Ghanima Atreides (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atreideslioness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2013-03-18 11:03 am
atreideslioness) wrote in fandomhigh2013-03-18 11:03 am
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History of American Feminism, Monday, 2nd Period.
"Thank you, Miss Kennish, for stepping in while I was indisposed last week," Ghanima said as the class got settled.
"Today we're going to talk about what's known as Black Feminism."
"Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together. The way these relate to each other is called intersectionality. Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression but ignore race can discriminate against many people, including women, through racial bias. The Combahee River Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression."
"One of the theories that evolved out of the Black feminist movement was Alice Walker's Womanism. Alice Walker and other womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. They point to the emergence black feminism after earlier movements led by white middle-class women which they regard as having largely ignored oppression based on race and class. Patricia Hill Collins defined Black feminism, in Black Feminist Thought as including 'women who theorize the experiences and ideas shared by ordinary black women that provide a unique angle of vision on self, community, and society.'"
"Indeed, there is a long-standing and important alliance between postcolonial feminists, which overlaps with transnational feminism and third-world feminism, and black feminists. Both have struggled for recognition, not only from men in their own culture, but also from Western feminists. Black feminist theory has argued that black women are positioned within structures of power in fundamentally different ways than white women. Black feminist organizations emerged during the 1970s and face many difficulties from both the white feminist and black nationalist political organizations they were confronting. These women fought against suppression from the larger movements in which many of its members came from."
"Black feminist organizations had to overcome three different challenges that no other feminist organization had to face," Ghanima continued. "The first challenge these women faced was to “prove to other black women that feminism was not only for white women.” They also had to demand that white women “share power with them and affirm diversity” and “fight the misogynist tendencies of Black Nationalism”. With all the challenges these women had to face many activists referred to black feminists as “war weary warriors”. In fact, many members were 'survivors' of other causes."
"Take the The Combahee River Collective for example. It was one of the most important black socialist feminist organizations of all time. Primarily a black feminist and lesbian organization this group began meeting in Boston in 1974, a time when socialist feminism was thriving in Boston. The name Combahee River Collective was suggested by the founder and African-American lesbian feminist, Barbara Smith, and it refers to the campaign led by Harriet Tubman who freed 750 slaves near the Combahee Rive in South Carolina in 1863. Smith said they wanted the name to mean something to African American women that “it was a way of talking about ourselves being on a continuum of black struggle, of black women’s struggle”."
"The members of this organization consisted of many refugees from other political movements such as the civil rights movement, anti-war movement, labor movement, and others. Demita Frazier, co-founder of the Combahee River Collective says these women from other movements found themselves “in conflict with the lack of a feminist analysis and in many cases were left feeling divided against themselves.”"
"As an organization they were labeled as troublemakers by the establishment, including white feminist groups, and many men said they were 'brainwashed by the man hating white feminist, that they didn’t have their own mind they were just following in the white women’s footsteps.' Throughout the 1970s the Combahee River Collective met weekly to discuss the different issues concerning black feminists. They also held retreats throughout the Northeast from 1977-1979 to help “institutionalize black feminism” and develop an “ideological separation from white feminism.'"
"As an organization they founded a local battered women’s shelter and worked in partnership with all community activists, women and men, gay and straight playing an active role in the reproductive rights movement. The Combahee River Collective ended their work together in 1980 and is now most widely remembered for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, a key document in the history of contemporary black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity."
[OOC: OCD up]
"Today we're going to talk about what's known as Black Feminism."
"Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together. The way these relate to each other is called intersectionality. Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression but ignore race can discriminate against many people, including women, through racial bias. The Combahee River Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression."
"One of the theories that evolved out of the Black feminist movement was Alice Walker's Womanism. Alice Walker and other womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. They point to the emergence black feminism after earlier movements led by white middle-class women which they regard as having largely ignored oppression based on race and class. Patricia Hill Collins defined Black feminism, in Black Feminist Thought as including 'women who theorize the experiences and ideas shared by ordinary black women that provide a unique angle of vision on self, community, and society.'"
"Indeed, there is a long-standing and important alliance between postcolonial feminists, which overlaps with transnational feminism and third-world feminism, and black feminists. Both have struggled for recognition, not only from men in their own culture, but also from Western feminists. Black feminist theory has argued that black women are positioned within structures of power in fundamentally different ways than white women. Black feminist organizations emerged during the 1970s and face many difficulties from both the white feminist and black nationalist political organizations they were confronting. These women fought against suppression from the larger movements in which many of its members came from."
"Black feminist organizations had to overcome three different challenges that no other feminist organization had to face," Ghanima continued. "The first challenge these women faced was to “prove to other black women that feminism was not only for white women.” They also had to demand that white women “share power with them and affirm diversity” and “fight the misogynist tendencies of Black Nationalism”. With all the challenges these women had to face many activists referred to black feminists as “war weary warriors”. In fact, many members were 'survivors' of other causes."
"Take the The Combahee River Collective for example. It was one of the most important black socialist feminist organizations of all time. Primarily a black feminist and lesbian organization this group began meeting in Boston in 1974, a time when socialist feminism was thriving in Boston. The name Combahee River Collective was suggested by the founder and African-American lesbian feminist, Barbara Smith, and it refers to the campaign led by Harriet Tubman who freed 750 slaves near the Combahee Rive in South Carolina in 1863. Smith said they wanted the name to mean something to African American women that “it was a way of talking about ourselves being on a continuum of black struggle, of black women’s struggle”."
"The members of this organization consisted of many refugees from other political movements such as the civil rights movement, anti-war movement, labor movement, and others. Demita Frazier, co-founder of the Combahee River Collective says these women from other movements found themselves “in conflict with the lack of a feminist analysis and in many cases were left feeling divided against themselves.”"
"As an organization they were labeled as troublemakers by the establishment, including white feminist groups, and many men said they were 'brainwashed by the man hating white feminist, that they didn’t have their own mind they were just following in the white women’s footsteps.' Throughout the 1970s the Combahee River Collective met weekly to discuss the different issues concerning black feminists. They also held retreats throughout the Northeast from 1977-1979 to help “institutionalize black feminism” and develop an “ideological separation from white feminism.'"
"As an organization they founded a local battered women’s shelter and worked in partnership with all community activists, women and men, gay and straight playing an active role in the reproductive rights movement. The Combahee River Collective ended their work together in 1980 and is now most widely remembered for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, a key document in the history of contemporary black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity."
[OOC: OCD up]
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