Black Feminism Patricia Hill Collins

Black Feminism

Patricia Hill Collins outlines, defines, and defends black feminist thought. In "The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought," the author clarifies what black feminist thought is and how it is socially constructed. Collins also presents the main obstacles and challenges to black feminist ideology. And discourse the author also explores why black feminist thought is important to study, and how it can and should be independently valid. Prevailing approaches to the study of African-American female experience are inadequate and even harmful. One approach is that it is impossible to have a "valid independent interpretation of their own oppression," (224). Another insufficient approach to the study of the black female experience is that African-American women are "less human than their rulers and therefore less capable" of the types of deep scholarly analysis reserved for white males (224). Collins offers a radical rethinking of scholarship, which validates black feminist thought on its own terms.

First, Patricia Hill Collins provides a thorough and clear definition of what black feminist thought is, and is not. Black feminist thought is not thoughts about black females by whites; by definition, black feminist thought is self-referential and self-constructed. Collins asserts that the experiences and perspectives of the oppressed are qualitatively different from those in a more dominant positions.

Furthermore, the experiences of black females are wholly unique. Those experiences are also heterogeneous. Race and gender combine with social class and access to power to create a matrix of material existence. In spite of these differences, though, Collins maintains that there can be a collective black female identity and consciousness. African-American female identity refers to the shared body of experiences as well as a shared means of reflecting on and communicating those experiences. Moreover, the collective black female identity presupposes a shared way of reacting socially, politically, and personally to oppression.

Some of the shared elements that Collins identifies among African-American females include knowledge and experience of oppression; African and African-American culture and values; and methods of gathering knowledge. Here, Collins underscores the difference between wisdom and knowledge. The difference between wisdom and knowledge is indeed what separates black feminist thought from Eurocentric masculinism.

The difference between wisdom and knowledge also encapsulates the main obstacles towards achieving a scholastically-acceptable black feminist ideology. Expression and articulation are difficult from within oppressed communities. Only those with access to resources and tools of communication can find the means by which to gain acceptance in academia. Moreover, the European masculinist approach has a stranglehold on academia, determining criteria for acceptable scholasticism. Minority voices are marginalized, trivialized, or absorbed. The main irony for black females in academia is their having to straddle the line between everyday wisdom and the needs to find acceptance and validity in the academic community. Collins avows that everyday wisdom and specialized knowledge are interdependent. Black feminist thought can be socially constructed by blending the knowledge of everyday experience with the specialized discourse of academia. In fact, this blending of wisdom and knowledge can be channeled to create positive social change.

Finally, Collins outlines why black feminist thought is important. The social construction of black feminist thought begins with the everyday experience of oppression related to both gender and race and likely also to social class status. Black feminist thought is important in part because it has the potential to liberate. Solidarity created via black feminist discourse is empowering. The acknowledgment of a collective black female identity can lead African-American women to value rather than shun their identities and to embrace the fullness of their culture. Psychological empowerment is a precursor to economic and political empowerment. Empowerment ultimately does not depend on conformity to the predominant social institutions. Another reason why it is important to sustain black feminist thought is that this alternative discourse is the only means by which the voices of the oppressed may be heard. In the same way that empowerment means not having to participate in or condone white male institutions, black feminist ideology defines its own methodological tools. Those tools cannot rely on scholastic sources or the scientific method. A European-masculinist academic institution imposes positivism on all discourse. This shuts down valid voices offering personal opinion, immediate experience, narrative, and other means by which black women gather knowledge. Black females should not be using the tools of the oppressor to give voice to the oppressed.

Patricia Hill Collins explains what black feminist thought is, how it is socially constructed, and why it is important to academic integrity. Collins describes the methods that black feminist scholars use to explore the issues important to African-American women. The author also describes the methods by which ordinary black women communicate the issues that are meaningful to them. The crux of Collins' argument is that black feminist discourse is substantially different from mainstream academic discourse. While the two can coexist within academic institutions, it is important to define the experiences of oppressed populations using the tools, ideas, and values meaningful to that population.

I. What is black feminist thought?

1. experiences of pol and econ status are unique

2. this creates a "consciousness" -- shared body of experiences, shared means of reflecting on those experiences (hence shared way of reacting)

3. The dominant and subordinate positions are fundamentally difft -- don't impose a reality on the oppressed