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Collin's quote from The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought "Black women's everyday acts of resistance challenge two prevailing approaches to studying the consciousness of oppressed groups. One approach claims that subordinate groups identify with the powerful and have no valid independent interpretation of their own oppression. The second approach assumes that the oppressed are less human than their rulers and, therefore, are less capable of articulating their own standpoint. Both approaches see any independent consciousness expressed by an oppressed group as being not of the groups' own making and/or inferior to the perspectives of the dominant group. More important, both interpretations suggest that oppressed groups lack the motivation for political activism because of their flawed consciousness of their own subordination." (Collins, 1989, pg 746-747) Read the quote above and review the article to augment your understanding of Collin's work. In your own words describe what black feminist thought is and how you interpret it. Provide two examples in current events that are directly about a black woman or collectively about black women's experiences in the United States. Explain the relevant points in your post and discuss why these two current events affirm or negate the ideas presented above.
Develop a 250 word original post by Friday and respond to another student by Sunday. Your original post should include an overview of what you read in Black Feminist Thought, an analysis of the two major themes from the reading that directly address the questions above and a conclusion that asks critical thinking questions (open ended questions about the subject matter). These questions will be the prompt to other students to respond to you.
12 Comments
Andre Mouton
2/20/2015 06:23:31 am
The African American woman's experience in the most part are the same as the African American man in that they both had been subjected to the dominate control of white supremacy and racism but their experiences are different. The African American Self-defined standpoints are different because of their experience being unique to that of other subordinate groups such as the white woman, even though all women were subordinate the black woman was twice subordinate one being a black and the other being a woman, this makes their situation twice unique.
Gabriela Hernandez
2/20/2015 12:32:36 pm
Reading black feminist thought from my interpretation and understanding of it I see it as understanding and growing from one another. "Relationship among black woman can grow in some fashion and how relationships among black woman can control and repress."It's about respect and about being the better version of themselves it's not about having more than another individual but rather focusing on themselves. I feel that respect is the main focus. "According to many African American women writers, no matter how oppressed an individual woman maybe , the power to save the self lies within the self." I feel the benefit of having oppressed groups represent themselves is the empowerment of one another. I feel that oppression plays a important role in people lives and I feel that that if they were taught that oppression didn't define them they wouldn't be the strong people they are today.I feel that these questions relate to the experience of black woman and men in this country in many different ways I feel that everyone has a story and each one of us has similar as well as different experiences.
amal pujol
2/22/2015 02:31:49 pm
Hi Gabriela,
Corissa R.
2/22/2015 03:24:04 pm
I also agree with you when you stated that oppression makes us stronger, because I think that oppression gives people something to fight for. Yes discrimination is wrong, but there is something really powerful in people rising above to combat that oppression.
amal pujol
2/20/2015 02:42:11 pm
Black Feminist thought is the ability of black women to establish their own standpoint and define their own place in society. It is being able to draw on collective experiences from learned everyday wisdom and incorporate scholarly ideologies and theories about how it is that we as Black women got the place we are in society and how to navigate to a better future. It is being able to access resources to improve our lives and spring new ideas in the heart of our daughters and sons. It means being able to tell our history from our view point and not that of white male, or white female or even black male’s point of view. Black feminist thought means embracing our rich legacy and rejecting the feelings of inferiority that our oppressors in society have tried embed in our minds. Black feminist thought means being able to nurture our minds and push ourselves further to construct or own realities and essentially become the author’s and narrators of our own stories.
Andre Mouton
2/22/2015 12:30:02 am
Society creates boundaries’ in work places including the glass ceiling which not only black woman are limited but women as a whole. Black woman have been portrayed by the media as sex objects and some black women have lowered their standards and engages themselves in self exploitation being used as prostitutions on street corners this falls into the old ways of black women’s way of survival. Black women have liberated themselves as a whole by becoming educated also they have become liberators of each other by feminist ideologies and teachings.
Jessica Jaime
2/26/2015 04:45:03 pm
Amal that's a beautiful thing when you said that "it's about being able to access our resources to improve our lives and being able to spring new ideas into the hearts of our children" I really agree that knowledge is power and being able to tell the real truth not from a European view point is very important to speak the truth and stop the stereotypes and false truths.
Jessica Jaime
3/3/2015 10:45:40 am
Amal, I agree with you 100% that oppressed groups need to equally represent themselves to "beat the mind set" like you said. A mind is a powerful thing and if people really knew how strong and capable they were positive changes would be happening but society brings negative stereotypes and reinforces them with oppressed roles for African Americans to make sure things don't change
Corissa R.
2/20/2015 03:51:48 pm
Black women have to endure the most discrimination, because a black woman can endure a sex discrimination or race discrimination, and that is something that white women and black men do not have to deal with. But the problem is that many people do not acknowledge that black women deal with both forms of discrimination. In the DeGraffenried v. General Motors case of 1964 the courts did not allow for the plaintiffs (which were 5 African American women) to combine sexual discrimination and racial discrimination into one. The courts were ultimately rejecting this “new classification of ‘black women.” Because the oppression that black women have to deal with on a constant basis, it is of great assumption that we would become too weak to fight back, but quite the opposite have happened. It is because of the oppression that we have faced that has activated the fight within us. I think that it is important of the oppressed group to represent themselves because we are able to understand our situation better than anybody else. It is difficult for people who haven’t walked in our shoes, and experience what we have experience to represent and represent our issues. I don’t really know how we would view ourselves if we weren’t taught that our oppression didn’t define us, but I do however think it has given us something to organize and fight for.
marie brown
2/22/2015 08:31:17 am
Living life as an African-American woman is a necessary prerequisite for producing Black feminist thought because within Black women's communities thought is validated and produced with reference to a particular set of historical, material, and epistemological conditions. African-American women who adhere to the idea that claims about Black women must be substantiated by Black women's sense of own experiences and who anchor our knowledge claims in an Afrocentric feminist epistemology have produced a rich tradition of black feminist thought.(Patricia Hill Collins)
Jordan Leopold
2/22/2015 08:58:08 am
Black Feminist Thought is a collective identity that consists of both specialized and “taken for granted” knowledge, breaking the notion that oppressed groups conform to the thoughts of the oppressors as they have no independent thought and cannot articulate themselves. I interpret Black Feminist Thought as the empowerment Black women obtain through the increased understanding of self and place throughout history and present day from their afrocentric and feminine perspective. Looking at todays Black civil rights efforts, Black women are at the forefront leading the effort to address the systematic oppression and terrorization of Black Americans because they are they are articulating their unique and long suppressed perspective as both a women and a Black American. The economic and political status of oppressed groups provide a valuable, unique and powerful perspective that, if appropriately represented, overcoming white male controlled knowledge validation, can swiftly achieve social balance and equal access to resources in this country. If we were not taught that oppression defined us then we would walk the planet thinking that we are free, ignoring the reality that is institutionalized, political, economic, and social oppression. We would be subconscious slaves to the idea of freedom and liberty. As college professor Geneva Smitherman expressed, "When you come right down to it, White women think they are free. Black Women know they ain't free." However, is not the case. Family members, friends, and those around share their experience being oppressed, thus educating and reminding us of our place in society - there’s no escape.
Gabriela Hernandez
2/22/2015 10:55:44 am
Jordan, Leave a Reply. |
POSCI 3335This blog is strictly for CSU STUDENTS registered in Prof Crain's /African American/ (Black) [Politics] course. Archives
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