Black Feminist (Womanist)

 

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“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender” -Alice Walker

What’s scary about the word Feminism is that at some point it’s not directed to empower women of color. Just the word Feminism ignores race, which can and will cause discrimination. From the very beginning of women fighting for the right to vote, Black women were not included. When a slave master raped an African slave woman, the head mistress didn’t view the slave woman’s body as being violated, and did not recognize her pain as a human- let alone a woman. The head mistress despised the slave woman for getting her husband’s affections. Twisted, right?? In 1913, Alice Paul put together a march in which she did not want African American women to be a part of because she would lose the support of the women of the south (allegedly).

Even though we are all women, our struggle is different. Black Feminism argues that “sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together. The way these relate to each other is called intersectionality.” Technically, the liberation of Black women would be the ultimate freedom for all people since it tackles racism, sexism, and class oppression.

It seems as if the struggles of Black women often go unnoticed, or better yet- ignored. While Feminists are fighting for equal pay, Black Feminists are fighting to make the same pay as their White counterparts. Alice Walker coined the term Womanist opposed to feminist. She believed it was more fitting for Black Women, and it was a way to speak about gender issues without attacking Black men. I have come across many comments from men, posts, blogs, etc. that consider themselves Afro-Centric, however they do not accept Black Feminism.

I recently had an African American man tell me that “Feminism is not my struggle,” and that “You should be focused on Civil Rights and Human Rights.” My first thought immediately took me to Sojourner Truth’s “Aint I a woman?” I was more concerned with how he could tell me what my struggle is and what I should be focused on. We as Black Feminists (Womanists) need the same public and private support that we consistently show our Black men.
Black Feminism is not a trade off for acceptance. It’s a right, it’s a movement, it’s a mind set, and it’s a lifestyle! You cannot consider yourself Afro-Centric if you don’t believe that your sister, wife, or daughter (Queens) has the right to be in control of themselves. How can you consider yourself Afro-Centric if you don’t believe that Black women deserve to be treated as your equal and not as an object to be controlled? In my mind, when I hear or read these things, it makes me think of the European views of women that have been pressed upon us as order or just the way things are “supposed to be.” Your Queen can still love and respect you all while being a Black Feminist. It’s not an exchange. It’s more of balance and understanding.

Black women deserve to be recognized for their intelligence, dignity, pride, self-respect, hard work, and power. We do not deserve to be degraded, displaced, discriminated against, and/or punished by lack of opportunity or willingness to help because some of us come from less fortunate backgrounds.

When Feminists can relate and acknowledge the ongoing struggle of Black Feminists (Womanists), maybe then I won’t be so nervous about Feminism.

5 thoughts on “Black Feminist (Womanist)

  1. It’s crazy how we have to fight the feminists system, or oppression from White women, and by fight I mean, tell them why many of their actions and movements don’t really include us. AND have to fight oppression from Black men. How did that man NOT realize that he was trying to control you by telling you what you SHOULD be worried about, by telling you what fight YOU should be fighting. Great piece.

    1. We are just left out so it seems. We fall into so many categories. I don’t think he cared that he was trying to control me to be honest. He was just saying what ge felt. Thank you for your comment.

  2. I truly believe that the key to restoring the black community starts and ends with the restoration of the black woman. The black woman in America is looked at with little or in allot of cases no value. In turn this created a culture of black men, women, and children with little or no value. The woman is the root of a family tree if that root is sick or poisoned the trunk of the tree (man) cannot be nourished and the fruit of the tree (children) will grow rotten. The children of America look at the images of the black women, the struggle, and the treatment the black women is subject to and adopt these images as what that think they should be, they accept the treatment because they learned how to accept it through watching the struggles of women before them. The feminist movement is about social, economic, political, and legal rights. While the need of the black women is simply to be recognized and valued as a living breathing human being that deserves to be protected, loved, and respected.

    1. You absolutely nailed it. Wanting our value as women and our struggle to be recognized seems like the ultimate challenge. Society and the media are really killing us with these negative portrayals of African American women. Thank you so much for your comment.

  3. Tupac said it best;

    “Time to heal our women, be real to our women/And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies/That will hate the ladies, that make the babies”

    Unfortunately, this has happened. We now have to stand strong to fight for whats ours, equality.

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