the combahee river collective statement quizlet

More generally, Black men dominated the leadership of the organized Black left. [2]. The Combahee River Ferry, also called the Combahee River Raid, was a military operation that took place over the River Combahee, South Carolina, in 1863. It was the overlap of race, gender, and the aspirations to the comfort of a class that she poked around the edges of but could not ultimately break into. And every Black woman who came, came out of a strongly-felt need for some level of possibility that did not previously exist in her life. @B)UH3Qd`-2 HCY=\4D-' 2] endstream endobj 226 0 obj <> endobj 227 0 obj <> endobj 228 0 obj <>stream We have a great deal of criticism and loathing for what men have been socialized to be in this society: what they support, how they act, and how they oppress. We had a retreat in the late spring which provided a time for both political discussion and working out interpersonal issues. Combahee River Collective: Summary & History | StudySmarter We will discuss four major topics in the paper that follows: (1) the genesis of contemporary Black feminism; (2) what we believe, i.e., the specific province of our politics; (3) the problems in organizing Black feminists, including a brief herstory of our collective; and (4) Black feminist issues and practice. We now have language, we have an analysis of whats going on with the prison-industrial complex, with mass incarceration, with police brutality, with extrajudicial murderswe have that, and we have bases of operation, because there are definitely Black Lives Matter organizations in various cities around the country. She continued, But the question for me is: Whats next? The first was its effort to combine socialist politics with feminism. In its earliest iteration, Black feminism was assumed to be radical because the class position of Black women, overwhelmingly, was at the bottom of society. Equality of men and women is something that cannot happen even in the abstract world. We began functioning as a study group and also began discussing the possibility of starting a Black feminist publication. 1 / 2. Contemporary Black feminism is the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters. ability, experience or even understanding. Black womens extremely negative relationship to the American political system (a system of white male rule) has always been determined by our membership in two oppressed racial and sexual castes. Heres some of what has happened since they began. The material conditions of most Black women would hardly lead them to upset both economic and sexual arrangements that seem to represent some stability in their lives. Some images used in this set are licensed under the Creative Commons through Flickr.com.Click to see the original works with their full license. The overwhelming feeling that we had is that after years and years we had finally found each other. Still, hundreds of women have been active at different times during the three-year existence of our group. Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective They were also inspired by the national liberation and anti-colonial movements, from the Algerian struggle against the French occupation to the Vietnamese resistance to the American war. A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political. When we first started meeting early in 1974 after the NBFO first eastern regional conference, we did not have a strategy for organizing, or even a focus. 6-7. We were not being reductive, we were not being separatists, she said. 113, No. Before looking at the recent development of Black feminism we would like to affirm that we find our origins in the historical reality of Afro-American womens continuous life-and-death struggle for survival and liberation. In the case of Black women this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movements that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves. gave us the political tools to understand the difference between bottom-up and top-down politics, and their distorted manifestation in the identity politics of today. The C.R.C. The C.R.C. The C.R.C. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. The "second wave" feminist movement fought for body . The Combahee River Collective is devoted to fighting race, sex, and class oppression. Everything about themfrom whom you traveled with to what you atewas state determined. I havent the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white heterosexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary-vested-interest-power. . I had been a socialist since I was fourteen, and, in the groups that I had become active with, feminism was always painted as hostile to socialism. For example, we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being ladylike and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. ThePennsylvaniaMagazineofHistoryandBiography, Combahee River Collective Statement: A Fortieth Anniversary Retrospective, Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves, "One Great Bundle of Humanity": Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), Missing in Action Ida B. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We exists as women who are Black who are feminists, each stranded for the moment, working independently because there is not yet an environment in this society remotely congenial to our strugglebecause, being on the bottom, we would have to do what no one else has done: we would have to fight the world. Summary: The Combahee River Collective. Sociological analysis of social movements has progressed dialectically, each new theory building off and in contrast to what previously existed, whilst what previously existed is modified as newer theories bring up relevant new ideas. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like interlocking, manifold, inroads and more. 3, Why We Cant Wait: (Re)Examining the Opportunities and Challenges for Black Women and Girls in Education (Summer 2016), pp. As Smith put it, These people were looking at the situation and saying, What we have here is not working. demanded politics that could account for all, and not just aspects of their identity. As they put it, If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.. All Rights Reserved. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. mammy, matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bulldagger), let alone cataloguing the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, Indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western hemisphere. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, and thousands upon thousands unknownwho have had a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the focus of their political struggles unique. JSTOR, the JSTOR logo, and ITHAKA are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. 4. Material resources must be equally distributed among those who create these resources. 5, No. At an event in late April, 1979, Barbara Smith, with megaphone, protests nine murders of women of color that took place in the first months of the year. Equality of men and women is something that cannot happen even in the abstract world. If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression. 14, No. 50, No. (There was no refuge in Boston at that time.) we feel solidarity with progressive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. In our consciousness-raising sessions, for example, we have in many ways gone beyond white womens revelations because we are dealing with the implications of race and class as well as sex. Rr_||2=?|,f]a]IWrYWs~qH(OSn4b$ yV_IU{L]HJ>l#)r<1-a/ %}:f4&-4qIQ >zx /w\p @0P' hTmO0+i%T/tEFCh)4U{Pl0Y%sXjbI-*FAb5LK k1iQ"oe##xIiIsNeQv~6_cq= 2J#VDsY. A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, The Village Voice, 28 July 1975, pp. But her caution also betrays the hope and deep desire for radical change that all revolutionaries harbor. What is intersectionality, and what does it have to do with me? An example of this kind of revelation/conceptualization occurred at a meeting as we discussed the ways in which our early intellectual interests had been attacked by our peers, particularly Black males. As children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated differently. Although we are feminists and Lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. It was not until long after her death that I saw the composite portrait of a single Black mother, raising two kids with a bankruptcy scuttling her credit, a perpetually faulty car draining her bank account, and a broad network of family members to care for. