Black Feminist Thought:
Resisting and Transforming the
“White Women’s Movement”
Maggie Powers
12/9/2013
Both the First and Second Wave Feminist Movements have been characterized as “white
women’s movements” because of its primary focus on issues affecting white, middle-class,
educated women. Women’s liberation was, and is still in part seen, as an exclusionary
movement towards women of color. As a form of resistance, women of color developed critiques
of the feminist movement and an analysis of interlocking systems of oppression. In particular,
Black feminist thought challenges the feminist notion that all women share a similar experience.
Black feminist thought looks at the different experiences of women based on race, class, sexual
orientation, religion, nationality, etc. The Combahee River Collective, Audre Lorde, and Patricia
Hill Collins were all essential in the creation and development of Black feminist thought. In
more recent years, a younger generation of Black feminists continue to analyze race and the
feminist movement as told in various narratives in Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on
Today’s Feminism. It was not until the 1980s that white feminist women began to recognize the
racism within their own lives and within the feminist movement. White feminist, antiracist
activists such as Ruth Frankenberg, Stephanie M. Wildman and Adrienne D. Davis, and Peggy
McIntosh have been crucial in calling white feminist women to recognize the racism in their own
lives and within the feminist movement. Interwoven together, Black feminist thought and “white
woman feminism” has the ability to create a new era of feminism – an intersectional,
multicultural feminist movement that resists and challenges whiteness, sexism, and other systems
of domination.
In response to the feminist and anti-racist movements of the 1960s and 70s, Black feminists
developed a politics that was “antiracist, unlike those of white women, and antisexist, unlike
those of Black and white men” (Combahee, 645). The Black women who formed National Black
Feminist Organization (NBFO) came to understand that the feminist movement and the anti-
racist struggle as exclusionary movements. The movements ignored Black women’s life-anddeath struggle for survival and liberation. In one of the earliest collectives of Black feminism, the
Combahee River Collective was formed to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions
that all women of color face. The Combahee River Collective is a Black feminist group who
“are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression
and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the
fact the major systems of oppression are interlocking” (644). The group is known for the “A
Black Feminist Statement” which analyzes interlocking systems of oppression, contemporary
black feminism, and the problem in organizing black feminists.
“A Black Feminist Statement” is imperative in outlining the interlocking and intertwining
systems of oppression and affirming the humanness of Black women. The statement” was
inspired by the “shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a
necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s but because of our need as human persons for
autonomy” (646). In response to perpetual dehumanization, Black women find empowerment
through a collective movement of those who are both Black and woman. The collective of Black
women “realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our
liberation is us” (646). The Combahee River Collective is powerful because it affirms the
humanness of Black women. The movement analyzes the interlocking systems of oppression,
specifically highlighting the political-economic systems of capitalism. The collective states, “We
realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessities the destruction of the political
economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy” (647). All too often, the
critique of capitalism is absent from the feminist movement.
One of the major issues that the Combahee River Collective confronts is the racism in the
“white women’s movement.” The statement declares, “As Black feminists we are made
constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and
combat their racism” (651). Black feminists express their frustration with the feminist movement
as a movement to only empower white women. Their existence and experience as Black women
is constantly ignored. Although the Combahee River Collective acknowledges that eliminating
racism in the white women’s movement is work for white women to do, they commit to
continually speaking to and demanding accountability on this issue. “A Black Feminist
Statement” is one of the earliest pieces that acknowledges the interlocking systems of oppression
and calls out racism within the feminist movement. Their declaration “A Black Feminist
Statement” has inspired other Black feminists including Audre Lorde and Patricia Hill Collins.
In “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Redefining Difference,” author Audre Lorde examines how
difference is named and used. Her unique social position of being “a forty-nine-year-old Black
lesbian feminist socialist mother of two including one boy, and a member of an interracial
couple” allows Lorde to understand the reality of difference (553). She details,
“Certainly there are very real differences between us of race, age, and sex. But it is not those
differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those
differences, and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their
effects upon human behavior and expectation” (554).
There exist real, material differences between individuals based on race, gender, class, and
sexual preference. Yet, it is not our differences that divides us but our refusal to recognize the
differences. In ignoring the realities of difference, we in turn dehumanize those who are different
and label them as deviant.
Similar to the Combahee River Collective, Lorde critiques white women for focusing on
their oppression as women and ignoring the differences of race, sexual preference, class, and age.
Lorde warns that this ignoring the reality of difference is dangerous. She details, “As white
women ignore their built-in privilege of whiteness and define woman in terms of their own
experience alone, then women of Color become “other,” the outsider whose experience and
tradition is too “Alien” to comprehend” (555). White women have defined womanhood by their
own experiences without recognizing the privilege of their whiteness. As Lorde describes, white
women view their race as neutral and, in turn, name the experience of women of color as “other.”
