User:Amandaaaaam/Black feminism

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*Peer reviewer, my edits are bolded and italicized.

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Black feminism, also known as Afro-feminism chiefly outside the United States, [DELETE] is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism also acknowledges the additional marginalization faced by black women due to their social identity. [DELETE SECOND SENTENCE]

Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that [Black women's] liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because of our need as human persons for autonomy." [DELETE]

According to Black feminism, race, gender, and class discrimination are all aspects of the same system of hierarchy, which bell hooks calls the "imperialist white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy." Due to their inter-dependency, they combine to create something more than experiencing racism and sexism independently. The experience of being a Black woman, then, cannot be grasped in terms of being Black or of being a woman but must be illuminated via intersectionality, a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. Intersectionality indicates that each identity—being Black and being female—should be considered both independently and for their interaction effect, in which intersecting identities deepen, reinforce one another, and potentially lead to aggravated forms of inequality.

A Black feminist lens in the United States was first employed by Black women to make sense of how white supremacy and patriarchy interacted to inform the particular experiences of enslaved Black women. Black activists and intellectuals formed organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Black feminism rose to prominence in the 1960s, as the civil rights movement excluded women from leadership positions, and the mainstream feminist movement largely focused its agenda on issues that predominately impacted middle-class White women. From the 1970s to 1980s, Black feminists formed groups that addressed the role of Black women in Black nationalism, gay liberation, and second-wave feminism. In the 1990s, the Anita Hill controversy brought Black feminism into the mainstream. [DELETE; BODY DOES NOT GO INTO DETAIL ABOUT THIS]Black feminist theories reached a wider audience in the 2010s as a result of social-media advocacy.

Proponents of Black feminism argue that Black women are positioned within structures of power in fundamentally different ways than White women. In the early 21st century, the tag white feminist gained currency to criticize feminists who avoid issues of intersectionality. '[Delete paragraph in order to make this Lead more concise. Because the second sentence is not discussed in the article's body/includes information that is not present in the article. The first sentence is previously stated/redundant]'

Among the notions that evolved out of the Black feminist movement are [DELETE] Alice Walker's womanism and historical revisionism with an increased focus on Black women.[page needed] bell hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Angela Davis, and Patricia Hill Collins have emerged as leading academics on Black feminism, while Black celebrities have encouraged mainstream discussion of Black feminism.

Organizations[edit]
Black feminist organizations faced some different challenges than other feminist organizations. Firstly, these women had to "prove to other Black women that feminism was not only for white women". They also had to demand that White women "share power with them and affirm diversity" and "fight the misogynist tendencies of Black Nationalism".

National Black Feminist Organization [New heading]

The National Black Feminist Organization was founded in 1973, and dissolved around 1977. This organization of women focused on the interconnectedness of the many prejudices faced by African-American women; stating that their mission was to define their self-image as Black women and not be rejected by white women. There were chapters in major cities, and the organization fought for political influence and raised consciousness about the abuse facing their communities. In 1975, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Cheryl L. Clarke, Akasha Gloria Hull, and other female activists tied to the civil rights movement, Black nationalism, or the Black Panther Party established, as an offshoot of the National Black Feminist Organization, the Combahee River Collective, a radical lesbian feminist group.

The Combahee River Collective
'The Combahee River Collective's founding text referred to important female figures of the abolitionist movement, such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Welles Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, president of the National Association of Colored Women founded in 1896. The Combahee River Collective opposed the practice of lesbian separatism, considering that, in practice, separatists focused exclusively on sexist oppression and not on other oppressions.'

 The National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) [New Heading]

'Many Black women fought for their rights to public institutions and benefits, and many were members of The National Welfare Rights Organization. The Aid To Dependent Children Program has received critiques. For example, in 1960s, eight five percent of ADC recipients in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were Black women, and the ADC instituted midnight raids. This resulted in it become harder for black women to receive aid. Furthermore, Johnnie Tillmon writes of her intersecting experience of being a black women on welfare, and how welfare policies, such as the ADC program, are sexist. Tillmon mentions how they are a part of starting the Guaranteed Adequate Income (GAI) plan, under the The National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) .'

 More Organizations [New Heading?] 


 * National Association of Colored Women (NACW)
 * National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)

Black feminist literature[edit]
Michelle Cliff believes that there is continuity "in the written work of many African American Women, ... you can draw a line from the slave narrative of Linda Brent to Elizabeth Keckley's life, to Their Eyes were Watching God (by Zora Neale Hurston) to Coming of Age in Mississippi (Anne Moody) to Sula (by Toni Morrison), to the Salt Eaters (by Toni Cade Bambara) to Praise Song for the Widow (by Paule Marshall).

Examples

 * 1970, Black Woman's Manifesto, published by the Third World Women's Alliance, argued for a specificity of oppression against Black women. Co-signed by Gayle Lynch, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Maxine Williams, Frances M. Beal, and Linda La Rue, the manifesto, opposing both racism and capitalism, stated that "the Black woman is demanding a new set of female definitions and a recognition of herself of a citizen, companion, and confidant, not a matriarchal villain or a step stool baby-maker. Role integration advocates the complementary recognition of man and woman, not the competitive recognition of same." Additionally, Toni Cade Bambara edited the eclectic volume The Black Woman: An Anthology (1970) which sought to "explore ourselves and set the record straight on the matriarch and the evil Black bitch." It featured now considered canonical essays, such as Frances Beal's "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female" and Toni Cade Bambara's "On the Issue of Roles."
 * 1979, Barbara Smith and Lorraine Bethel edited the Autumn 1979 issue of Conditions. Conditions 5 was "the first widely distributed collection of Black feminist writing in the U.S."
 * 1992, Black feminists mobilized "a remarkable national response" to the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas Senate Hearings in 1991, naming their effort African American Women in Defense of Ourselves.
 * 1994, Evelyn Hammonds: "Black (W)holes and The Geometry of Black Female Sexuality" Evelyn Hammonds begins her essay by reflecting, as a Black lesbian and feminist writer, on the "consistently exclusionary practices of lesbian and gay studies" [DELETE]that produce such problematic paucities as the presence of writers of color, articles written on Black women's sexuality by Black women that complexly examine race in representations of gender, and the visibility of Black lesbian experiences (Hammonds, 127). Hammonds articulates how Whiteness defines the canonical "categories, identities, and subject positions" of lesbian and gay studies and depends on maintaining and presupposing patterns of Black women and Black lesbian sexualities' invisibility and absence (Hammonds, 128).


