Summary Of The Major Tenents Of Black Feminism
To begin, I will explore the major tenents of Black feminism. I am beginning this paper by discussing the major tenents of Black feminism so that later in the paper when exploring the arguments of various Black feminist, connections can be made to the major tenents. The tenents are not being discussed in order of significance in Black feminism. With that, intersectionality is the first tenent of Black feminism I will discuss. Intersectionality centers Black feminism because Black feminists historically have been, and currently are, excluded from mainstream feminism and the anti-racism movement. In understanding the importance of having every marginalized voice heard, Black feminists always have an intersectional lenses on. Moving forward, the
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next major tenent of Black feminism is credibility. Patricia Hill-Collins discusses the importance of understanding credibility in her book Black Feminist Thought, and she explores the idea that having lived through an experience gives one an expertise on said experience. The idea of credibility being given from lived through experiences and not necessarily through academia is extremely important to Black feminism because not all Black women have access to education. In America, it is commonly thought that it is very important to earn a college degree, but that is not an accessible goal for every citizen. There are many citizens that do not earn a high school diploma due to familial, health, monetary, or other circumstances. For some people, completing their high school education is only available through a place of privilege therefore expecting credibility to only come from those with educations is privileged. The next tenent is the relationship between emotions and intelligence. Many Black feminists, including Lorde, explore the importance of embracing, unpacking, and utilizing emotions. It is also often thought that emotions are the opposite of intelligence, but this tenent disproves that theory. Emotions are utilized in our understanding of the world, and Black feminists do not deny themselves their emotions. Lastly, there is the tenent of identity. Self-identification and identity politics play a large role in Black feminism. Black feminist Barbara Smith coined the term identity politics, and applied identity politics in dialogues to pinpoint the oppression of Black women. The first Black feminist I will be discussing is Melissa V Harris-Perry. Melissa Harris-Perry wrote the book Sister Citizen, which explores the stereotypes that are placed onto Black women. Harris-Perry discusses the theory of the crooked room. The crooked room is the framework of oppression that Black women are placed into while existing in American society. Privileged people in American enforce ideas of whiteness and misogyny onto Black women and distort their view of reality in an effort to keep Black women oppressed. Black women orient themselves in the crooked room in different ways. For some Black women, they "tilt and bend themselves to fit the distortion" (2011:29) because society completely immersed them in the crooked room, while other Black women have found a way to "stand up straight" (2011:29). The result of the crooked room is that Black women are misrecognized. The mammy, the jezebel, and the angry Black woman are stereotypes that are a result of misrecognition. For example, Serena Williams was misrecognized as an angry Black woman after winning a match against her sister at the U.S. Open in 2015. Serena Williams was asked why she wasn't smiling during the press conference after her win, and she replied by stating "It's 11:30. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't want to be here" (Horton). When Williams was simply tired from a late match, the reporter attempted to bend Williams into an angry Black woman, but she stood up straight. The need for Black women to be recognized is a main thread through Sister Citizen. Harris-Perry states that recognizing Black women is vital because structural oppression results in a refusal of general society to "'see' citizens rom low-status, stigmatized groups, accurately" (2011:42). Misrecognition forces Black women to try and survive with the weight of stereotypes on their shoulders, which is damaging to their emotional and physical health. Recognition employs Black women with tools to see themselves for who they really are, and for other members of society to see Black women as they truly are. The second Black feminist I will discuss is Joan Morgan.
