CRC A Black Feminist Statement 1977 PDF

Kirk, G., & Okazawa-Rey, M. (Eds.). (2019). Gendered Lives: Intersectional Perspectives (7 edition). Oxford University Press. COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE - A BLACK FEMINIST STATEMENT (1977) Active in the mid to late 1970s, the Combahee River Collective was a group of Black feminists in Boston who too...

Kirk, G., & Okazawa-Rey, M. (Eds.). (2019). Gendered Lives: Intersectional Perspectives (7 edition). Oxford University Press. COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE - A BLACK FEMINIST STATEMENT (1977) Active in the mid to late 1970s, the Combahee River Collective was a group of Black feminists in Boston who took their name from the guerrilla action led by Harriet Tubman that freed more than 750 slaves and is the only military campaign in US history to have been planned and led by a woman. e are a collective of Black feminists who have negative relationship to the American political been meeting together since 1974. During system (a system of white male rule) has always that time we have been involved in the process of been determined by our membership in two op­ defining and clarifying our politics, while at the pressed racial and sexual castes. As Angela Davis same time doing political work within our own points out in "Reflections on the Black Woman's group and in coalition with other progressive orga­ Role in the Community of Slaves," Black women nizations and movements. The most general state­ have always embodied, if only in their physical ment of our politics at the present time would be manifestation, an adversary stance to white male that we are actively committed to struggling against rule and have actively resisted its inroads upon racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression them and their communities in both dramatic and and see as our particular task the development of subtle ways. There have always been Black women integrated analysis and practice based upon the activists-some known, like Sojourner Truth, Har­ fact that the major systems of oppression are inter­ riet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Wells locking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, and thousands the conditions of our lives. As Black women we see upon thousands unknown-who had a shared Black feminism as the logical political movement awareness of how their sexual identity combined to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppres­ with their racial identity to make their whole life sions that all women of color face. situation and the focus of their political struggles We will discuss four major topics in the paper unique. Contemporary Black feminism is the out­ that follows: (1) the genesis of contemporary Black growth of countless generations of personal sacri­ feminism; (2) what we believe, i.e., the specific fice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters. province of our politics; (3) the problems in orga­ A Black feminist presence has evolved most ob­ nizing Black feminists, including a brief herstory viously in connection with the second wave of the of our collective; and (4) Black feminist issues and American women's movement beginning in the practice. late 1960s. Black, other Third World, and working women have been involved in the feminist move­ 1. The Genesis of Contemporary ment from its start, but both outside reactionary Black Feminism forces and racism and elitism within the movement Before looking at the recent development of Black itself have served to obscure our participation. In feminism we would like to affirm that we find our 1973 Black feminists, primarily located in New origins in the historical reality of Afro-American York, felt the necessity of forming a separate Black women's continuous life-and-death struggle for feminist group. This became the National Black survival and liberation. Black women's extremely Feminist Organization (NBFO). Source: Republished with permission of The Monthly Review Press from Zillah Eisenstein, Capitalist Pat1iarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979); permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 28  A Black Feminist Statement 29 o"Tia Cy'oss Black feminist politics also liave an obvious our day-to-day existence. As children we realized connection to movements for Black liberation, par- that we were different from boys and that we were ticularly those of the 1960s and 1970s. Many of us treated differently. For example, we were told in the were active in those movements (civil rights, Black same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being nationalism, the Black Panthers), and all of our "lady-like" and to make us less objectionable in the lives were greatly affected and changed by their ide- eyes of white people. As we grew older we became ology, their goals, and the tactics used to achieve aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse their goals. It was our experience and disillusion- by men. However, we had no way of conceptual- ment within these liberation movements, as well as izing what was so apparent to us, what we }mew was experience 011 the periphery of the white male left, really happening. that led to the need to develop a politics that was Black feminists often talk about their feelings antiracist, unlike those of white women, and anti- of craziness before becoming conscious of the con- sexist, unlike those of Black and white men. cepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and most There is also undeniably a personal genesis importantly, feminism, the political analysis and for Black feminism, that is, the political realiza- practice that we women use to struggle against tion that comes from the seemingly personal ex- our oppression. The fact that racial politics and periences of individual Black women's lives. Black indeed racism are pervasive factors in our lives feminists and many more Black women who do did not allow us, and still does not allow most not define themselves as feminists have all expe- Black women, to look more