“Refusing to recognize difference makes it impossible to see the different problems and pitfalls
facing us as women,” Lorde writes (556). Blinded by their privilege, white women disregard
Black women’s reality of being both Black and a woman in a white supremacist, patriarchal
society. Rather than recognizing difference, white women attempt to blanket the women’s
movement by claiming that all women hold a common experience. Lorde describes, “The need
for unity is often misnamed as a need for homogeneity” (557).
Lorde acknowledges the unique challenges that white women face. She details, “White
women face the pitfall of being seduced into joining the oppressor under the pretense of sharing
power…For white women there is a wider range of pretended choices and regards for identifying
with patriarchal power and its tools” (556). White women hold a unique position of being both
white and a woman. Although they are oppressed as women, white women are privileged by
their whiteness. Whereas white woman are presented with more freedom and privilege because
of their whiteness per se, Black women are simultaneously oppressed by their race and gender.
Lorde illuminates the perpetual violence that Black women face. She details, “Black woman and
our children know the fabric of our lives is stitched with violence and with hatred, that there is to
rest” (556). To further a social justice movement that is both anti-racist and anti-sexists, Lorde
encourages us to recognize the oppressor within ourselves. “For we have, built into all of us, old
blueprints of expectation and response, old structures of oppression, and these must be altered at
the same time as we alter the living conditions which are a result of those structures. For the
master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (559). Lorde reminds us that breaking
free from the oppressor within ourselves requires us to understand intersectional identities and
rethink difference.
In Patricia Hill Collins’ visionary work “Defining Black Feminist Thought,” she defines
more than Black feminist thought, but additionally explores what constitutes Black feminist
thought, who can be a Black feminist and what a Black women’s standpoint is. She expresses
that Black feminism cannot exists without African-American women. Black intellectuals –
Angela Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker – are critical for the development of Black
feminist thought because (1) African-American women provide us with a unique perspective on
Black womanhood unavailable to other groups who are not Black and not female; (2) Black
intellectuals provide distinctive leadership for Black women’s empowerment and resistance; and
(3) Black intellectuals are critical to create group autonomy which proceeds coalitions with other
groups. Although other individuals of different backgrounds can further its development and
advocate Black feminist thought, Collins emphasizes that Black feminist thought cannot exist
without African-American women.
Black feminist thought, defined by Collins, is a blend of “theories or specialized thought
produced by African-American women intellectuals designed to express a Black women’s
standpoint” (242). A Black women’s standpoint are “those experiences and ideas shared by
African-American women that provide a unique angle of vision on self, community, and
society,” (243). Black women’s experiences are bound together by the common experience of
living in a society that systemically oppresses women of African descent. Collins writes, “In
spite of difference created by historical era, age, social class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, the
legacy of the struggle against racism and sexism is a common thread binding African American
women” (244). Collin’s emphasizes that it is a Black women’s standpoint, rather than a Black
woman’s standpoint. There exists a variety of experiences among African-American women due
to the multitude of social locations; however, there also exists a shared experience among Black
women because of their racial and gender identity. African-American women as a group
experience life differently than those who are not Black and not female. It is imperative for
Black women’s survival to create an articulated, self-defined, collective standpoint of their
reality. Collins quotes Lorde who powerfully states, “If we do not define ourselves for ourselves,
we will be defined by others – for their use and to our detriment,” (247). Collins empowers
black women to produce a collective standpoint and analysis of interlocking oppressions.
One of the most important aspects of Black feminist thought that Collins brings
awareness to is its commitment to a humanistic vision. Black feminist thought is a part of a wider
struggle for human dignity, empowerment, and liberation. Collins identifies the humanist vision
as the primary guiding principle of Black feminism. Feminist, activist, and author, Alice Walker
describes herself as a “womanist,” one who is “committed to the survival and wholeness of entire
people, male and female,” (256). Black feminist thought encompasses the humanist/womanist
perspective, which advocates for a commitment to human solidarity and the oneness of all
human life. Feminists of all color must expand their definition of feminism as a struggle of
“eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates Western culture on various levels – sex,
race, and class to name a few,” as stated by bell hooks (257). Collin’s vision of Black feminist
thought is an essential aspect of the feminist movement because of its commitment to a
humanist/womanist vision.
Patricia Hill Collins writes, “This connection between experience and consciousness that
shapes the everyday lives of all African-American women pervades the works of Black women
activists and scholars” (246). Essentially, Black women’s activism and theory is born form Black
women’s experience and consciousness. In Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today’s
Feminism, the anthology portrays a feminism that reflects a “theory in the flesh” similar to what
Collins describes. As Cherrie Moraga defines, “theory of the flesh” is a “strategy for women’s
liberation is wrought from the living example of female labor and woman acts of loving” (xii).