Joan Morgan wrote the book When Chicken Heads Come Home to Roost, which explores hip-hop feminism. Morgan begins her piece by breaking down some of her struggles with feminism. The struggles originate from ingrained sexism and gender roles, and these are struggles that almost every feminist faces. Along with ingrained sexism and gender roles, there are simply personal preferences that people have which might include having the door help open for you. One of the main arguments in Morgan’s piece is that Black feminists should support hip-hop in spite of its misogynistic elements. The reason that Morgan argues for Black women to support hip-hop is that Morgan sees hip-hop as "instrumental in exposing black men's pain, [and] it brings the healing sistas need right to the surface" (2000: 77). Hip-hop exposes the sexist beliefs that some Black men have about Black women, and it exposes the fact that there are Black women that enforce those sexist beliefs that Black men have. Morgan argues that Black male rappers are not at fault when they are angry at Black women who are interested in them only for their money. Black men do not create these images of Black women from thin air, but from their lived experiences. As a Black feminist, Morgan is arguing that we must listen to Black men's expression of their experiences because they are valid experiences and Black men are experts on their experiences. There is another very compelling reason Morgan argues that Black feminists should support hip-hop, and that is that "black-on-black love-a love that has survived slavery, lynching, segregation, poverty, and racism- is in serious danger" (2000:71). It is in the favor or oppressors that marginalized groups be separated and pinned against each other, and Morgan is trying to combat the separation that is being occurring in the Black community. For example, there are Black artists like Nicki Minaj who are also trying to combat
the separation in the Black community. Nicki Minaj may not being combatting the separation in the same way that Morgan is, and I am not entirely sure she is combatting the separation on purpose, but she is doing so. The way that Nicki Minaj combats the separation is that she supports, and works with, black rappers and hip-hop artists. The third through fifth Black feminists I will discuss are Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, and Mai'a Williams. Gumbs, Martens and Williams co-authored Revolutionary Mothering Love on the Front Lines, which explores mothering through a Black feminist lens. Gumbs, Martens, and Williams work through many topics through their book, but the main argument is that mothering is a political act, and for Black mothers it is revolutionary. Mothering is revolutionary because Black women are often misrecognized as not loving their children. An example of this phenomenon is the Welfare Queen. The Welfare Queen is a Black women who has children only for the benefit gaining money through welfare therefore when Black women openly love and mother their children they are acting against the social grain. The Welfare Queen also falls into the argument Gumbs, Martens, and Williams make of being motherful not fatherless. The Welfare Queen is stereotyped as being fatherless, which presumably disadvantages the family, especially the children. It is questioned by privileged society how children can be happy and grow if a father does not nourish them. This not only blatantly excludes lesbian or gender non-conforming parents, but it ignored "the power of mothers and the collaboration between mothers that makes the families least affirmed by the state dangerous, powerful and necessary" (2016: 30). Gumbs, Martens, and Williams also discuss queer mothering and other mothers as two main points. Queer mothering includes mothering as a non-straight woman, and it also includes collective mothering. Collective mothering is mothering that occurs not from biological mothers, but a biological mother's support system. This can include friends, grandparents, and also strangers because mothering occurs "all day long and everywhere when we acknowledge the creative power of transforming ourselves and the way we relate to each other" (2016:23). The argument being made here is that all children’s' success is not just the responsibility of their guardians but everyone has a responsibility to love them and create a safer world. An example of Black women coming together to make a better world is Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Beyoncé revealed that part of the reason she wanted to make Lemonade was so that Blue Ivy and other Black girls like Blue Ivy could see their stories being told and see girls that look like them on television. The creation of Lemonade was not only an act of mothering in the sense that Beyoncé created a space for Blue Ivy to see herself, but she created an environment for almost all Black women and girls to thrive. There is one tenent of Black feminism that I did not touch on before, and that is building upon the women who came before. Black feminists often reach back into history to create connections to the struggles Black women faced in history to the struggles Black women face now. One Black feminist that connected to the theories presented in this paper is Audre Lorde. Lorde was quoted in Gumbs, Martens, and Williams book since she is a queer mother herself. Lorde has written on the topic of mothering and also on love, which is very important to mothering. Lorde was also quoted in Sister Citizen as she stated, "the masters tools will never dismantle the master's house." Harris-Perry also calls upon other advocates such as W.E.B. Du Bois in her book to examine the history of misrecognition. Barbara Smith's work on identity politics influenced both Sister Citizen and When Chicken Heads Come Home to Roost. Misrecognition is a great example of identity politics because it encompasses what it truly means to face the intersection of race and sexism. Morgan also explores the idea of approaching the intersection of sexism and racism as she grabbles with being a Black women and a hip-hop feminist.
