the combahee river collective statement quizlet

Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of Black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that sex should be a determinant of power relationships. 1-32, The Journal of African American History, Vol. 11, No. Instead, they argued that Black womenand all oppressed peoplehad the right to form their own political agendas, because no one else would. As BIack women we find any type of biological determinism a particularly dangerous and reactionary basis upon which to build a politic. We discovered that all of us, because we were smart had also been considered ugly, i.e., smart-ugly. Smart-ugly crystallized the way in which most of us had been forced to develop our intellects at great cost to our social lives. In the reality of organizing, these tensions manifested themselves in white womens desire to focus their organizing on abortion rights, while Black feminists argued for the broader framework of reproductive justice, which included the struggle against forced sterilizations of Black and brown women. When, in the early eighties, my mother got burned out from haggling with less qualified white male administrators and a fancy career that was going nowhere fast, she started a house-cleaning business. During our time together we have identified and worked on many issues of particular relevance to Black women. Black, other Third World, and working women have been involved in the feminist movement from its start, but both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself have served to obscure our participation. "w- d4bJeR|oEj ')IwLDc8="zJ 8X!. document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); JSTOR Daily provides context for current events using scholarship found in JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and other material. The women of the C.R.C. Get your fix of JSTOR Dailys best stories in your inbox each Thursday. Teaching with Reveal Digitals American Prison Newspapers Collection, Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, As Angela Davis points out in Reflections on the Black Womans Role in the Community of Slaves,. Even our Black womens style of talking/testifying in Black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. Vacations in the Soviet Union were hardly idylls spent with ones dearest. 4-5. While my father believed that a revolution was within the grasp of those who fought hard enough to make it happen, my mother, who had studied English, French, and Spanish in college, was finishing her doctorate and raising me and my brother. [3]. 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. We are not convinced, however, that a socialist revolution that is not also a feminist and anti-racist revolution will guarantee our liberation. I had seen my father harassed by police, in Cincinnati, Ohio, for jaywalking. Flashcards. We might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. Above all else, Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody elses may because of our need as human persons for autonomy. Henrietta Lacks and the Debate Over the Ethics of Bio-Medical Research, African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. As a result, many Black women felt shut out of directing those organizations, just as they felt that their experiences as Black women were ignored. Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol. It was one of, if not the first, documents to coin and define identity politics, and its descriptions of interlocking systems of oppression are integral to Kimberl Crenshaws concept of intersectionality. 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. Enter the Combahee River Collective. Black women were at the helm of the growing Black Lives Matter movement, and they, too, were gravitating to the politics of the C.R.C. Match. 3 (February 1974), pp. The influential Combahee River Collective statement, co-authored by Barbara Smith, expressed a radical, queer black feminist platform still relevant to expressions of black feminism today. Photograph by Ellen Shub / Courtesy the Estate of Ellen Shub. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. This intersectional group was created because there was a sense that both the feminist movement or civil rights movement didn't reflect the particular needs of Black women and lesbians. 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. Demonstrations following the murder of Floyd enter their third week. The Black feminist collectives 1977 statement has been a bedrock document for academics, organizers and theorists for 45 years. 239-249, Meridians, Vol. The statement is an important piece of feminist theory and description of black feminism (Balliet, pg. Statement Combahee River Collective We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. After a period of months of not meeting, we began to meet again late in the year and started doing an intense variety of consciousness-raising. We have tried to think about the reasons for our difficulties, particularly since the white womens movement continues to be strong and to grow in many directions. One issue that is of major concern to us and that we have begun to publicly address is racism in the white womens movement. 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. 3/4, THE 1970s (FALL/WINTER 2015), pp. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess anyone of these types of privilege have. . During the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary, she served as a surrogate for Bernie Sanders. 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. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving correct political goals. It celebrated the possibilities of a political coalition born out of solidarity among groups who recognized the need to be engaged in struggle. It is a foundational document in Black feminism, whose impact continues to be seen and felt . Our development must also be tied to the contemporary economic and political position of Black people. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. The C.R.C. Combahee River Collective: Summary & History | StudySmarter 1, No. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. 21-43, Meridians, Vol. 13, No. Summary: The Combahee River Collective. [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 . But my mothers experiences were altogether different. We have also done many workshops and educationals on Black feminism on college campuses, at womens conferences, and most recently for high school women. A Black feminist presence has evolved most obviously in connection with the second wave of the American womens movement beginning in the late 1960s. The sanctions In the Black and white communities against Black women thinkers is comparatively much higher than for white women, particularly ones from the educated middle and upper classes. She and my father met in high school, dated through college, and eventually landed in graduate school, at SUNY Buffalo, in the early nineteen-seventies. We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. What are the similarities between Truth's and the Combahee Collective's concerns? 