No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women… When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women. – Bell Hooks
Feminism is a word that scares many people Black and White alike but tends to be a major sense of discourse among the African American conscious set. Black feminism can somewhat be considered an oxymoron. As African American women we sometime find it hard to find a place where we feel accepted completely and Black feminism was born out of the need to carve a niche for the culturally aware Black woman who was used and then neglected by the White Feminist Movement and sexually objectified by some members of the Black Liberation Movement.
The problem with the feminist movement as it pertained to Black women is that their white counterparts would not acknowledge racism and the issue with the Black Liberation Movement was that many believed racism in the United States was an attack on Black masculinity which somewhat says to a Black woman living in a world that dehumanizes her every day that her pain is null because it’s not “as bad” for her. Both groups contended that they owned the rights to suffering.
It’s similar to that friend that everyone has the one that has the flu if you have a cold or if you sprained an ankle she broke her foot and so on. At the end of the day we’re both sick! A Black woman’s pain is very specific and it’s very hard to explain specific pain to someone who has never experienced it. White women cannot identify with the Black Experience and Black men cannot identify with the female experience. Empathize yes, identify no.
Many African American men and some African American women consider Black feminism to be divisive to the movement and I agree in its conception it may have been. I think it was born out frustration. While th
e concept was a wonderful it was plagued with misunderstanding by both members and the opposition. Some members of the movement used feminism to promote hatred of men and the Black man in particular but I do not believe that this was the consensus.
The opposition would have you to believe that Black feminist have drank the Kool Aid so to speak and are an affront to the Black family. This type of thinking is conceived out of fear. Not wanting a Black woman to empower herself is similar to slave masters not wanting slaves to become literate. Everyone knows that the educated are liberated. The concept of feminism is not to destroy the family but to allow women a choice. It is possible to be a mother, a wife, and acknowledge the suffrage of Black women in this country.
One identity does not negate the other. Another misconception about Black feminism is that it is a seed implanted by White women into gullible Black American women’s brains. If you do some research there is a heavy feminist influence in Africa the African Feminist Forum meets biennially and unites women from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda to discuss feminist theory and the advancement of women of color. Most recently Nigerian feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie brought Black feminism back to the forefront when Beyonce used snippets from her TEDx speech for her hit song Flawless.
In this speech Adichie touts “We should all be feminists” and “Feminist: A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.” How could anybody argue with that! I think that it’s time that we redefine feminism. There is so much baggage associated with the word alone. With women still making 77 cents to the dollar that every man makes there is no denying that we are a marginalized group in this country and for Black and Hispanic women that gap is even larger. As progressive as we believe that we have become we still have so much farther to go.
There are reproductive rights issues we’re contending with at present time and while there is no argument that Black men outnumber other races in this country in regards to the prison system, this is also true for women of color. The likelihood of Black women being sentenced to life in prison is 1 in 18 as opposed to 1-118 for White women. We’ve got work to do ladies and this has nothing to do with the men. Black Feminism is nothing to fear. It is nothing more than Black female activism concentrating on the plight of Black women. It is possible to love my Black womanhood and not hate Black manhood just as it’s possible to love my Blackness and not be racist.
Best sentence: White women cannot identify with the Black Experience and Black men cannot identify with the female experience. AWESOME READ