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INTERSECTIONS OF RACE AND GENDER: A Conceptual Map

Destiny Jackson

Explanation

Introduction to Conceptual Map

Each concept (red-Davis, green-hooks, orange-Collins) is defined relating specifically to the reading and author assigned (yellow bubble).

Within each concept there is:

1.A brief description

2. Essential ideas, which analyzes and applies the concept based on class discussions, my observations, and/or popular themes.

3. List of subtopics

The concepts are linked based on their subtopics. The subtopics highlight major/key points of each detailed concept.

Strong connections (same subtopic) are shown with a white line. Weak connections are shown with grey line.

THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY: STANDARDS FOR A NEW WOMANHOOD

Angela

Davis

Non-Hierarchical Gender

Non-hierarchical Gender

Davis argues that the systems of slavery did not allow for establishment traditional hierarchical sexual roles within the slave community.

She highlights a few main reasons for this separation from "white" gender roles:

1. Women were considered mothers and housewives, terms not given to black women. (lack of traditionally gendered women in the slave community.)

2. Children's naming did not follow a patriarchal system.

3.The family arrangements differentiated the slave family from the white one. (women as breeders,

premarital sex, trading/selling of children.)

TEXT

"Woman became synonymous with "mother" and "housewife...but among black female slaves, this vocabulary was nowhere to be found." (Davis, p.6)

"Birth records on many plantations omitted the names of the fathers, listing only the children's mother" (Davis,p.6)

"Slaves adhered to strict norms that differed from those governing the white family. Marriage taboos, naming practices and sexual mores set slaves apart from their masters." (Davis,p. 7)

TEXT

Application & Analysis

Given that black women did not fit into the traditional gender roles designated by the white family, the black household does not experience the same patriarchy as in the white household.

The discrepancy of gender roles the between the hegemonic state and the black family results in many economic injustices because the black household could not fully integrate into patriarchal society. This explains that race is not the sole factor that contributes to the economic disparities of black communities.

Essential understandings

The absence of a hierarchical system also impacted the view of the black man within a white dominated society. The traditional role of a man is that of superiority over his woman counterpart, but given that the black family did not operate in a hierarchical system, black men are not seen as superior in positionality to women.

Does this help explain the high rate of black women, today, who are not married and/or the increased desire of white women amongst black men? Do black men feel that they must marry a subordinate woman in order to integrate fully into a patriarchal system?

Subtopics

1

The Black Family

Subtopics

2

Alienation of Black Women in Feminism

3

Black Matriarchy

4

Double-Bind

5

Equality in Oppression

Oppressive Equality

EQUALITY IN OPPRESSION

The communities of African Slaves, detailed by Davis, were not separated based on colonial gender standards. Black women were seen as tools of labor in the same ways as their male counterparts. In this, black women uniquely experienced gender equality through the means of slave oppression.

Application and Analysis

Black women experience a double-bind that is unintelligible within the race/gender constructions of the hegemonic majority.

Essential understandings

Black women do not fit into the subordinate placement designated to white women within patriarchal domination

The hyper-sexualization and hyper-masculinity of black women stems from the harsh labor conditions they were subjected to, and the "purity" and femininity of them was removed.

Given the oppressive equalities experienced by black women, they have not been socialized as women within the colonial state; the construction of gender was intended to be solely oppressive for women, not equally oppressive for men and women.

Text

"Black women bore the terrible burden of equality in oppression" (Davis, p. 9)

"Black women were workers just like their men" (Davis, p.8)

"[Black women] also asserted their equality aggressively in challenging the inhuman institution of slavery" (p. 9)

Subtopics

1

The Black Family

Subtopics

2

Racial Gender Oppression

3

Black Domesticity

4

Male Fragility

5

Coloniality of Power

Black Domesticity

BLACK DOMESTICITY

Given the exploitation and brutalization of black women in field and master controlled labor, domestic work did not operate in the oppressive forms as it did within the master's house.

Domesticity was a place for creativity and freedom for black communities, lead by the black woman.

Begins explanation for how black women are not oppressed in the same ways as white women, and opens analysis for the intersection of race and gender.

Application & Analysis

This phenomenon of non-hierarchical black woman domesticity has continued to take new forms throughout the the age of Jim Crow Lynchings, Mass Incarceration, and it the fight against Police Brutality. Black men are jailed and killed at such a high rate that households are becoming predominately single mother homes. Further, the birth of the Black Lives Matter Movement and a lot of the groundbreaking works done in civil rights campaigns and prison reform are done by black women, in protection of the black community and the black man.

Essential understandings

The alienation of black women from the second wave feminist movement was largely a result of their positionality around domesticity. Black women were not fighting of the ability to work outside of the home because they have been in the labor force since slavery. And in fighting for white women's freedom from domesticity, it would push black women in to working domestic roles in white homes, taking away time from nurturing the black home.