deeply into our own rienced sexual oppression as a constant factor in experiences and, from that sharing and growing  F 30 UNTANGLING THE "F"-WORD consciousness, to build a politics that will change and therefore revolutionary concept because it is our lives and inevitably end our oppression. Our obvious from looking at all the political movements development must also be tied to the contemporary that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy economic and political position of Black people. of liberation than ourselves. We reject pedestals, The post-World War II generation of Black youth queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. To be was the first to be able to minimally partake of cer­ recognized as human, levelly human, is enough. tain educational and employment options, previ­ We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy ously closed completely to Black people. Although is as pervasive in Black women's lives as are the poli­ our economic position is still at the very bottom tics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to of the American capitalistic economy, a handful of separate race from class from sex oppression because us have been able to gain certain tools as a result in our lives they are most often experienced simulta­ of tokenism in education and employment which neously. We know that there is such a thing as racial­ potentially enable us to more effectively fight our sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor oppression. solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women A combined antiracist and antisexist position by white men as a weapon of political repression. drew us together initially, and as we developed Although we are feminists and lesbians, we feel politically we addressed ourselves to heterosexism solidarity with progressive Black men and do not and economic oppression under capitalism. advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. Our situation as Black 2. What We Believe people necessitates that we have solidarity around Above all else, our politics initially sprang from the the fact of race, which white women of course do shared belief that Black women are inherently valu­ not need to have with white men, unless it is their able, that our liberation is a necessity not as an ad­ negative solidarity as racial oppressors. We struggle junct to somebody else's but because of our need as together with Black men against racism, while we human persons for autonomy. This may seem so ob­ also struggle with Black men about sexism. vious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that We realize that the liberation of all oppressed no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever peoples necessitates the destruction of the political­ considered our specific oppression as a priority or economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. well as patriarchy. We are socialists because we be­ Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed lieve the work must be organized for the collective to Black women (e.g., mammy, matriarch, Sapphire, benefit of those who do the work and create the prod­ whore, bulldagger), let alone cataloguing the cruel, ucts, and not for the profit of the bosses. Material often murderous, treatment we receive, indicates resources must be equally distributed among those how little value has been placed upon our lives who create these resources. We are not convinced, during four centuries of bondage in the Western however, that a socialist revolution that is not also Hemisphere. We realize that the only people who a feminist and antiracist revolution will guarantee care enough about us to work consistently for our our liberation. We have arrived at the necessity for liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy developing an understanding of class relationships love for ourselves, our sisters and our community that takes into account the specific class position which allows us to continue our struggle and work. of Black women who are generally marginal in the This focusing upon our own oppression is em­ labor force, while at this particular time some of us bodied in the concept of identity politics. We be­ are temporarily viewed as doubly desirable tokens lieve that the most profound and potentially the at white-collar and professional levels. We need to most radical politics come directly out of our own articulate the real class situation of persons who are identity, as opposed to working to end somebody not merely raceless, sexless workers, but for whom else's oppression. In the case of Black women this racial and sexual oppression are significant deter­ is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, minants in their working/economic lives.... ______,,;,  A Black Feminist Statement 31 A political contribution which we feel we 3. Problems in Organizing Black have already made is the expansion of the femi- Feminists nist principle that the personal is political. In our During our years together as a Black feminist collec- consciousness-raising sessions, for example, we tive we have experienced success and defeat, joy and have in many ways gone beyond white women's pain, victory and failure. We have found that it is very revelations because we are dealing with the impli- difficult to organize around Black feminist issues, cations of race and class as well as sex. Even our difficult even to announce in certain contexts that Black women's style of talking/testifying in Black we ai'e Black feminists. We have tried to think about language about wliat we have experienced has a the reasons for our difficulties, particularly since the resonance that is both cultural and political. We white women's movement continues to be strong and have spent a great deal of energy delving into the to grow in many directions. In this section we will cultural and experiential nature of our oppres- discuss some of the general reasons for the organiz- sion out of necessity because none of these matters ing problems we face and also talk specifically about has ever