perspective: Black Feminism

“The Combahee River Collective Statement”

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. 

From The Combahee River Collective Statement

Keywords: Black feminism | Intersectionality

“So You Want to Talk About Race”

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. 

Keywords: Race | Systemic Racism | Dialogue |

“Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”

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

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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.

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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”

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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.