 * 2000, Alice Walker: "In Search of Our Mothers Garden" This articulation is directly linked to Hammonds' concern about the visibility and audibility of Black queer sexualities, since Black women's sexualities are perceived as always invisible or absent, then lesbian and queer Black women and authors must follow as doubly invisible. While White sexuality as the normative sexuality has been challenged by other writers, Hammonds frames her intervention as reaching beyond the limits of this familiar critique. To effectively challenge the hegemony of Whiteness within Queer theory, Hammonds charges lack feminists with the major projects of reclaiming sexuality so that Black women and their sexualities may register as present and power relations between White women and Black women's expression of gender and sexuality becomes a part of theory making within Queer studies (Hammonds, 131).

 Call to Action: 
 * 2000, in her introduction to the 2000 reissue of the 1983 Black feminist anthology Home Girls, theorist and author Barbara Smith states her opinion that "to this day most Black women are unwilling to jeopardize their 'racial credibility' (as defined by Black men) to address the realities of sexism." Smith also notes that "even fewer are willing to bring up homophobia and heterosexism, which are, of course, inextricably linked to gender oppression."
 * 2011, Black Internationalist Feminism: Women Writers of the Black Left, 1945-1995 by Cheryl Higashida looks at Black women writers and their contributions to the feminist movement; specifically the Black feminist movement. Higashida "illustrates how literature is a crucial lens for studying Black internationalist feminism because these authors were at the forefront of bringing the perspectives and problems of black women to light against their marginalization and silencing." Included in her work are writers such as Rosa Guy, Lorraine Hansberry, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou.
 * 2014, On Intersectionality by Kimberlé Crenshaw. A collection of essays and articles that expand on defining the concept of intersectionality.

Angela Davis


 * Davis, Angela Y. Angel Davis--an autobiography Random House; 1974


 * Women, Race, & Class by Angela Davis (1981) writes about the history of Black women in the United States, and the intersection of women, race, and class.
 * Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis (2015) discusses the significance of prison abolition intersecting with feminism and racism. Davis explains the importance in being an active, lifelong activist.

Audre Lorde

Pat Parker
 * “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” (speech) (1977). Lorde discusses that speaking is a way to reclaim the racism that has been imposed upon Black women. This acknowledges the topic of direct activism, as Lorde advocates that when we actively communicate with different groups of people, we are actively fighting oppression.
 * 1978,“Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power '' Lorde writes that channeling love and power within ourselves is important since this will allow individuals to better connect with other people. Then, this will in turn bring people together and fight oppression, such as the oppression facing Black women.

The involvement of Pat Parker in the Black feminist movement was reflected in her writings as a poet. Her work inspired other Black feminist poets such as Hattie Gossett.

Carol Giardin

In 2018, Carol Giardian wrote an article, "Mow to Now: Black Feminism Resets the Chronology of the Founding of Modern Feminism", which explores Black women and their involvement with the organizing of the 1963 March on Washington (MOW). Particular focus is given to how this was pivotal to the shift of feminist organizing of the 1960s. Many activists are noted, including Dorothy Height, Pauli Murray, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman. Facing down powerful male figures of the Black church, they established feminist protest models that they subsequently used to inform the establishment of the National Organization for Women in 1966.

 Welfare Activism: 

'In 1972, Welfare Is a Women’s Issue in Ms. Magazine. Johhnie Tillmon writes their experiences as being a black women on welfare and critiques the current welfare policies and welfare politics at the time, mentioning Ronald Reagan and the Aid to Dependent Children Program (ADC).'

 Misogynoir: 

Other theorists and writers who have contributed to the literature of Black feminism include Moya Bailey and Trudy of Gradient Lair, who both write about the anti-Black and/or racist misogyny against Black women, also known as misogynoir, a term coined by Bailey in 2008. In 2018, both these women wrote an article named "On Misogynoir: Citation, erasure and plagiarism", which talks about the works of Black feminists often being plagiarized or erased from most literary works, also implicitly and sometimes explicitly linked to gender oppression, particularly for women of color.

Misogynoir is grounded in the theory of intersectionality; it examines how identities such as race, gender, and sexual orientation connect in systems of oppression. Modern-day Black activists, such as Feminista Jones, a feminist commentator, claim that "Misogynoir provides a racialised nuance that mainstream feminism wasn't catching" and that "there is a specific misogyny that is aimed at Black women and is uniquely detrimental to Black women."

 More Topics in Black feminist literature: 

'1989, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. This legal forum paper is regarded as where Kimberlé Crenshaw is the first person to officially coin the term intersectionality.'


 * The Encloypedia of African-American Women Writers (2007) and the Encloypedia of Feminist Literature (2006) list influential Black Feminist Literature.