In Sex and Caste,
Casey Hayden and Mary King noted that there are problems with relationships
between Black and White women. That was all they wrote. They did, however,
acknowledge the similarities in the treatment of Black people and of women
separately, but left out the double constraint that Black women have of being
just that; black and a woman. For this piece to be one of the first of the
emergent women’s liberation movement, it definitely set the tone for and is
consistent with the status of Black women in the women’s liberation movement.
Throughout U.S. history, Black people have not been afforded
equal status with their White counterparts. To expect seamless cooperation and
understanding between two groups of women who have dramatically different
roles, levels of respect and expectations within society, is naïve. The
ideologies associated with the expected behaviors and treatments of White and
Black women are even dramatically different. Sojourner Truth
pointed out that she’s plowed and planted and that nobody ever helped her into
carriages or over mud-puddles. The Combahee River Collective
Statement explained how black women were told to be more ladylike so that
they may look less objectionable in the eyes of White people. It’s also been
studied that Black female teenagers were seen as “not feminine enough, too
loud, aggressive and in need of being molded into more compliant and
deferential females.”(Healey 104) These assumptions about the character of
Black women and even their ownership of an inferior status are all the result
of racial discrimination and not their status as a woman because they weren’t
even considered a whole person. So, what could the general feminist movement do
for their cause? After all, womanhood had a very distinct description; and it
didn’t include engaging in hard-labor. Black women weren’t covered under the “cult
of true womanhood.”
How could the long-standing inequity between these two racial
groups be admonished through cooperation in the women’s liberation movement
when the needs of Black women weren’t being considered? It doesn’t appear that time and effort were
being put in to genuinely understand or to even cultivate the necessary
relationships to gain an understanding of what feminism means to Black women. Audrey
Lorde describes an experience of being invited to participate in a feminist
conference in the sole area that included Black and lesbian women, as if
members of those groups had no input to offer in other areas of the conference.
(The Master’s Tools) There seemed to be a disinterest within the mainstream
feminist movement toward learning about the conflicting plight of Black women,
but apparently time has been taken by them to become knowledgeable on many
other subjects. The issues of Black women have been treated as second rate,
just the same as their status within society at large.
These same arguments can also be lent to the plight of women
of other ethnic groups, but these other groups don’t share the same constraints
as do Black women. Yes, patriarchy is an institution that should be fought by
women of all backgrounds; however, Black women are partner to the most
marginalized men in American society. They are consistently put in a position
to choose between battling sexism from Black men and also having to stand in solidarity
with them in the joint fight against racism. As Patricia Hill Collins so
eloquently put it, "African-American women occupy a position whereby the
inferior half of a series of these dichotomies [race, sex and socioeconomic
status] converge.” Black women are continuously put in a position to fight for
equal rights. Who else will fight for them?
Given the cultural differences and histories of Black and White women in our society, do you believe that there can be a unified feminist movement? Do you think there is basis to Dr. Johnson's argument that Black women were just being used as a part of the early feminist movement to raise numbers? If so, do you think that this is the reason why there is little interest in the needs of Black women today as women's rights are much more established now than ever before? Is feminism really something different for Black women and White women? Can feminism be detrimental to either or both groups?
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.
Healy, Joseph F. Race,
Ethnicity, Gender and Class. 6th ed. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2012.
104. Print.
Lorde, Audre. The Master's
Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House. N.p.: n.p., 1984. 110-13.
Sister Outsider, The Crossing Press Feminist Series. Print.
Very nice post, Turi101. I think you've raised some great points in your post, but I do have an issue with some of some of the comments from the video-- I think it does a disservice to Black feminists everywhere to dismiss them as merely all about "hating black men." I think many Black feminists would disagree vehemently with that statement; "Black feminism" has added a great deal to expanding feminist theory and greatly enriched our understandings of patriarchy, privilege, and oppression.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit he reminds me a little of white men who dismiss and decry white feminists as little more than "man-haters." Finally, I'm always a little suspicious who decide that women are being feminine enough...