HIS 270 -- Black Protest in 20th Century US Culture

In the book How We Get Free , the main focus is Black Feminism and the intersectionality it has. In my previous GWS classes I never learned about Black Feminism. In a class dedicated to female advancement this topic was never mentioned. Not only do black women have to do with racism, they also have to deal with sexism; the women in the book also had to deal with homophobia as well. Black Feminism is something that needs to be talked about and taught. Black women are typically forgotten in the female struggle, as well as the Civil Rights movement. The Combahee River Collective, was a radical group of black feminists. They were one of the most important organizations to come out of the Civil Rights and women’s liberation movements of the 60s and 70s, but we are never taught about them in history. This book is important because it shows the different view points of African Americans, including women who were normally left out. It also shows the effects the Civil Rights Movement had on...

FIrstly, I believe that books like How We Get Free are inherently import to the black rights movement. More than that though I was excited to read this text because often times I feel like black women don’t have a place in movements that protest for their rights. They have historically been kept from both women's rights movements and certain civil rights movements as well. It is refreshing to see a piece of work that discusses the issue of just black women's rights. The book discusses the issue of black women's place historically in liberation movements in the introduction, specifically on pages 5 and 6. The author writes “The inability or unwillingness of most white feminist organizations to fully engage with anti racist issues that affected black women...alienated Black women. The same was true with the Black liberation movement.” The author notes that in the African-American rights movements, male leaders often opposed women's right to choose whether or not to termi...

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...

  In the text,  How We Get Free , by Keeanga Taylor, it talks about the oppression of black women and the struggles and poverty they face. All blacks are looked at differently and treated differently, but many would argue that black women are even more oppressed than black men. On page 3, it states "Black women were making on average $34,000 a year compared to $53,000 for white men." An even more interesting point also is found on page 3, stating in Louisiana women weren't even making half the money that white men in that state made. To be exact, black women were only making 43 percent of what white men were making in the state of Louisiana. Also on page 3, it mentions that "Black women make up 25 percent of the poor, compared to black men, who are 18 percent; and to white women, who make up 10 percent of poor people." I mean it would be extremely hard to not see how these women were being oppressed. They were not valued in anyway and it was disgusting that ther...

The Combahee River Collective was a group of radical black lesbian feminists which can trace their lineage directly to the 1960’s civil rights movement. It branched off of the National Black Feminist Organization because their ideals and organization was not sufficient in the eyes of the collective. As well as civil rights pioneers, they are also socialists. Page 19 says, “We realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy.” They believe that systems of oppression are interlocking and many (more than one) factors synergize to oppress certain people. Page 15 states “...based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives.” Since these systems of oppression are overwhelmingly evident in their everyday life, the “personal is political” slogan arose. The slogan means that the indi...

After reading “ How We Get Free” by Keeanga Taylo r , I feel I have a clearer understanding of the Black Feminist movements. The book discusses the movement in a way that I have never viewed it before. What brought this to my attention the most was the quote “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 systems of oppression” I have always known the issues that come with intersectionality, but when I heard it put like that I had to take a step back. That would mean that the key to solving all issues of oppression sit in the hands of black woman. Which is funny given how much our lives are the least valued of all the races.  This is nothing new though, that has always been the case for black women. Keeanga Taylor discussed this in the reading as well. We, black women, have always been there to help everyone with their oppression struggle thinking we were one in the same; but have been ...

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's book, How We Get Free , explores radical black feminism and how black women are oppressed socially and politically. One of the main points in Taylor's book is how the major systems of oppression are all interlocked and the means by which the Combahee River Collective choose to deal with these oppressions. The CRC Statement explains, "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 our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking" (pg. 15). Later in the statement, the CRC gives an example of these interlocking oppressions. The Statement mentions, "We struggle together with Black men against racism, we also struggle with Black men about sexism" (pg. 19). Both black men and women are facing the terrors of ...