Black women through their integral role in domestic life have essentially always been in roles that support and uplift the black community and its men. Given this role as the "care taker" of the black race, not just the household, black women's alienation from feminist movements, especially those of radical separatists, was incited. The role of protecting the black man while fighting for economic and social liberties birthed many subsets of black feminism (womanism, Combahee Rive Collective, etc.)

Text

"Black women were not debased by their domestic functions in the way that white women came to be...they could never be treated as mere 'housewives'" (p. 8)

"She was performing the only labor of the slave community which could not be claimed by the oppressor"(p. 8)

"Domestic labor was the only meaningful labor for the slave community as a whole...she was essential to the survival of the community" (p. 8)

Subtopics

1

The Black Family

Subtopics

2

Black Matriarchy

3

Gender Relations

4

Racial Gender Oppression

5

Alienation of Black Women in Feminism

bell hooks

Feminism: A Movement to End Sexist Oppression

bell hooks' critique of feminism

Mystique Critique

bell hooks critiqued feminism from various angles:

1. Lack of definition

2.Lack of inclusion

3.Alienation of other women

4. Generalized focus on men; "What men?"

5. Misplaced focused. (should be on domination, not "equality"

6. Advocate for feminism, not identify as feminist.

bell hooks focused on the Feminine Mystique in challenging and critiquing feminist movements and offering alternatives.

Text

""Feminsim in the United Stated has never emerged from the women who are most victimized by sexist oppression" (hooks, p.1)

"Women in lower class and poor groups, particularly those who are non-white, would not have defined women's liberation as gaining social equality with men since they are continually reminded in their everyday lives that all women do not share a common social status." (hooks, p.18)

"Since men are not equals in the white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal class structure, which men do women want to be equal to?" (hooks, p.18)

Application & Analysis

Essential understandings

The idea that all women are inferior to all men and thus feminism demands a blanketed equality within the gender binary, shades the ever-present truth that white women operate as oppressors themselves.

The birth of second wave feminism focused solely on the plight of white women. In excluded the experience of women with other identities. The second wave of feminism further white-washed the identity and role of women.

In this system to simple gender equality, there would not be true progress done if racial, class, and other factors were considered in the fight for equality amongst genders.

Subtopics

1

Alienation in Feminist Movements

Subtopics

2

Whitewashing of the Woman

3

Double-bind

4

Racial Gender Oppression

5

Domination

Domination v. Gender Equality

Domination

Deconstruction

hooks argues that feminism should focus on deconstructing domination instead of solely the equality of men and women.

1. The focus on this binary is exclusive and unclear

2. It does not truly work in the racial state in which gender exists.

3. It would not last long-term because the systematic problem is not gender inequality but the domination of the white patriarchy and its institutions.

the fight against domination would result in an inclusive fight against all oppressions (gender included), that would work long-term and have a greater, intersectional impact.

Subtopics

1

Domination

Subtopics

2

Black Matriarchy

3

Mystique Critique

4

Black Domesticity

5

Racial Gender Oppression

Text

"Many feminist radicals know that neither a feminism that focuses on woman as an autonomous being worthy of personal freedom nor one that focuses on the attainment of equality of opportunity with men can rid society of sexism and male domination" (hooks, p.24)

Feminism is a struggle to end sexist oppression...a struggle to eradicate the ideology of domination..." (hooks, p.24)

"The foundation of future feminist struggle must be solidly based on the need to eradicate other forms of group oppression. Without challenging these structures, no feminist reforms will have a long range impact." (hooks, p.31)

Application & Analysis

The same concept discussed in class of the insurmountable powers of capitalism. In the same vain, the construction of gender and its subsequent oppression is unable to defeat unless the system in which it operates is dismantled.

Lugones' Coloniality of Power and Gender explains that within the hegemonic, patriarchal system, gender and race are co-dependent. So in the fight for gender equality, it is impossible to reconstruct the hierarchical system of gender while neglecting the power of race.

Essential understandings

Claiming that feminism works to make women equal to men, it implicitly asserts that all men are superior to all women regardless of class and race amongst other factors. It alienates black men, and ignores the oppressive role of white women.

With a focus on overthrowing the hegemonic powers that be and the domination of those within the state, there limits the comparison of oppressions, allowing for a collective fight amongst all oppressed groups regardless of their exact oppression. (no separation of women and men, black and white, etc.)

Sentiments of Black Women Feminists

hooks explains her individual dilemma with identifying as black and a feminist. She uses this experience to analyze the intersections of race and role of race in feminist movements.

