Ashley Smith
Facilitation: Feminisms Black OriginsAnn. "Feminism’s Black Origins (from Ann)."
The Primary Contradiction. 2006. 30 Mar. 2009.
Key Words: Black, women, white, womanhood, race, gender, issues, history, masters, sexual, equality, slavery, spirit, revolutionary, active, America, feminist, socialism, lesbian, group, political, oppression, fought
Key Phrases: difficulties in gender; insensitive to the problems that black women face; ALL women are due as fellow human beings; dominant thinking; pursue the right to vote; black women’ white women; Jim Crow laws; National Black Feminist Organization
Key-ideas:
- The article gives a brief overview of the major movements in both the Civil Rights Movement, and in the feminist movement that were undertaken by black women
- The article provides many exceptional examples of how black women have contributed to liberation of both women and black people alike
- The article makes it clear that the author believes that for too long white women have been seen as the founders of the feminist movement, and women of color have been left behind
- The article comes from the point of view of a black woman, and gives insight into how complex the black (and other Women of Color) feminist movement is
- The author, Ann, breaks down the black feminist timeline into waves.
Quotes:
“Given the discursive power of race, black feminists have not had the privilege of abandoning the construction of a singular identity, though they recognize the plural identities of their own existence.”
“As much as they would like to think they are the owners of it, white women are not the ORIGINAL feminists. WOC are.”
This quote works as the thesis of the author’s argument. While I do not agree completely with the statement, it is quite the powerful one to make. I think that you cannot pick one race, one person, or even one time when feminism began. The author’s claim is a little bit too black and white; it lacks the comparison needed to see when the first feminist thought was made. I believe that it is impossible to decipher when the first feminist thought or act was taken; you cannot put a time and place on a progressive thought. While I do agree that women of color have been left out of the traditional ideas of feminism for being placed first as activists within their race, not their gender; I also believe that the fight for justice and equality for all is not something that can be time stamped.
Questions:
1. Do believe that it is possible to pick one binary, women of color or white women, as the original feminists?
2. Have women of color been left out of the records for the feminist movement because of their race, or did they have an equal chance?
2 comments:
I thought your presentation today was really eye-opening. Whenever I had thought of the women's rights movement, I always had visions in my head of white women in the 20's and 30's. I pictured women working in factories and Rosie the Riveter. Maybe this was due to my own ignorance, but I never even thought of black women as co-fore-fronters of the feminist movement. The more I think about it though, the more I realize the truth in it. Women of all races and cultures have contributed in some way to the progress of the disposition and equality of women. Even today, we are carrying the torch for future women to become independent and demand their own equal opportunities. By going to college, we are living the dream that many women before us had, but could never achieve. Great presentation! It was very enlightening...
The terms "women of color" and "colored people" had always made me curious as well. By creating that difference between European ethnicities and the thousands others that are out there, we only add fuel to the fire of inequality.
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