We can obviously create a politics that is absolutely aligned with our own experiences as Black womenin other words, with our identities. We had always shared our reading with each other, and some of us had written papers on Black feminism for group discussion a few months before this decision was made. What distinguished the C.R.C. Accusations that Black feminism divides the Black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous Black womens movement. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. pioneered the notion of identity politics, perhaps one of the most controversial and misunderstood terms in all of U.S. politics. In the case of Black women this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movements that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, and thousands upon thousands unknownwho have had a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the focus of their political struggles unique. Those were fine things to act against and struggle for, but they felt like lightweight politics in contrast to the things that my nineteen-year-old self was concerned about: the U.S. presence in the Middle East, police brutality and racism, poverty and inequality. We had been reading about divisions within the feminist . The reaction of Black men to feminism has been notoriously negative. We have also done many workshops and educationals on Black feminism on college campuses, at womens conferences, and most recently for high school women. In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. The overwhelming feeling that we had is that after years and years we had finally found each other. 3 (Autumn, 1980), pp. Demita Frazier had been a member of the Black Panther Party in Chicago, right up until the Chicago police helped to assassinate the Panther leader Fred Hampton, in 1969. 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. We believe in collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society. 4, No. 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. The Combahee River Collective was a Black Feminist Lesbian organization that was active between 1974 and 1980. But we can take inspiration from the imaginative optimism of the Combahee Statement. During our time together we have identified and worked on many issues of particular relevance to Black women. 8XXANaA{s*ZQe(GCCM|+J_mCmI^tiPrLs:YfZ/&`7?2I!KRODf!;EM$X Ghpo:A0r# Gender was also an incomplete answer. Join our new membership program on Patreon today. Organizing around welfare and daycare concerns might also be a focus. [1] This statement is dated April 1977. 38, No. 2023 Cond Nast. When, in the early eighties, my mother got burned out from haggling with less qualified white male administrators and a fancy career that was going nowhere fast, she started a house-cleaning business. For example, we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being ladylike and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. As we have already stated, we reject the stance of Lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. How is the name of the group related to Harriet Tubman? The Combahee Statement obliterated that premise. They could not stop our lights from being periodically turned off, or a steady stream of bill collectors from coming to our front door. Smith is skeptical about the longevity of this particular moment, as she has earned the right to be. (There was no refuge in Boston at that time.) We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women by white men as a weapon of political repression. [2]. 2 (Spring, 2001), pp. We are not convinced, however, that a socialist revolution that is not also a feminist and anti-racist revolution will guarantee our liberation. The authors argued that race, sex, and class had to be considered together in the lives of black women, and that no one would fight for them except themselves. 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. Barbara Smith and the Black feminist visionaries of the Combahee River Collective. As children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated differently. 1. [1] During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements. Smith told me, By identity politics, we meant simply this: we have a right as Black women in the nineteen-seventies to formulate our own political agendas. She went on, We dont have to leave out the fact that we are women, we do not have to leave out the fact that we are Black. Rr_||2=?|,f]a]IWrYWs~qH(OSn4b$ yV_IU{L]HJ>l#)r<1-a/ %}:f4&-4qIQ >zx /w\p @0P' 1-17, Negro History Bulletin, Vol. After all, werent we all women? The women of the C.R.C. Identity politics has become so untethered from its original usage that it has lost much of its original explanatory power. This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever consIdered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. We have found that it is very difficult to organize around Black feminist issues, difficult even to announce in certain contexts that we are Black feminists. 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. Tessa_Nunn. The genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism Even our Black womens style of talking/testifying in Black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. The inclusiveness of our politics makes us concerned with any situation that impinges upon the lives of women, Third World and working people. hTmO0+i%T/tEFCh)4U{Pl0Y%sXjbI-*FAb5LK k1iQ"oe##xIiIsNeQv~6_cq= 2J#VDsY. Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors. 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. What are the similarities between Truth's and the Combahee Collective's concerns? We began functioning as a study group and also began discussing the possibility of starting a Black feminist publication. I first encountered the Combahee River Collective Statement in a women's-studies class, my second year of college at SUNY Buffalo. As always, links to the underlying scholarship are free to all readers. The Combahee River Collective, a black feminist lesbian organization, released the Combahee River Collective Statement in 1978 to define and encourage black feminism. HTKo0>!0`PzN6WK$i:$%>>%O/Kp}XfAi8;84q0~23:\B. We hope you find it a valuable resource for yourself, and for students. But we do not have the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per sei.e., their biological malenessthat makes them what they are. However, we had no way of conceptualizing what was so apparent to us, what we knew was really happening. 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 CRC made two key observations in their use of identity politics. The women of the C.R.C. [1] During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and . [2] Wallace, Michele. Above all else, Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody elses may because of our need as human persons for autonomy. As an early group member once said, We are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women. We are dispossessed psychologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to struggle to change the condition of all Black women. My father left when I was two, and my mother took us to Dallas, where she worked as a reading specialist for the Dallas Independent School District. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. There is a very low value placed upon Black womens psyches in this society, which is both racist and sexist. As Angela Davis points out in Reflections on the Black Womans Role in the Community of Slaves, Black women have always embodied, if only in their physical manifestation, an adversary stance to white male rule and have actively resisted its inroads upon them and their communities in both dramatic and subtle ways. 52-71, Feminist Studies, Vol. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess anyone of these types of privilege have. As a result, many Black women felt shut out of directing those organizations, just as they felt that their experiences as Black women were ignored. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol. Combahee River Collective Statement. During our time together we have identified and worked on many issues of particular relevance to Black women. The Black women of the C.R.C. 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. There is also undeniably a personal genesis for Black Feminism, that is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal experiences of individual Black womens lives. The quest to transform this country cannot be limited to challenging its brutal police alone. The members of the Combahee River Collective march down Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, at a 1979 memorial for murdered women of color.