next major tenent of Black feminism is credibility. Patricia Hill-Collins discusses the importance of understanding credibility in her book Black Feminist Thought, and she explores the idea that having lived through an experience gives one an expertise on said experience. The idea of credibility being given from lived through experiences and not necessarily through academia is extremely important to Black feminism because not all Black women have access to education. In America, it is commonly thought that it is very important to earn a college degree, but that is not an accessible goal for every citizen. There are many citizens that do not earn a high school diploma due to familial, health, monetary, or other circumstances. For some people, completing their high school education is only available through a place of privilege therefore expecting credibility to only come from those with educations is privileged. The next tenent is the relationship between emotions and intelligence. Many Black feminists, including Lorde, explore the importance of embracing, unpacking, and utilizing emotions. It is also often thought that emotions are the opposite of intelligence, but this tenent disproves that theory. Emotions are utilized in our understanding of the world, and Black feminists do not deny themselves their emotions. Lastly, there is the tenent of identity. Self-identification and identity politics play a large role in Black feminism. Black feminist Barbara Smith coined the term identity politics, and applied identity politics in dialogues to pinpoint the oppression of Black women. The first Black feminist I will be discussing is Melissa V Harris-Perry. Melissa Harris-Perry wrote the book Sister Citizen, which explores the stereotypes that are placed onto Black women. Harris-Perry discusses the theory of the crooked room. The crooked room is the framework of oppression that Black women are placed into while existing in American society. Privileged people in American enforce ideas of whiteness and misogyny onto Black women and distort their view of reality in an effort to keep Black women oppressed. Black women orient themselves in the crooked room in different ways. For some Black women, they "tilt and bend themselves to fit the distortion" (2011:29) because society completely immersed them in the crooked room, while other Black women have found a way to "stand up straight" (2011:29). The result of the crooked room is that Black women are misrecognized. The mammy, the jezebel, and the angry Black woman are stereotypes that are a result of misrecognition. For example, Serena Williams was misrecognized as an angry Black woman after winning a match against her sister at the U.S. Open in 2015. Serena Williams was asked why she wasn't smiling during the press conference after her win, and she replied by stating "It's 11:30. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't want to be here" (Horton). When Williams was simply tired from a late match, the reporter attempted to bend Williams into an angry Black woman, but she stood up straight. The need for Black women to be recognized is a main thread through Sister Citizen. Harris-Perry states that recognizing Black women is vital because structural oppression results in a refusal of general society to "'see' citizens rom low-status, stigmatized groups, accurately" (2011:42). Misrecognition forces Black women to try and survive with the weight of stereotypes on their shoulders, which is damaging to their emotional and physical health. Recognition employs Black women with tools to see themselves for who they really are, and for other members of society to see Black women as they truly are. The second Black feminist I will discuss is Joan Morgan.