Colonize This! is a collection of narratives from the perspective of women of color and the role
of feminism in their lives. In Siobhan Brooks narrative “Black Feminism in Everyday Life: Race,
Mental Illness, Poverty, and Motherhood,” she describes the reality of interlocking systems of
oppression in her life growing up in San Francisco, raised by a mentally ill, yet functional singlemother. Despite growing up in the progressive Civil Rights era of the 1960s and 70s, Brooks’ life
was characterized by injustices, suffering, and systemic abuses. She details,
“Suffering and systemic abuse in communities of color was so normalized. We often didn’t
even know we were oppressed. Some of us though suffering was just a part of being Black.
To have access to health care, good education, healthy food, and safe and affordable housing,
to have aspirations and a desire to improve one’s mental and physical health was often seen
as “white” (108).
Books’ experience of being Black and a woman gave her a unique perspective of the world.
In her narrative, Brooks describes her isolating experience studying Women’s Studies at
San Francisco State University as one of only a few students of color in the program. She
describes the women’s studies program as an “institutionalized version of white privilege” (118).
She details, “When race was discussed, at least one white woman would start crying out of
guilt…I felt that these crying spells frequently functioned to mask white women’s racism about
issues affecting women of color” (110). In her experience as a Women’s Studies student, Brooks
recognized the extent of white privilege among white women and the feminist movement. In one
instance, she describes that when reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved a white students as “Why are
we reading about Black people? I thought this was a women’s studies class” (111). Similarly to
what Lorde expressed in “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Redefining Difference,” white women often
do not see Black women as women. Rather, womanhood is defined exclusively by their
experience of being a white woman. Narratives of everyday feminism, like Brooks’ piece, are
important in developing Black feminist thought. As Collins wrote, experience informs theory,
and the experience of Black women is essential in understanding the intersections of gender and
race.
The 1980s was a decade in which white feminist women began to confront the critique of
white feminism racism by feminist/radical women of color. In an excerpt from White Women,
Race Matters, author Ruth Frankenberg analyzes how race shapes white women’s lives and how
white women reproduce racism within the feminist movement. She details that race shapes white
women’s lives just as people of color live racially structured lives. Frankenberg calls this
“whiteness” and defines it in three parts, “First, whiteness is a location of structural advantage, of
race privilege. Second, it is a “standpoint,” a place from which white people look at ourselves, at
others, and at society. Third, “whiteness” refers it a set of cultural practices that are usually
unmarked and unnamed” (333). Whiteness functions on various different levels, however, it
often goes unnamed and unrecognized similar to other privileged identities. To challenge white
women racism in the feminist movement, Frankenberg seeks to explore, map, and examine the
terrain of whiteness.
Frankenberg challenges the notion that racism is absent from the construction of white
women’s lives. She explains, “Calling the project a study of white women and racism marked
out the set of concerns that motivated me to begin it, namely, emphasizing that racism was and is
something that shapes white women’s lives. Rather than something that people of color have to
live and deal with in a way bears no relationship or relevance to the lives of white people” (337).
Whiteness is constructed in a way that white people do not acknowledge the prevalence of
whiteness and race in their life. Frankenberg argues that this is problematic because it disengages
white feminist women from the anti-racism movement. She details, “We tend to view it as an
issue that people of color face and have to struggle with, but not as an issue that generally
involves or implicates us…With this view, white women can see antiracist work as an act of
compassion for an “other,” an optional, extra project but not one intimately and organically
linked to our lives” (337). For white women, it is essential that they reexamine the way race
functions in their everyday life. In understanding the implications of racism in their own lives,
white women can then see antiracist work not as an “extra project” but essential to their own
lives. Frankenberg names whiteness so as to “emphasize that dealing with racism is not merely
an option for white people – that, rather, racism shapes white people’s lives and identities in a
way that is inseparable from other facets of daily life” (337). Frankenberg challenges white
feminist women to examine how whiteness shapes their lives in order to create a multicultural
feminist movement for the 21st century.
In the last few decades, white women have begun to bridge the gap between sexism and
racism. White women have made significant strides in confronting their racial privilege. Take for
instance, Stephanie M. Wildman and Adrienne D. Davis in “Language and Silence: Making
Systems of Privilege Visible.” In the article, the two women analyze the “-ism” language –
racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, etc. They argue that the -ism language is problematic,
“Calling someone racist individualizes the behavior, ignoring the larger system within which the
person is situated…it lays blame on the individual rather than the forces that have shaped that
individual and the society that the individual inhabits” (657). Wildman and Davis argue that the
term “racist” and “sexist” ignores the institutional structures that support such behavior. While
placing blame on the individual, -isms ignore the larger systems of oppression at play. The -ism
language ignores that an individual can be both part oppressor and oppressed. They details, “for
example, white women, having an –ism that defines their condition –sexism- may not look at the
way they are privileged by racism. They have defined themselves as one of the oppressed” (658).
