1. We must also question whether Lesbian separatism is an adequate and progressive political analysis and strategy, even for those who practice it, since it so completely denies any but the sexual sources of womens oppression, negating the facts of class and race. The Combahee River Collective was a Black feminist lesbian organization active in Boston from 1974 to 1980. 8XXANaA{s*ZQe(GCCM|+J_mCmI^tiPrLs:YfZ/&`7?2I!KRODf!;EM$X Ghpo:A0r# Statement Combahee River Collective We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. 196-212, Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal, The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. mammy, matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bulldagger), let alone cataloguing the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, Indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western hemisphere. Smith is skeptical about the longevity of this particular moment, as she has earned the right to be. Smith told me, Im not convinced that, despite the millions of people who are out in the streets expressing that they are done with things as they areIm not convinced that that translates into a movement. The Combahee River Collective Statement is believed to be the first text where the term identity politics is used. They were also inspired by the national liberation and anti-colonial movements, from the Algerian struggle against the French occupation to the Vietnamese resistance to the American war. 38, No. Problems in Organizing Black Feminists Alone: Black Socialist Feminism and the Combahee River Collective JSTOR, the JSTOR logo, and ITHAKA are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. The psychological toll of being a Black woman and the difficulties this presents in reaching political consciousness and doing political work can never be underestimated. In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. Barbara Smith at a National Gay Rights March, 1993. 85, No. 271-280, The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, By: Review by: Liz Kennedy , June Lapidus, Feminist Studies, Vol. http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html. The CRC made two key observations in their use of identity politics. These were hardly doctrinaire disputes. Teaching with Reveal Digitals American Prison Newspapers Collection, Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, As Angela Davis points out in Reflections on the Black Womans Role in the Community of Slaves,. Thus, the women of the C.R.C believed that, if Black women were successful in their struggles and movements, they would have an impact far beyond their immediate demands. Although we are in essential agreement with Marxs theory as it applied to the very specific economic relationships he analyzed, we know that his analysis must be extended further in order for us to understand our specific economic situation as Black women. A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, The Village Voice, 28 July 1975, pp. After all, werent we all women? Protests of George Floyds Killing Transform Into a Global Movement. After the C.R.C. It made sense of her senseless death, just shy of the twenty-first century. 81-100, Meridians, Vol. Wallace is pessimistic but realistic in her assessment of Black feminists position, particularly in her allusion to the nearly classic isolation most of us face. Module 2.docx - 1. What are the similarities between JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. Organizing around welfare and daycare concerns might also be a focus. As we grew older we became aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse by men. The post World War II generation of Black youth was the first to be able to minimally partake of certain educational and employment options, previously closed completely to Black people. The fact that individual Black feminists are living in isolation all over the country, that our own numbers are small, and that we have some skills in writing, printing, and publishing makes us want to carry out these kinds of projects as a means of organizing Black feminists as we continue to do political work in coalition with other groups. She didnt know about the Volcker Shock and the recession that would follow. We must also question whether Lesbian separatism is an adequate and progressive political analysis and strategy, even for those who practice it, since it so completely denies any but the sexual sources of womens oppression, negating the facts of class and race. We have also done many workshops and educationals on Black feminism on college campuses, at womens conferences, and most recently for high school women. A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political. The statement is an important piece of feminist theory and description of black feminism (Balliet, pg. We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism. Some images used in this set are licensed under the Creative Commons through Flickr.com.Click to see the original works with their full license. A combined anti-racist and anti-sexist position drew us together initially, and as we developed politically we addressed ourselves to heterosexism and economic oppression under capItalism. 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. In the late 1960s, gubernatorial candidate Ronald Reagan made political hay by picking a fight with UC Berkeley over student protest and tenured radicals.. It was mind-blowing! saw themselves as socialists and as part of the broader left, but they understood that no mass movement for socialism could be organized without responding to the particular forms of oppression experienced by Black women, Chicana women, lesbians, single mothers, and so many other groups. 164-189, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. Test. Instead, they argued that Black womenand all oppressed peoplehad the right to form their own political agendas, because no one else would. We discovered that all of us, because we were smart had also been considered ugly, i.e., smart-ugly. Smart-ugly crystallized the way in which most of us had been forced to develop our intellects at great cost to our social lives. Instinctively, many of us turn to history as a way to grasp some frame of reference. They could not stop our lights from being periodically turned off, or a steady stream of bill collectors from coming to our front door. We are socialists because we believe that work must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work and create the products, and not for the profit of the bosses. My other revelation came out of their insistence that Black feminism was necessary to clearly articulate the experiences of Black women. 3/4, SOLIDARITY (FALL/WINTER 2014), pp. There is a very low value placed upon Black womens psyches in this society, which is both racist and sexist. They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hardworking allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing Black women. The Combahee River Collective and Intersectionality in the Age of And every Black woman who came, came out of a strongly-felt need for some level of possibility that did not previously exist in her life. Join our new membership program on Patreon today. A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, The Village Voice, 28 July 1975, pp. We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions. We are committed to a continual examination of our politics as they develop through criticism and self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice. They are, of course, even more threatened than Black women by the possibility that Black feminists might organize around our own needs. 1/2 (2007), pp. [3] They are perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement,[4] a key document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity as used among political organizers and social theorists.[5][6]. 43, No. 3/4, THE 1970s (FALL/WINTER 2015), pp. A Black feminist presence has evolved most obviously in connection with the second wave of the American womens movement beginning in the late 1960s. But we do not have the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per sei.e., their biological malenessthat makes them what they are. How do we mobilize all of this energy and actually bring about fundamental political, social, and economic change?. The Combahee River Collective Statement: Annotated During the summer those of us who were still meeting had determined the need to do political work and to move beyond consciousness-raising and serving exclusively as an emotional support group. Of course, what comes next will depend on what those who constitute the movement do. Combahee River Collective Flashcards | Quizlet 428-447, The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol. Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before becoming conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and most importantly, feminism, the political analysis and practice that we women use to struggle against our oppression. As we have already stated, we reject the stance of Lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. Our development must also be tied to the contemporary economic and political position of Black people. Key concepts addressed in assigned readings. Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Any concept, once it is released into the world, can take on new meanings when confronted with new problems. When we first started meeting early in 1974 after the NBFO first eastern regional conference, we did not have a strategy for organizing, or even a focus. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving correct political goals. 1-17, Negro History Bulletin, Vol. If the 1960s was America's decade of mass mobilisation, the 1970s perhaps saw the greatest explosion of groups clambering for their rights to simply exist. Mao Zedong: Reader, Librarian, Revolutionary? 1100 Words5 Pages. In A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion: In my Intro to Womens Studies class, one white woman, who said she was from Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, chafed at what she described as the divisiveness of Black feminism. 1977 Both Truth and Combahee River Collective 's readings are interesting . We will discuss four major topics in the paper that follows: (1) the genesis of contemporary Black feminism; (2) what we believe, i.e., the specific province of our politics; (3) the problems in organizing Black feminists, including a brief herstory of our collective; and (4) Black feminist issues and practice. There are no maps or predetermined paths that guarantee the success or failure of a movement. How do those who have been the objects of scientific study and medical experimentation become the agents or the producers of scientific knowledge? As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political . I had seen my father harassed by police, in Cincinnati, Ohio, for jaywalking. As black feminists, members struggle together with black men to fight racism, but against black men to fight sexism.

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