been looked at before. No one before has the stages in organizing our own collective. ever examined tlie multilayered texture of Black The major source of difficulty in our political women's lives. An example of this kind of revela- work is that we are not just trying to fight oppres- tion/conceptualization occurred at a meeting aswe sion on one front or even two, but instead to ad- discussed the ways in wliich our early intellectual dress a whole range of oppressions. We do not have interests had been attacked by our peers, particu- racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to larly Black males. We discovered that all of us, be- rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access cause we were "smart" had also been considered to resources and power that groups who possess "ugly," i.e., "smart-ugly." "Smart-ugly" crystallized any one of these types of privilege have. the way in which most of us had been forced to The psychological toll of being a Black woman develop our intellects at great cost to our "social" and the difficulties this presents in reaching politi- liyes. The sanctions in the Black and white com- cal consciousness and doing political work can never munities against Black women thinkers are com- be underestimated. There is a very low value placed paratively much higher than for white women, upon Black women's psyches in this society, which is particularly ones from the educated middle and both racist and sexist. As an early group member once upper classes. said, "We are all damaged people merely by virtue of As we have already stated, we reject the stance of being Black women." We are dispossessed psycho- lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political logically and on every other level, and yetwe feel the analysis or strategy for us. It leaves out far too much necessity to struggle to change the condition of all and far too many people, particularly Black men, Black women. In "A Black Feminist's Search for Sis- women, and children. We have a great deal of criti- terhood," Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion: cism and loathing for what men have been social- ized to be in tliis society: what they support, how We exist as women who are Black who are femi- they act, and how they oppress. But we do not have nists, each stranded for the moment, working the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per independently because there is not yet an envi- se-i.e., their biological maleness -that makes them ronment in this society remotely congenial to our what they are. As Black women we find any type of struggle-because, being on the bottom, we would biological determinism a particularly dangerous and have to do wliat no one else has done: we would reactionary basis upon which to build a politic. We have to fight tl'ie world.' must also question whether lesbian separatism is an adequate and progressive political analysis and strat- Wallace is pessimistic but realistic in her assess- egy, even for those who practice it, since it so com- ment of Black feminists' position, particularly in her pletely denies any but the sexual sources of women's allusion to the nearly classic isolation most of us face. oppression, negating the facts of class and race. We might use our position at the bottom, however, to 32 UNTANGLING THE "F"-WORD make a clear leap into revolutionary action. If Black with and oppressing Black women. Accusations women were free, it would mean that everyone else that Black feminism divides the Black struggle are would have to be free since our freedom would neces­ powerful deterrents to the growth of an autono­ sitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression. mous Black women's movement. Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to Still, hundreds of women have been active at the majority of Black people because it calls into different times during the three-year existence of question some of the most basic assumptions about our group. And every Black woman who came, our existence, i.e., that sex should be a determinant came out of a strongly-felt need for some level of of power relationships. Here is the way male and possibility that did not previously exist in her life. female voices were defined in a Black nationalist When we first started meeting early in 1974 after pamphlet from the early 1970s: the NBFO first eastern regional conference, we did not have a strategy for organizing, or even a focus. We understand that it is and has been traditional We just wanted to see what we had. After a period that the man is the head of the house. He is the of months of not meeting, we began to meet again leader of the house/nation because his knowledge late in the year and started doing an intense variety of the world is broader, his awareness is greater, his of consciousness-raising. The overwhelming feeling understanding is fuller and his application of this that we had is that after years and years we had fi­ information is wiser... After all, it is only reason­ nally found each other. Although we were not doing able that the man be the head of the house because political work as a group, individuals continued their he is able to defend and protect the development involvement in Lesbian politics, sterilization abuse of his home...Women cannot do the same things and abortion rights work, Third World Women's In­ as men-they are made by nature to function dif­ ternational Women's Day activities, and support ac­ ferently.Equality of men and women is something tivity for the trials of Dr. Kenneth Edelin, Joan Little, that cannot happen even in the abstract world. and Inez Garcia. During our first summer, when Men are not equal to other men, i.e., ability, ex­ membership had dropped off considerably, those of perience or even understanding.The value of men us remaining devoted serious discussion to the pos­ and women can be seen as in the value of gold sibility of opening a refuge for battered women in a and silver-they are not equal but both have great Black community. (There was no refuge in Boston value. We must