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving correct political goals. Racism alone could not explain what killed my mother. we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being ladylike and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. My father left when I was two, and my mother took us to Dallas, where she worked as a reading specialist for the Dallas Independent School District. They fared no better in organizations led by white women, who, for the most part, could not understand how racism compounded the experiences of Black women, creating a new dimension of oppression. At the beginning of 1976, when some of the women who had not wanted to do political work and who also had voiced disagreements stopped attending of their own accord, we again looked for a focus. 3 (2017), pp. 16 minutes. As Angela Davis points out in Reflections on the Black Womans Role in the Community of Slaves, Black women have always embodied, if only in their physical manifestation, an adversary stance to white male rule and have actively resisted its inroads upon them and their communities in both dramatic and subtle ways. We decided at that time, with the addition of new members, to become a study group. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black womens lives as are the politics of class and race. They are, of course, even more threatened than Black women by the possibility that Black feminists might organize around our own needs. Smith told me, Im not convinced that, despite the millions of people who are out in the streets expressing that they are done with things as they areIm not convinced that that translates into a movement. Today, in the midst of the greatest wave of protest and social upheaval in more than a generation, books about racism, policing, and the Black Lives Matter movement top best-seller lists. We also decided around that time to become an independent collective since we had serious disagreements with NBFOs bourgeois-feminist stance and their lack of a clear politIcal focus. 384-401. [1] During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and . As an early group member once said, We are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women. We are dispossessed psychologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to struggle to change the condition of all Black women. It was our experience and disillusionment within these liberation movements, as well as experience on the periphery of the white male left, that led to the need to develop a politics that was anti-racist, unlike those of white women, and anti-sexist, unlike those of Black and white men. We must also question whether Lesbian separatism is an adequate and progressive political analysis and strategy, even for those who practice it, since it so completely denies any but the sexual sources of womens oppression, negating the facts of class and race. Accusations that Black feminism divides the Black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous Black womens movement. But we do not have the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per sei.e., their biological malenessthat makes them what they are. Many of us were active in those movements (Civil Rights, Black nationalism, the Black Panthers), and all of our lives Were greatly affected and changed by their ideologies, their goals, and the tactics used to achieve their goals. These were, in their view, the preconditions for a mass movement in which no ones issues were left behind. 13, No. Both are essential to the development of any life. In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work. The Revolutionary Practice of Black Feminisms We are not convinced, however, that a socialist revolution that is not also a feminist and anti-racist revolution will guarantee our liberation. Our development must also be tied to the contemporary economic and political position of Black people. The view is decidedly different from the top. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); We were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being ladylike and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. Black History Boston: Combahee River Collective | Boston.gov were not the first to break with white feminist and Black-nationalist organizations. 2-3, Hypatia, Vol. We also were contacted at that time by socialist feminists, with whom we had worked on abortion rights activities, who wanted to encourage us to attend the National Socialist Feminist Conference in Yellow Springs. This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever consIdered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. y~ ;`bz*,f-Fu\i To Jeanne Manford, it was just part of being a parent. But the radicality of Black womens politics was based on their position at the bottom. [2] Wallace, Michele. 3 (Autumn, 1980), pp. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political . As BIack women we find any type of biological determinism a particularly dangerous and reactionary basis upon which to build a politic. Here is the way male and female roles were defined in a Black nationalist pamphlet from the early 1970s: Any concept, once it is released into the world, can take on new meanings when confronted with new problems. As an early group member once said, We are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women. We are dispossessed psychologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to struggle to change the condition of all Black women. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face. In 1973, Black feminists, primarily located in New York, felt the necessity of forming a separate Black feminist group. Although we are in essential agreement with Marxs theory as it applied to the very specific economic relationships he analyzed, we know that his analysis must be extended further in order for us to understand our specific economic situation as Black women. We have arrived at the necessity for developing an understanding of class relationships that takes into account the specific class position of Black women who are generally marginal in the labor force, while at this particular time some of us are temporarily viewed as doubly desirable tokens at white-collar and professional levels. To be honest, I didnt know what to do with the Combahee Statement. We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. We have found that it is very difficult to organize around Black feminist issues, difficult even to announce in certain contexts that we are Black feminists. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. The group broke from the Boston chapter of the National Black Feminist Organization, and named themselves after a daring Union Army raid, led by Harriet Tubman, to liberate seven hundred and fifty enslaved people in South Carolina. I had seen my father harassed by police, in Cincinnati, Ohio, for jaywalking. A combined anti-racist and anti-sexist position drew us together initially, and as we developed politically we addressed ourselves to heterosexism and economic oppression under capItalism. The experiences of Black lesbians could not be reduced to gender, race, class, or sexuality. Mao Zedong: Reader, Librarian, Revolutionary? The work to be done and the countless issues that this work represents merely reflect the pervasiveness of our oppression. Problems in Organizing Black Feminists How do those who have been the objects of scientific study and medical experimentation become the agents or the producers of scientific knowledge? They envisioned coalition politics on the basis of mutual solidarity, including a commitment to the struggles against sexism, heterosexism, racism, class oppression, exploitation, and imperialism. Demita Frazier had been a member of the Black Panther Party in Chicago, right up until the Chicago police helped to assassinate the Panther leader Fred Hampton, in 1969. 27, No. Today, there is a small but influential Black political classa Black lite and what could be described as the aspirational Black middle classwhose members continue to be constrained by racial discrimination and inequality but who hold the promise that a better life is possible in the United States.
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