Black Feminist Thought: A History of Alienation and Distinction

Introduction: A Unique Form of Alienation

Several distinctions abound in Black feminist thought that differentiate it from virtually every other type of feminist theory, as well as from traditional patriarchal notions of social organization. The historical accounting of Black women's experiences plays a large role in shaping their ideologies. Whether originally from Africa, the Caribbean, or parts of Asia (Carby, 1982, p. 212), Black women have endured a level of subjugation that cannot be neatly stratified into the typical categories by which social, ethnic, or economic groups are usually classified. Whether held in bondage in America, sexually or socially repressed across various African countries, or condescended upon during their initial arrival in England and other parts of Europe, Black women have confronted a systematic repression grounded in race, gender, and class.

These conditions are compounded by the virtual omission of Black women — both their struggles and their triumphs — from both conventional and alternative historical accounts. This aggregate disenfranchisement, arising from racism, sexism, and classism, combined with a near-total absence from the annals of history until relatively recently, has fostered a profound sense of alienation — from Caucasian men, from men of African descent, and from both heterosexual and homosexual Caucasian women. That alienation is the chief distinction of Black feminist thought.

Racial Subjugation and the Distance from White Feminism

Such isolation is visible across a variety of texts that articulate Black women's feminist aspirations. The distinction of racial subjugation is readily apparent in many of these accounts, as well as in the frequently grim consequences such subjugation has historically visited upon Black women. Audre Lorde's "An Open Letter to Mary Daly" underscores the alienation Black women feel from their white feminist counterparts most effectively in the following passage:

"…differences expose all women to various forms and degrees of patriarchal oppression, some of which we share, and some of which we do not. For instance, surely you know that for non-white women in this country, there is an 80% fatality rate from breast cancer; three times the number of necessary eventurations, hysterectomies and sterilizations as for white women; three times as many chances of being raped, murdered or assaulted as exist for white women. These are statistical facts, not coincidences nor paranoid fantasies (Lorde, 1979, p. 97)."

Implicit in this quotation is the sense of isolation that Lorde remarks upon in several instances, not the least of which is found in the listing of statistics comparing medical complications — hysterectomies and sterilizations — as well as sociological harms, alluded to as rape, murder, and assault, between Black and white women in the United States. Although it is possible to read the final sentence in a sardonic register, the social isolation these occurrences produce is evident there as well. The fact that Lorde clarifies that the preceding statistics describe actual occurrences rather than "paranoid fantasies" suggests she is anticipating a counterargument from Daly, or from any other non-Black reader, and is working to substantiate the point that the risks Black women live with are not fully comprehended by others — or, if comprehended, not fully regarded as they should be. This lack of regard and comprehension only deepens the isolation between Black women and other groups.

Class, Economic Dependency, and the Ideology of Femininity

The isolation from other feminists and from traditional patriarchal categories is further exacerbated by distinctions of class. In purely economic terms, one of the primary tenets of Eurocentric feminism holds that the family structure is a chief source of repression because it leaves women financially dependent on their husbands (Carby, 1982, p. 214). Yet in a system whose racial inequalities subject Black men as well as Black women, such a concern does not translate straightforwardly to the Black woman's experience, as the following quotation makes clear:

"The use of the concept of 'dependency' is also a problem for Black feminists. It has been argued that this concept provides the link between the 'material organization of the household, and the ideology of femininity.' How then can we account for situations in which black women may be heads of households, or where, because of an economic system which structures high black male unemployment, they are not financially dependent upon a black man? This condition exists in both colonial and metropolitan situations (Carby, 1982, p. 215)."

The distinction between Black and Eurocentric feminism is sufficiently evidenced here. Carby offers more than one example of common situations in which there is no occasion for Black women to develop a "dependency" on Black men. Yet the greater significance of this passage lies in its allusion to the ideology of femininity — the set of values women are expected to embody — and to their maternal role as organizers of households. Since Carby notes that the conception of dependency on a man connects these two ideas, and also shows that such dependency often does not exist for Black women, the resulting implications regarding the perceived femininity of Black women are exposed as well. While white women are frequently cast as the embodiment of the sexual and feminine values their society prizes (Carby, 1982, p. 212), a central concern of Black feminism is that this idealization does not extend to Black women — a reality that Sojourner Truth articulates with unmistakable force:

"I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man — when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman (Carby, 1982, p. 214)?"

Truth's point is both eloquent and central to one of the primary distinctions of Black feminist thought — one that further separates it not only from other feminist groups but from any socio-ethnic community of men. By often having to labor as hard as a man (quite literally during the era of chattel slavery to which Truth's words allude), and by being objectified sexually for purposes of pleasure, breeding, and economic utility, the femininity of Black women is repeatedly denied, disavowed, and dismissed by those outside her community. That it does still exist, and that Black women suffer in spite of it, is powerfully evidenced near the end of Truth's statement, where she weeps at the loss of thirteen children to slavery — tears neither heard nor acknowledged by the majority of historical accounts.

Conclusion: The Cumulative Effect and the Black Feminist Agenda

The cumulative effects of racism, classism, and sexism, when combined with a systematic omission from history, have served to alienate the Black feminist so that the overcoming of these obstacles and the inclusion of her past is at the forefront of her social and political agenda. The aggregate of these obstacles has placed Black feminists in a position unique among oppressed peoples. The following quotation from the Combahee River Collective illuminates just how singular that position is:

"Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors. We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism (Carby, 1982, p. 213)."

The need to unite with Black men against the common challenge of racism, while simultaneously distinguishing themselves from those same men's sexism, constitutes a dual front that typical feminist movements do not encounter. It is precisely this compounded and contradictory set of obligations — born of race, class, gender, and historical erasure — that marks Black feminist thought as a distinct, irreducible tradition within the broader landscape of feminist theory.

Works Cited

Carby, H. (1982). "White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood." In Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain. London: Hutchinson.

hooks, b. (1981). Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press.

hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics. Boston: South End Press.

Lorde, A. (1981). "An Open Letter to Mary Daly." In Moraga, C. and Anzaldúa, G. (Eds.), This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Watertown: Persephone Press.

Mohanty, C. et al. (1991). Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Mohanty, C. (2003). Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory. Durham and London: Duke University Press.