realize that men and women are at that time.) We also decided around that time to a complement to each other because there is no become an independent collective since we had seri­ house/family without a man and his wife. Both are ous disagreements with NBFO's bourgeois-feminist essential to the development of any life.2 stance and their lack of a clear political focus. We also were contacted at that time by social­ The material conditions of most Black women ist feminists, with whom we had worked on abor­ would hardly lead them to upset both economic and tion rights activities, who wanted to encourage us sexual arrangements that seem to represent some to attend the National Socialist Feminist Confer­ stability in their lives. Many Black women have a ence in Yellow Springs. One of our members did good understanding of both sexism and racism, but attend and despite the narrowness of the ideology because of the everyday constrictions of their lives that was promoted at that particular conference, cannot risk struggling against them both. we became more aware of the need for us to under­ The reaction of Black men to feminism has been stand our own economic situation and to make our notoriously negative. They are, of course, even own economic analysis. more threatened than Black women by the possi­ In the fall, when some members returned, we bility that Black feminists might organize around experienced several months of comparative inac­ our own needs. They realize that they might not tivity and internal disagreements which were first only lose valuable and hard-working allies in their conceptualized as a Lesbian-straight split but which struggles but that they might also be forced to were also the result of class and political differ­ change their habitually sexist ways of interacting ences. During the summer those of us who were  A Black Feminist Statement 33 still meeting had determined the need to do politi- a factory that employs Third World women or picket cal work and to move beyond consciousness-raising a hospital that is cutting back on already inadequate and serving exclusively as an emotional support health care to a Third World community, or set up group. At the beginning of 1976, when some of the a rape crisis center in a Black neighborhood. Orga- women who had not wanted to do political work nizing around welfare and daycare concerns might and who also had voiced disagreements stopped also be a focus. The work to be done and the count- attending of their own accord, we again looked for less issues that this work represents merely reflect the a focus. We decided at that time, with the addition pervasiveness of our oppression. of new members, to become a study group. We had Issues and projects that collective members have always shared our reading with each other, and already worked on are sterilization abuse, abortion some of us had written papers on Black feminism for rights, battered women, rape and health care. We group discussion a few months before this decision have also done many workshops and educationals was made. We began functioning as a study group on Black feminism on college campuses, at wom- 3nd also began discussing the possibility of start- en's conferences, and most recently for high school ing a Black feminist publication. We had a retreat women. in the late spring which provided a time for both One issue that is of major concern to us and that political discussion and working out interpersonal we have begun to publicly address is racism in the issues. Currently we are planning to gather together white women's movement. As Black feminists we a collection of Black feminist writing. We feel that it are made constantly and painfully aware of how is absolutely essential to demonstrate the reality of little effort white women have made to understand our politics to other Black women and believe that and combat their racism, which requires among we can do this through writing and distributing our other things that they have a more than superfi- work. The fact that individual Black feminists are cial comprehension of race, color, and Black his- living in isolation all over the country, that our own tory and culture. Eliminating racism in the white numbers are small, and that we have some skills in women's movement is by definition work for white writing, printing, and publishing makes us want to women to do, but we will continue to speak to and carry out these kinds of projects as a means of orga- demand accountability on this issue. nizing Black feminists as we continue to do political In the practice of our politics we do not believe work in coalition with other groups. that the end always justifies the means. Many re- actionary and destructive acts have been done in 4. Black Feminist Issues the name of achieving "correct" political goals. As and Projects feminists we do not want to mess over people in the During our time together we have identified and name of politics. We believe in collective process and worked on many issues of particular relevance to a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our Blackwomen. The inclusiveness of our politics makes own group and in our vision of a revolutionary so- us concerned with any situation that impinges upon ciety. We are committed to a continual examination the lives ofwomen, ThirdWorld and working people. of our politics as they develop through criticism and We are of course particularly committed to working self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice.... on those struggles in which race, sex, and class are As Black feminists and Lesbians we know that simultaneous factors in oppression. We might, for ex- we have a very definite revolutionary task to per- ample, become involved in workplace organizing at form and we are ready for the lifetime of work and struggle before us. NOTES 1. Michele Wallace, "A Black Feminist's Search 2. Mumininas of Committee for Unified Newark, for Sisterhood," The Vilrage Voice, July 28, 1975, MuianamA'e Mwananchi lThe Nationalist Womanl pp. 6-7. (Newark, NJ: Mumininas of CFUN, 1971), pp. 4-5.