Thus, it is problematic because it blinds white women from their racial privilege.
Wildman and Davis emphasize the importance of intersectionality in revealing the
coexistence of privilege and subordination identities in a single being. Intersectionality is
important because “justice requires seeing the whole person in her or his social context” (662).
The –ism language creates categories, segments and obscures our vision of the whole.
Intersectionality is important in naming interlocking systems of oppressions. As Wildman and
Davis write, “Once the hierarchy is made visible the problems remain no less complex, but it
becomes possible to discuss them in a more revealing and useful fashion” (662). Finding the
vocabulary to talk unmask privilege is necessary to end subordination. They continue by calling
out their own white privilege detailing, “I simply believe that no matter how hard I work at not
being racists, I still am. Because part of racism is systemic, I benefit from the privilege that I am
struggling to see” (661). They acknowledge that privilege is more than individual; it is
institutional and systemic. In it many forms, Wildman and Davis acknowledge that a
“characteristic of privilege is that member of privileged groups experience the comfort of opting
out of struggling against oppression if they choose” (659). For too many years, white women
have opted out of the anti-racism movement. Women’s liberation was more important, many
white feminists thought. However, Wildman and Davis challenge white women to recognize
their racial privilege and bridge gaps between the anti-sexism and anti-racism movements.
In a personal account, Peggy McIntosh analyzes the extent of her own white privilege in
“White Privilege and Male Privilege,” which provides an important foundation for other white
feminist women to examine their own white privilege. She details, “As a white person, I realized
I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but not had been
taught to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage” (317).
As a women’s studies professor, McIntosh studied how men are advantaged and women, in turn,
disadvantaged. However, as a white person, she describes how she never realized she was
privileged because of her whiteness. She explains, “I think white are carefully taught not to
recognize white privilege, as males are taught to recognize male privilege” (317). Privilege
identity often goes unmasked, unnamed, and unrecognized. McIntosh defines white privilege as
“an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which
I was “meant: to remain oblivious” (318). In recognizing her privilege, McIntosh is inspired to
challenge the system that privileges white individuals over people of color.
She counts the ways in which white individuals enjoy unearned skin privilege totaling a
list of forty-six different privilege. Examples include: cultural and ethnic representation in
curricular materials; shopping in a store without being followed by store detectives; being told
that people of her color made American “civilization” what it is; publishing a piece on white
privilege; being in the company of people of their own race most of the time; not needing to
educate their children to be aware of systemic racism for their daily protection; and purchasing
band aids the same color of their white skin (319-22). These privileges are afforded to white
individuals and those who can “pass” as white. McIntosh expresses that white privilege is an
unearned advantage, like the many other advantaging systems of class, physical or mental ability,
sexual preference, nationality, and religion.
Acknowledging white privilege can be a difficult task in which McIntosh likens it to men
acknowledging male privilege. Whiteness is cloaked in obliviousness. McIntosh describes,
“After I realized, through faculty development work in Women’s Studies, the extent to
which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood to which men
work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of the
oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women
of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive” (319).
In comparing her white privilege to male privilege, McIntosh could begin to unveil the ways in
which she had been privileged by her whiteness. She goes further in acknowledging the effects
of her ignorance had in isolating and oppressing women of color. Upon recognizing her privilege
as a white individual, McIntosh writes, “Describing white privilege makes one newly
accountable” (327). It is not enough that we simple recognize our privilege, but, in addition, we
need to commit to transforming the system of racial inequality. McIntosh poses the question,
“What will we do with such knowledge?” (327) This question is an important question white
feminist need to ask themselves as they commit to an intersectional feminist movement.
In an act of resistance, Black feminist thought critiques sexism, racism and other systems
of domination. It formed as an act of resistance from the feminist movement who did not see
Black women as women. Intertwining the works of Black feminists and white feminists reveal
the past and present problems facing the feminist movement, how race shapes the lives of white
women, and how racism is reproduced within the feminist movement. In more recent decades,
white feminist women have been holding white women accountable for their racism and
unacknowledged racial privilege. Black feminism named the interlocking systems of oppression
which is an essential approach within the feminist movement. Borrowing from Patricia Hill
Collins humanist approach, feminist of the 21st century is more than ending gender inequality.
Rather it is a movement to end all systems of oppression. Without committing to antiracism
work, feminism would be incomplete in its struggle for liberation. In “Age, Race, Class, and
Sex,” Audre Lorde’s poem is inserted at the end. Lorde writes,
“We have chosen each other
and the edge of each other’s battles
the war is the same
if we lose
someday women’s blood will congeal
upon a dead planet
if we will
there is no telling
we seek beyond history
for a new and more possible meeting” (560).
A new and more possible is meeting is in our midst, but can only possible if we can bridge the
gaps between our struggles.
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