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Summaries 

Sojourner Truth- Aint I a Woman (1851): Sojourner Truth delivers this speech at a women’s convention in 1851. Her main idea is to challenge what rights the white men say women, and more specifically black women, get to have. She explains how she is a woman and she has been pushed past the limits in referencing her experiences while enslaved. This shows that she has never been treated delicately physically and emotionally like men say women should be treated.  

Patricia Hill-Collins – What’s in a Name? (1996): Collins starts off by explaining that Black Women have voices in their work, but wonder if people are even listening because they are accepted more than Black women themselves. Next, she touches on the term “womanism”. According to Alice Walker, “womanism” is interchangeable with “black feminism”. Collins takes note of womanism being rooted in the struggles of black women with racism and gender oppression, but also speaks on how it is constructed in opposition to the experiences of white women. This created the make up of black women as “womanists” and white women as “feminists”. As a result, the use of womanism here only addresses gender issues, as segregation through race is still prevalent. She also explains how the media portrays feminism as a white-women-only movement, and this has been the accepted view, segregated institutions like feminist organizations have come to develop. This is why the term “black feminism” has come to light to disrupt the racism present in feminism, despite it creating discomfort. This discomfort is from Black women because it pushes them to see their own views on women’s oppression and sexism. We are also asked to keep in mind by the author that the debated between womanism and black feminism is happening between privileged black women. Overall, womanism and feminism both have a lower view point in the hierarchy of society, giving them different angles on oppression that is not yet complete or privileged. 

Joan Morgan – When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: The F Word: The author was claimed by feminism long before she could claim it. She was influenced by all of the strong and powerful women around her who raised and inspired her in their spirit. When she got to college, this definition of feminism that she felt growing up is not what was shown by the white women. She felt that this form of feminism was truly not the white-women. It took a long time through formal education for her to learn about the voice of women of color and their battle as feminists. She wrote an article from a black woman’s point of view on a rape of white woman that happened in Central Park. She was confronted by many black men as being the feminists that she was met with her first years of college. Her response was a request for black men to fight sexism with the same passion that they battle racism with, since they were also accusing her of giving black men more blame for actions like the rape of white women. 

Kimberlé Crenshaw – The Urgency of Intersectionality.mp4: She starts with an exercise that reveals the point that society is aware of black men who have been killed and are well known by most members, but most are unaware of the black women who have had the same fate. This difference of the visibility of black woman in the movement for police brutality versus black men is significant because black women were never given a frame. They are a group that has fallen through the cracks and are not advocated for. She explains that she created intersectionality to show that things like racism, gender, and sexuality can all overlap and create different levels of social injustice. She gave an example of a black woman who was denied a job by an employer who said they hired black people and women individually, but in reality they did not hire black women specifically. Her name was Emma, and she fell in this intersection between race and gender, and the courts were unable to help her because it was not one or the other. Intersectionality brought awareness to how black women live, but it also tells us how they have died. We don’t know thier stories as well as we know the stories of their fallen brothers. When we do become aware of this intersectionality, we can begin to stand for these women, we can say their names, and we can make a change. 

Reflection

After reading/watching these articles and video I had many thoughts come to mind. I have heard the term feminism growing up, but I have never really knew a true definition of it. I have seen the type of feminism that Joan Morgan saw when she first came to college, but that is not the true form that I believe I align with, or want to align with. Growing up and going through the school system I do not think that the voice of black women is shared enough. It needs to be in the literature we are taught. We not only have to listen and accept their words, but we have to accept the black women themselves. After watching Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Ted Talk I feel more empowered to offer a voice, and I want to help take action to say the names of every black woman or person who has fallen through the cracks because of their characteristics in intersectionality. 

Questions

Why isn’t society focusing on intersectionality more? I feel like I was not as nearly educated on the subject of intersectionality as I was after this weeks articles and video, because I was taught about. 

What can those who are privileged do to draw attention to this intersectionality?