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= Black Feminist Epistemology = Black Feminist Epistemology is the methods and processes used to validate knowledge from the standpoint of Black women in the United States. Epistemology is concerned with justifying and assessing what the world perceives as knowledge, and why certain things are accepted as "true."

Black feminist epistemology is among one of the many theories produced from the Black feminist movement. The Black feminist movement used Black feminist epistemology in their efforts to show that the location of Black women in the world does not reside in only the anti-racism movement or only the anti-sexism movement, and that Black women are located in different varying aspects of society that intersect and interact with each other. The term intersectionality, initially coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, combines these interacting aspects to provide theory and evidence of Black women's oppression. Black feminist epistemology relates directly to the Black feminist movement because the way in which Black women interpret the validity of knowledge plays into the specific ways that Black women are uniquely exploited within the variety of knowledge in the US.

In her book Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins dives into the theoretical framework of Black women's knowledge production, and specific forces that enforce Black women's subordination. According to Collins, historically, knowledge in the U.S. has been produced from a Eurocentric perspective, neglecting the processes of knowledge validation from various other populations. Black feminist epistemology contains a history of Black women's oppression within the epistemological values of the United States, within academia, and within its location in intersecting social facets. There are four main aspects that make up the infrastructure of Collins' Black feminist epistemology: (1) lived experience and personal narrative as a qualitative measurement for knowledge, (2) the Ethics of Caring that emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and validates emotions as central to knowledge production, (3) personal accountability that places importance on individual identity, background and biography, and (4) the necessity of dialogue as a means of producing knowledge.

Black feminist epistemology is an alternative system of answering the question: "How do we know what we know?" from the realities of a Black woman's perspective.

Black Feminism
Black feminist epistemology plays a central role in Black feminism and the unique forms of oppression faced by Black women through intersectionality. A key principle in the Black feminist movement was their dedication to the belief that fighting against just one form of oppression (for example, just racism or just sexism) was not enough to fight the entirety of oppression, which is rooted systematically throughout the United States - whether it be race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Their location in the intersection of the "mainstream white" feminist movement, but also the male-dominated anti-racism movement created a unique niche for which Black feminism used to address all forms of oppression.

Black Women's Location in Epistemology in the U.S. Academy
As mentioned above, epistemology refers to the philosophy of "how we know what we know" and what is accepted as true knowledge. In Western society, knowledge is produced through academia and universities. In order for knowledge to be considered "true," it must go through rigorous speculation and eventual approval from a board of experts. However, because higher education is dominated by elite white men, the knowledge that is produced must align with what these elite white men agree as knowledge, and must align with the priorities and unconscious biases of these men as well. This explicitly Eurocentric perspective on what is considered to be "true" neglects many other sources of knowledge, especially those of marginalized communities.

Academia in the United States is monopolized by those who are able to afford it - predominately white students. This could be explained by the myriad of Black communities who face poverty, or the consistent racial bias that plays into the Black populations everyday lives. However, because Black women are so excluded from higher education, it hinders the ability of academia to produce knowledge from a Black woman's perspective. Black women also often face job discrimination, which prevents them from excelling into positions of influence and leadership within the academy.

Lived Experience
In Patricia Hill Collins theory of Black feminist epistemology, lived experience is a critical source of knowledge. It is believed that if someone has experienced something, that person then has the authority to speak on that subject with great credibility. While individual differences and opinions are also highly prioritized in the Black community, speaking from personal narrative produces not only knowledge, but wisdom of how to deal with these subjects if and/or when someone else might experience a similar situation. Wisdom is more powerful than what is considered "knowledge" because wisdom teaches how to navigate through certain aspects of life, and essentially how to survive. Experiences reflect the realities of Black women where they are otherwise diluted or ignored. According to Uvanney Maylor, et.al., in social studies of Black communities in the US, "social stratification theories have traditionally negated Black women’s gendered (and racialised) experiences" and in many cases of literature, Black women's experiences have been rewritten to a more "respectable" form as a means to keep them continuously subjugated.

Ethics of Caring
The Ethics of Caring is a powerful tool used in Black feminist epistemology that validates knowledge through "emotion, expression and empathy". Often in Western production of knowledge, criteria for knowledge almost explicitly reject emotion, expression, and empathy as valid knowledge - Western knowledge production allows mainly objective, scientific, statistical evidence as proof for validating knowledge, which in turn is used to maintain "philosophical domination" and "thwart" the ideas created by oppressed populations. Individual uniqueness is highly respected in the Black community, allowing someones emotions to be validating as true to that individual, and respecting that we are all individual and unique to one another. Expressiveness is another key component. Believing in ones truth and emotions in expressing their experience marks them as very credible, and Black feminist epistemology looks to close the gap between intellect and emotion. Lastly, empathy is what helps believe in others and their truth. Empathy is what connects people in their experience and shares their knowledge. An example of this tenet is dominant in the work of Mothers Reclaiming Our Children, a political group that began as a group of mothers from South Central Los Angeles that came together through the wrongful imprisonment and police brutality against their children. They gathered and discussed their personal experiences, and gave one another support and tactics to help fight against the systematic oppression they faced.

Accountability
Accountability describes the emphasis on the individual. The accountability of an individual creates their perspective, hence why they believe what they believe. Accountability stresses the individuals background - their culture, home life, personal traumas, associations, morals, values, education, etc. This allows the listener to be more directly informed on why an individual believes what they believe and aids in illuminating biases. Once knowing the individuals background, it is easier to take away valid knowledge, and not knowledge based on personal opinion. Biases that come from individuals backgrounds affect, "understanding, intentionality, absence of alienating or controlling influence, and match between formally autonomous preferences or decisions and actual choices or actions." Accountability is essential not just in lived experiences, but in scholarship and academics that produce knowledge as well. According to Blumenthal-Barby, "our decisions and actions are always and unavoidably influenced to some extent" which can explain underlying biases that affect the scholarship produced that inhibits Black women, as well as provide context for lived experiences and personal narratives.

Dialogue
In Patricia Hill Collins take on Black feminist epistemology, dialogue highlights the importance of community in deciding valid knowledge. Orality is a large component to traditional African culture and extends into the practices of Black women today. Instead of having knowledge produced by one thinker, the knowledge claim is discussed by many, thereby challenging the validity by having multiple individuals and multiple perspectives debate varying positions. This is another tactic to prove credibility of where the knowledge claim came from, and thereby making the claim more dependable. This inclusive dialogue offers a more worldly perspective, and offers a broader audience a relationship with knowledge producers and others. According to Snjezana Bilic, producing knowledge from just one single standpoint can not encompass the realities of other marginalized women and that the "dialogic approach" encompasses, "all feminist (and other forms of democratic) politics being viewed as a form of coalition politics in which differences among women are recognized and given a voice, without fixating the boundaries of this coalition in terms of ‘who’ we are but in terms of what we want to achieve." Using dialogue creates a platform for Black women to produce knowledge that parallels their realities, but does not neglect individual truths.