We had been reading about divisions within the feminist . Henrietta Lacks and the Debate Over the Ethics of Bio-Medical Research, African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. Alone: Black Socialist Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Your donation is fully tax-deductible. 3 (February 1974), pp. Men are not equal to other men, i.e. In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. As they put it, If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. We began functioning as a study group and also began discussing the possibility of starting a Black feminist publication. How do we mobilize all of this energy and actually bring about fundamental political, social, and economic change?. The quest to transform this country cannot be limited to challenging its brutal police alone. The influential Combahee River Collective statement, co-authored by Barbara Smith, expressed a radical, queer black feminist platform still relevant to expressions of black feminism today. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody elses oppression. Many Black women have a good understanding of both sexism and racism, but because of the everyday constrictions of their lives, cannot risk struggling against them both. Reading the statement for the first time, two things struck me. The women of the C.R.C. 6-7. This became the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO). As we grew older we became aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse by men. We are committed to a continual examination of our politics as they develop through criticism and self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice. Black womens extremely negative relationship to the American political system (a system of white male rule) has always been determined by our membership in two oppressed racial and sexual castes. In 2016, as the fortieth anniversary of the Combahee Statement approached, I realized that it would be an opportunity to draw attention back to the document and its astounding prescience and analysis, and to complicate a stilted and unsatisfying national discussion about who the real inheritors were of socialist politics in the United States. The eugenics programs of the early twentieth century continued into the nineteen-seventies, as tens of thousands of women in the United States were subjected to sterilization procedures without their informed consent. In 1973, Black feminists, primarily located in New York, felt the necessity of forming a separate Black feminist group. An example of this kind of revelation/conceptualization occurred at a meeting as we discussed the ways in which our early intellectual interests had been attacked by our peers, particularly Black males. I had seen feminism as the domain of white women primarily concerned with glass ceilings and access to abortion. When I came back to the Combahee Statement, in the aftermath of the Ferguson uprising, I saw that its politics had the potential to make a way out of what felt like no way. We decided at that time, with the addition of new members, to become a study group. The women of the C.R.C. 14, No. 3, Why We Cant Wait: (Re)Examining the Opportunities and Challenges for Black Women and Girls in Education (Summer 2016), pp. We need to think about things in a different way. And who better to do that than feminists of color who are queer and on the left? She added, One of the signs to me that feminist-of-color politics are influencing this moment is the multiracial, multiethnic diversityand not just racial and ethnic, but every kind of diversityof the people who are in the streets now. This intersectional group was created because there was a sense that both the feminist movement or civil rights movement didn't reflect the particular needs of Black women and lesbians. To be honest, I didnt know what to do with the Combahee Statement. Combahee River Collective: Summary & History | StudySmarter We understand that it is and has been traditional that the man is the head of the house. A good portion of the tension was generated by wild and unfounded assertions that socialism and the spoils of social democracy were only of interest to white people. The Black women of the C.R.C. Three of her brothers followed her to Dallas, and one, a Vietnam veteran, lived in our garage for a time, as he tried to jump-start his life. ThePennsylvaniaMagazineofHistoryandBiography, Combahee River Collective Statement: A Fortieth Anniversary Retrospective, Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves, "One Great Bundle of Humanity": Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), Missing in Action Ida B. 4. disbanded, in 1980, Barbara Smith went on to play a critical role in the establishment of womens studies in colleges and universities, as well as in publishing. Stemming out of growing disillusionments with mainstream feminism, the Collective was a Boston-based organisation of Black queer socialist activists. Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g. In my Intro to Womens Studies class, one white woman, who said she was from Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, chafed at what she described as the divisiveness of Black feminism. 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 also decided around that time to become an independent collective since we had serious disagreements with NBFOs bourgeois-feminist stance and their lack of a clear politIcal focus. It made sense of her senseless death, just shy of the twenty-first century. Malcolm X made it plain: The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.. The Combahee Statement was anything but divisive. Demonstrations following the murder of Floyd enter their third week. The post World War II generation of Black youth was the first to be able to minimally partake of certain educational and employment options, previously closed completely to Black people. 225 0 obj <> endobj 240 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<55A8DDF17D624C57A3DD9554302617BF><2BF3B81EF49545358296A73A72E810D6>]/Index[225 24]/Info 224 0 R/Length 78/Prev 307736/Root 226 0 R/Size 249/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977) by Combahee River Collective. Flashcards. Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of Black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that sex should be a determinant of power relationships. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political . The Combahee River Collective Statement conceptualized the notion of intersectionalitythe idea that marginalization and oppression are experienced simultaneously in different, interlocking ways as a result of how systems of domination interact with people's identities. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Smith is skeptical about the longevity of this particular moment, as she has earned the right to be. Was the Conspiracy That Gripped New York in 1741 Real? The Combahee River Collective Statement: Annotated The Combahee River Collective Statement is believed to be the first text where the term identity politics is used. Combahee River Collective Statement Flashcards | Quizlet 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 first was its effort to combine socialist politics with feminism. The overwhelming feeling that we had is that after years and years we had finally found each other. hb```f``e`a` @V8OCH'2 19Qiq.&)L)Sa\@>s L95 J:pj]gkivud|8:8:GsGGCi$& y@g00* @, %PDF-1.6 % Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving correct political goals. Today, there is a small but influential Black political classa Black lite and what could be described as the aspirational Black middle classwhose members continue to be constrained by racial discrimination and inequality but who hold the promise that a better life is possible in the United States. Key concepts addressed in assigned readings. 