How We Get Free

How We Get Free edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor discusses the Combahee River Collective and its initiative in aiding the identity of Black feminism. The intersectionality of this movement quantified the many areas of a 'melting pot' aspect. This idea is explained in asserting "Black women could not quantify their oppression only in terms of sexism or racism, or of homophobia experienced by Black lesbians. They were not ever a single category, but it was the merging or enmeshment of those identities that compounded how Back women experienced oppression."(4). Black feminists had to face several factors of oppression, with race, gender, class, and identity. In thinking about the feminist movement from a surface level perspective, many people think that these women are just facing oppression and trying to overcome it due to their gender. But we need to understand the way that they are continually marginalized at the bottom, factoring race, community, gender, and sexual preferences. In fact, The Combahee River Collective reasoned "We might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression."(22-23). The CRC makes a powerful statement in noting that the only way Black women would be 'free' in the eyes of the nation, would be through the destruction of every other oppression to exist, because every factor of oppression above them (men, gender, etc) needs to be freed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Freedom Riders 3/26

As I watched the “Freedom Riders” documentary, the more disgusted I become at that racial injustices in American history. At the beginning of the documentary, there is a small montage of bigots giving poor excuses as to why the South should remain segregated. However, there was one quote that stuck out that stated, “You can not change a way of life overnight. The more they try to force us into doing something, the worse the reaction is going to be.” Racism should not be a way of life anyone wants to live through or put onto someone else. The Freedom Riders and many nonviolent protesters weren’t physically imposing on others, so why was the reaction of segregationists to worsening as “they try to force” them into a realistic way of life? Watching the documentary and listening to how the Riders were willing to be martyrs for the Movement as they were physically attacked, their property was destroyed via molotov and mentally drained daily makes me appreciate activism a great deal more, ...
Read more
After reading the rest of Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton's Black Power and then reflecting about what we talked about in class on Tuesday, I still cannot put my finger on an exact definition of "black power." I do believe, though, that "black power" cannot be achieved without a change in the political structure of America. When reading the fourth chapter of this book, the idea that people in power control the law is brought up. I, almost, one hundred percent agree with this. The quote from the book that stood out to me was "Law is the agent of those in political power; it is the product of those powerful enough to define right and wrong and to have that definition legitimized by "law." This is not to say that "might makes right," but it is to say that Might makes Law." This quote shows how political leaders shape the law. Those in power get to make the laws, whether they are just or not. I still believe this today. I believe...
Read more

What It's Like to Be Black on Campus Now

In Melissa Harris-Perry’s article, “What It’s Like to Be Black on Campus Now”, she discusses the issues behind race in education and institutions through ten black student journalists who tell their personal experiences. She gives an example from the University of Missouri, explaining how one student decided to stop eating in protest of inaction and ineffective administrative responses to racial incidents on campus. 30 Missouri football players joined this one student in protest and University of Missouri’s president resigned soon after. This example is powerful because it shows other institutions that when you unite together, change can come. Harris- Perry continues to talk about how important education is to black families and how hard it is to send their children to a place that can be so full of hatred towards their race. She wrote, “Viewing higher education as a pathway to equity, African American families and communities have made enormous sacrifices to send black kids to college...
Read more