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. Contemporary Black feminism is the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters. believed that another world was possible, one in which Black women, and thus all of humanity, were freed from systems of oppression and exploitation, as the result of a collective struggle that reached down to the roots of the problems we face. The view is decidedly different from the top. 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. 1977 Both Truth and Combahee River Collective 's readings are interesting . How One Mothers Love for Her Gay Son Started a Revolution. 100, No. 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. The Combahee River Collective Statement conceptualized the notion of intersectionalitythe idea that marginalization and oppression are experienced simultaneously in different, interlocking ways as a result of how systems of domination interact with people's identities. 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. A few years ago, Barbara Smith told me that she and her comrades believed that, by naming the group after the Combahee River Raid, they were both honoring Harriet Tubman and indicating that liberation required political action. As it was explained to me, feminists saw the world as divided between men and women and not between classes. Even our Black womens style of talking/testifying in Black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving correct political goals. 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. No one before has ever examined the multilayered texture of Black womens lives. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. 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. We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. [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 movements. ITHAKA. May 28-29, 1851 The Combahee River Collective, A Black Feminist Statement. The Strange Career of the Lady Possum of the New World, To Get Help for Sick Kids, Mothers Wrote to Washington, Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, About the American Prison Newspapers Collection, Submissions: American Prison Newspapers Collection. The Combahee River Collective formed in Boston, in 1974, during a period that regularly produced organizations that claimed the mantle of radical or revolutionary struggle. Many Black women have a good understanding of both sexism and racism, but because of the everyday constrictions of their lives, cannot risk struggling against them both. Terms in this set (20) interlocking. As Black feminists and Lesbians we know that we have a very definite revolutionary task to perform and we are ready for the lifetime of work and struggle before us. 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. In the statement, the authors described the concept of identity politics in the following way: We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody elses oppression. The psychological toll of being a Black woman and the difficulties this presents in reaching political consciousness and doing political work can never be underestimated. 1-17, Negro History Bulletin, Vol. 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. We just wanted to see what we had. In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. In A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion: Combahee River Collective Statement Analysis | ipl.org 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. As the statement read: We need to articulate the real class situation of persons who are not merely raceless, sexless workers, but for whom racial and sexual oppression are significant determinants in their working/economic lives. We have also done many workshops and educationals on Black feminism on college campuses, at womens conferences, and most recently for high school women. It made sense of her senseless death, just shy of the twenty-first century. To Jeanne Manford, it was just part of being a parent. 3/4, SOLIDARITY (FALL/WINTER 2014), pp. We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black womens lives as are the politics of class and race. We are socialists because we believe that work must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work and create the products, and not for the profit of the bosses. Mao Zedong: Reader, Librarian, Revolutionary? The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. There have always been Black women activistssome known, like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. I myself have found the Combahee Statement more compelling than ever. The Combahee River Collective Statement: Annotated !@9 .nosps5B{B>#@] 0qMpd 8|Fw |:bS1Z =0 endstream endobj 229 0 obj <>stream Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work. Both of these articles talk about black women 's rights in the 19 th and 20 th centuries talking about topics of racism and sexism . Many things have changed since the publication of the document, but many have not, and therein lies the problem that continues to pull people into the streets. The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we 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 that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. In describing the distinct experiences of Black women who were lesbians, they pioneered what would eventually become known as intersectionalitythe idea that multiple identities can be constantly and simultaneously present within one persons body. Tessa_Nunn. It was years before I pulled those different strands of my mothers life together. The CRC made two key observations in their use of identity politics. I first encountered the Combahee River Collective Statement in a women's-studies class, my second year of college at SUNY Buffalo. All of this stood in stark contradiction to what, as a young person, I had understood feminism to be. 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. These were, in their view, the preconditions for a mass movement in which no ones issues were left behind. In the introduction these women state that "The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. Thats right out of the Black feminist playbook.. Thus, the women of the C.R.C believed that, if Black women were successful in their struggles and movements, they would have an impact far beyond their immediate demands. Identity politics originated from the need to reshape movements that had until then prioritized the monotony of sameness over the strategic value of difference. To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough. 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. No one had the right to strip socialism and its rootedness in collectivity, democracy, and human fulfillment from Black women, or the Black radical tradition. There is also undeniably a personal genesis for Black Feminism, that is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal experiences of individual Black womens lives. 52-71, Feminist Studies, Vol. 4, No. It is a foundational document in Black feminism, whose impact continues to be seen and felt throughout US political life today. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess anyone of these types of privilege have.

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