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. Module 2.docx - Respond to the following prompts in 300 Contemporary Black feminism is the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters. We have tried to think about the reasons for our difficulties, particularly since the white womens movement continues to be strong and to grow in many directions. We must realize that men and women are a complement to each other because there is no house/family without a man and his wife. 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. gave us the political tools to understand the difference between bottom-up and top-down politics, and their distorted manifestation in the identity politics of today. [2]. [3]. The overwhelming majority of Black women were working-class and were forced to labor both outside and inside their homes. 6, No. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Protests of George Floyds Killing Transform Into a Global Movement. 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. We dont have to do white feminism, we dont have to do patriarchal Black nationalismwe dont have to do those things. In the reality of organizing, these tensions manifested themselves in white womens desire to focus their organizing on abortion rights, while Black feminists argued for the broader framework of reproductive justice, which included the struggle against forced sterilizations of Black and brown women. We discovered that all of us, because we were smart had also been considered ugly, i.e., smart-ugly. Smart-ugly crystallized the way in which most of us had been forced to develop our intellects at great cost to our social lives. 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. Doris Jeanne Taylors life was unceremoniously extinguished two weeks after she entered the hospital. Gender was also an incomplete answer. Material resources must be equally distributed among those who create these resources. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, and thousands upon thousands unknownwho have had a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the focus of their political struggles unique. Thus, the women of the C.R.C believed that, if Black women were successful in their struggles and movements, they would have an impact far beyond their immediate demands. We hope you find it a valuable resource for yourself, and for students. Thats right out of the Black feminist playbook.. The class and race tensions within feminism lasted far beyond the seventies. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. 42, No. PDF The Combahee River Collective Statement - Yale University We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism. Here is the way male and female roles were defined in a Black nationalist pamphlet from the early 1970s: Our development must also be tied to the contemporary economic and political position of Black people. 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. 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. May 28-29, 1851 The Combahee River Collective, A Black Feminist Statement. What We Believe To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough. Sociological analysis of social movements has progressed dialectically, each new theory building off and in contrast to what previously existed, whilst what previously existed is modified as newer theories bring up relevant new ideas. In A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion: One issue that is of major concern to us and that we have begun to publicly address is racism in the white womens movement. I first encountered the Combahee River Collective Statement in a womens-studies class, my second year of college at SUNY Buffalo. We might, for example, become involved in workplace organizing at a factory that employs Third World women or picket a hospital that is cutting back on already inadequate heath care to a Third World community, or set up a rape crisis center in a Black neighborhood. A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political. The C.R.C. All rights reserved. While my father believed that a revolution was within the grasp of those who fought hard enough to make it happen, my mother, who had studied English, French, and Spanish in college, was finishing her doctorate and raising me and my brother. The sanctions In the Black and white communities against Black women thinkers is comparatively much higher than for white women, particularly ones from the educated middle and upper classes. Learn. The Combahee River Collective, founded by black feminists and lesbians in Boston, Massachusetts in 1974, was best known for its Combahee River Collective Statement. 113, No. One issue that is of major concern to us and that we have begun to publicly address is racism in the white womens movement. We might, for example, become involved in workplace organizing at a factory that employs Third World women or picket a hospital that is cutting back on already inadequate heath care to a Third World community, or set up a rape crisis center in a Black neighborhood. Match. ITHAKA. 2023 Cond Nast. As Black feminists and Lesbians we know that we have a very definite revolutionary task to perform and we are ready for the lifetime of work and struggle before us. 4-5. But then I understood it differently, not just as a critical document in the canon of feminist literature or as a much-needed exposition of the origins of Black feminism. In the case of Black women this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movements that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves. Before looking at the recent development of Black feminism we would like to affirm that we find our origins in the historical reality of Afro-American womens continuous life-and-death struggle for survival and liberation. At the beginning of 1976, when some of the women who had not wanted to do political work and who also had voiced disagreements stopped attending of their own accord, we again looked for a focus. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. Those were fine things to act against and struggle for, but they felt like lightweight politics in contrast to the things that my nineteen-year-old self was concerned about: the U.S. presence in the Middle East, police brutality and racism, poverty and inequality. Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g. It was mind-blowing! 3, Gendering the Carceral State: African American Women, History, and the Criminal Justice System (Summer 2015), pp. 3 (Autumn, 1980), pp. After all, werent we all women? 11, No. 12, No. 52-71, Feminist Studies, Vol. 100, No. Even our Black womens style of talking/testifying in Black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. Currently we are planning to gather together a collectIon of Black feminist writing. In her introduction to Sisterhood is Powerful Robin Morgan writes: If lynchings, police brutality, and rat-infested housing were the best that American democracy could offer Black Americans, then how bad could communism or socialism really be? 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. The fact that individual Black feminists are living in isolation all over the country, that our own numbers are small, and that we have some skills in writing, printing, and publishing makes us want to carry out these kinds of projects as a means of organizing Black feminists as we continue to do political work in coalition with other groups.