Joan Morgan wrote the book When Chicken Heads Come Home to Roost, which explores hip-hop feminism. Morgan begins her piece by breaking down some of her struggles with feminism. The struggles originate from ingrained sexism and gender roles, and these are struggles that almost every feminist faces. Along with ingrained sexism and gender roles, there are simply personal preferences that people have which might include having the door help open for you. One of the main arguments in Morgan’s piece is that Black feminists should support hip-hop in spite of its misogynistic elements. The reason that Morgan argues for Black women to support hip-hop is that Morgan sees hip-hop as "instrumental in exposing black men's pain, [and] it brings the healing sistas need right to the surface" (2000: 77). Hip-hop exposes the sexist beliefs that some Black men have about Black women, and it exposes the fact that there are Black women that enforce those sexist beliefs that Black men have. Morgan argues that Black male rappers are not at fault when they are angry at Black women who are interested in them only for their money. Black men do not create these images of Black women from thin air, but from their lived experiences. As a Black feminist, Morgan is arguing that we must listen to Black men's expression of their experiences because they are valid experiences and Black men are experts on their experiences. There is another very compelling reason Morgan argues that Black feminists should support hip-hop, and that is that "black-on-black love-a love that has survived slavery, lynching, segregation, poverty, and racism- is in serious danger" (2000:71). It is in the favor or oppressors that marginalized groups be separated and pinned against each other, and Morgan is trying to combat the separation that is being occurring in the Black community. For example, there are Black artists like Nicki Minaj who are also trying to combat
the separation in the Black community. Nicki Minaj may not being combatting the separation in the same way that Morgan is, and I am not entirely sure she is combatting the separation on purpose, but she is doing so. The way that Nicki Minaj combats the separation is that she supports, and works with, black rappers and hip-hop artists. The third through fifth Black feminists I will discuss are Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, and Mai'a Williams. Gumbs, Martens and Williams co-authored Revolutionary Mothering Love on the Front Lines, which explores mothering through a Black feminist lens. Gumbs, Martens, and Williams work through many topics through their book, but the main argument is that mothering is a political act, and for Black mothers it is revolutionary. Mothering is revolutionary because Black women are often misrecognized as not loving their children. An example of this phenomenon is the Welfare Queen. The Welfare Queen is a Black women who has children only for the benefit gaining money through welfare therefore when Black women openly love and mother their children they are acting against the social grain. The Welfare Queen also falls into the argument Gumbs, Martens, and Williams make of being motherful not fatherless. The Welfare Queen is stereotyped as being fatherless, which presumably disadvantages the family, especially the children. It is questioned by privileged society how children can be happy and grow if a father does not nourish them. This not only blatantly excludes lesbian or gender non-conforming parents, but it ignored "the power of mothers and the collaboration between mothers that makes the families least affirmed by the state dangerous, powerful and necessary" (2016: 30). Gumbs, Martens, and Williams also discuss queer mothering and other mothers as two main points. Queer mothering includes mothering as a non-straight woman, and it also includes collective mothering. Collective mothering is mothering that occurs not from biological mothers, but a biological mother's support system. This can include friends, grandparents, and also strangers because mothering occurs "all day long and everywhere when we acknowledge the creative power of transforming ourselves and the way we relate to each other" (2016:23). The argument being made here is that all children’s' success is not just the responsibility of their guardians but everyone has a responsibility to love them and create a safer world. An example of Black women coming together to make a better world is Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Beyoncé revealed that part of the reason she wanted to make Lemonade was so that Blue Ivy and other Black girls like Blue Ivy could see their stories being told and see girls that look like them on television. The creation of Lemonade was not only an act of mothering in the sense that Beyoncé created a space for Blue Ivy to see herself, but she created an environment for almost all Black women and girls to thrive. There is one tenent of Black feminism that I did not touch on before, and that is building upon the women who came before. Black feminists often reach back into history to create connections to the struggles Black women faced in history to the struggles Black women face now. One Black feminist that connected to the theories presented in this paper is Audre Lorde. Lorde was quoted in Gumbs, Martens, and Williams book since she is a queer mother herself. Lorde has written on the topic of mothering and also on love, which is very important to mothering. Lorde was also quoted in Sister Citizen as she stated, "the masters tools will never dismantle the master's house." Harris-Perry also calls upon other advocates such as W.E.B. Du Bois in her book to examine the history of misrecognition. Barbara Smith's work on identity politics influenced both Sister Citizen and When Chicken Heads Come Home to Roost. Misrecognition is a great example of identity politics because it encompasses what it truly means to face the intersection of race and sexism. Morgan also explores the idea of approaching the intersection of sexism and racism as she grabbles with being a Black women and a hip-hop feminist.