a black feminist thought 2.0
TRANSCRIPT
By Susan Graham
A Black Feminist Thought
Ain’t I a Woman?
..."That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody helps me any best place. And ain't I a woman?..."Look at me! Look at my arm. I have plowed, I have planted and I have 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 man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne children and seen most of them sold into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?" 1797 –1883
abolitionist, author, human rights activist
Maria Stewart(1803 –1879)
African American public speaker, abolitionist, and feminist
“Shall it any longer be said of the daughters of Africa,They have no ambition, they have no force?
By no means.
Let every female heart become united…..”
Fannie Barrier Williams(1855 –1944)
African American Educator and women's rights activist
“The colored girl… is not known and hence not believed in; she belongs to a race that is designated by the term “problem,” and she livesbeneath the shadow of that problem whichenvelopes and obscures her.”
“In my dreams and visions, I seemed to see a line, and on the other side of that line were green fields, and lovely flowers, and beautiful white ladies, who stretched out their arms to me over the line, but I couldn't reach them no-how. I always fell before I got to the line.”
Harriet Tubman1820-1913
Civil War Nurse, Suffragist, Civil Rights activist
“At present, our country needs women's idealism
and determination, perhaps more in politics
than anywhere else.”
Shirley Chisholm1924-2005
Congresswoman, educator, and author
“Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of
people and deny it to others.”
Coretta Scott King1927-2006
Civil Rights, Women's rights, Human rights, Equal rights Activist, Author
Other Voices of the Past
Economic Dimension: The exploitation of Black women’s labor essential to U.S. capitalism – the “iron pots and kettles” symbolizing Black women’s long-standing ghettoization in service occupations.
Political Dimension: Forbidding Black women to vote, excluding from public office, and withholding equitable treatment in the criminal justice system all substantiate the political subordination of Black women.
Ideological Dimension: Negative stereotypes applied to African-American women have been fundamental to Black women’s oppression.
The Dimensions of Oppression
Discovering, Reinterpreting, & Analyzing the works of individual U.S. Black women thinkers (locating unrecognized and unheralded works, scattered and long out of print)
Discovering, Reinterpreting, & Analyzing the ideas of subgroups within the larger collectivity of U.S. Black women who have been silenced
Reinterpreting existing works through new theoretical frameworks
Searching for its expression in alternative institutional locations and among women who are not commonly perceived as intellectuals (the concept of intellectual must be deconstructed)
Collaboration leadership among those who participate in the diverse forms that Black women’s communities now take.
The Development of Black Feminist Thought
Black women’s subordination within Intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender, sexuality and nation.
Diverse responses to common challenges with Black feminism: No homogenous Black woman’s standpoint exist. Many factors explain diverse responses (social class differences, sexuality signals, and varying ethnic and citizenship statuses.
Black feminism occurs through an ongoing dialogue whereby actions and thought inform one another .
Black feminist intellectuals are central to Black feminist thought: Black feminist scholars in studying oppression among black women are less likely to walk away when the obstacles seem overwhelming or when he rewards for staying diminish.
Black feminism is dynamic and changing: The changing social conditions that confront African-American women stimulate the need for new Black feminist analyses of the common differences that characterize U.S Black womanhood.
Black feminism is part of a wider struggle for human dignity, empowerment, and social justice.
Why U.S. Black Feminist Thought
Alice WalkerAuthor, Poet
“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.”
Look at the Stars
Michelle ObamaFirst Lady
Shawna R. KimbrellFirst Black Woman Fighter Pilot
Oprah WinfreyRichest African American in the 20th Century
Toni MorrisonNobel Prize in Literature
Maya AngelouWriter
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Aretha FranklinQueen of Soul
Halle BerryFirst Black Woman to
win the Oscar
Dr. Mae Jemison First Black Woman
Astronaut
Serena WilliamsWorld No. 1 Woman Tennis Player
(July, 2002)Condoleezza Rice
First African-American woman Secretary of State
Current Day Voices
Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon First African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church
Bell HooksSocial Activist
Alice WalkerAuthor, Poet
Michele WallaceFeminist Author
Barbara SmithLesbian Feminist
Angela DavisPolitical Activist
Toni MorrisonNovelist, Editor, Professor
Patricia Hill CollinsFeminist Author
Pioneering Superheroines
Aisha Campbell – Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger
Aisha was the 1st African American female Yellow Ranger in Power Rangers History.
Tanya Sloan – Zeo Yellow Ranger/Yellow Turbo Ranger Tanya is the First female Yellow
Ranger who wore a skirt.
Pioneering Superheroines
Shelby Watkins – Pink Dino Charge Ranger
Shelby is the 1st African American Pink Power Ranger in Power Rangers History!!
Shelby is also the first Pink Ranger on a dinosaur-themed Power Rangers team to have
a triceratops motif
Storm/Ororo Munroe-Iqadi T'Challa – X-Men member and leader
Storm, is the descendant of an ancient line of African priestesses, all of whom have white hair, blue eyes, and
the potential to wield magic.Storm has been considered as a potential Omega Level Mutant One of the primary sources of her powers is the
Earth's electromagnetic field.
Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.'
We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.
1891-1960Folklorist, anthropologist, novelist, short story writer
Jump at the Sun
- Zora Neale Hurston