She argues that the whitewashing of the feminist movements and their goals has created a definition of feminism as a woman's issue, not concerned with other human rights issues (race, class, etc.)

She says Black Women identifying as feminists implies that they are not pro-black or pro-black men. It is hard to identify with traditional feminism as a Black woman.

hooks offers a solution in the way in which people identify as feminists. "I am an advocate for feminism" instead of "I am a feminist".

Colors of Feminism

Application & Analysis

Black women have a double bind that makes it difficult for them to fully integrate into feminism and the fight for gender equality because of their racial identities.

The explosion of intersectional feminism and visibility of black women in gender equality movements is continuously changing the perspective of feminism for women in minority racial groups.

Essential understandings

Women of additional oppressed groups view feminism in an entirely different way than the white majority. For upper class white women it is a form of liberation, but for black women it can be oppressive.

Text

"[Friedan] did not discuss who would be called in to take care of the children

and maintain the home if more women like herslef were freed from their house labor" (hooks, p.1)

"She made...the plight of white women synonymous with a conditon affecting all American women." (hooks, p.2)

"it has been difficult for black women and women in exploited and oppressed ethnic groups to give expression to their interest in feminsit concerns. The shift in expression from 'I am a feminist' to 'I advocate feminism' could serve as useful. (hooks, p.29-30)

"Most people are socialized to think in terms of opposition rather than compatibility...anti-racist works [is] totally compatible with working to end sexist oppression" (hooks, p.29)

Subtopics

1

Alienation of Black Women in Feminism

Subtopics

2

Domination

3

Racial Gender Oppression

4

Double-bind

5

Intersectional Feminism

Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection

Patricia Hill Collins

Reconceptualizing Racial Oppression

Collins introduces three methods of transcending contemporary racial oppression, one being coalition building.

This concept is a proponent of advocacy and unity amongst each group that enhances the scope of the oppressive system and how it operates in relation to different groups and struggles.

This is similar to the idea that "two heads in better than one" . She argues that working separately from our respective corners of oppression will not work to end the domination of each group.

Coalition

Building

Text

"One powerful catalyst fostering group solidarity is the presence of a common enemy" (Collins, p.40)

"Sharing a common cause assists individuals and groups in maintaining relationships that transcend their differences" (Collins, p.40)

"We must support each other's effort, realizing that they are all part of the larger enterprise of bringing about social change." (Collins, p. 41)

Subtopics

1

Inclusivity & Diversity

Subtopics

2

Domination

3

Oppressive Unity

4

Utilizing Privilege

5

Intersectionality

Application & Analysis

Diversity is essential for overthrowing domination and truly challenging white patriarchy. The push for "affirmative action" falls within this concept of coalition building.

Essential understandings

The increased visibility and understanding of white privilege aids in this idea of group advocacy and activism.

Working with other oppressed groups can the oppressed open doors for each other. (poor white men working with black women, etc.). We can help each other progress in ways that are possible through isolation.

Systems and Institutions of Oppression

Institutional Oppression

Collins explains oppression in three ways, one being institutional.

This focuses on the economic, political, and social forms that perpetuate and uphold oppressive systems. She analyzes the intersections of race, class, and gender and how they interlock to enforce, discrimination against oppressed groups.

She argues that race, gender, and class are all necessary to understand the patriarchal system in place. She alludes to the systems of slavery to apply this intersection, focusing on the role of gender in slave communities.

Application & Analysis

This relates to Davis' analysis of the black woman's tole in the slave community. Black women were treated similar to black men because of the racial and gender relationship present.

Essential understandings

Calls for long-term change in domination in ways that focus on symbolic and individual oppression.

This focus calls on transformation of institutions instead of placing responsibility on oppressed individuals and even privileged individuals to eradicate oppression.

Subtopics

1

Systemic Racism

Subtopics

2

Domination

3

Intersectionality

4

Patriarchal Institutions

5

Equality in Oppression

Text

"Even today, the plantation remains a compelling metaphor for institutional oppression" (p. 31)

"I suggest that slavery was a race, class, and gender specific institution. Removing any one piece from our analysis diminishes our understanding of the true nature of relations of domination and subordination under slavery" (p. 30)

"A brief analysis of key American social institutions most controlled by elite white men should convince us of the interlocking mature of race, class, and gender in structuring the institutional dimension of oppression." (p. 31)

Consciousness of Privilege

Privilege Positionality

Collins calls for recognition of group and individual privileges that cause oppression amongst everyone. She argues that power and the different forms that it take in oppressing groups separately actually works to frame the relationships amongst the oppressed.

Collins introduces the concept of "voyeurism"--the lives of the oppressed are viewed as entertainment for the privileged.. This concept illuminates the issues with utilizing the experiences of oppressed people for the education of the white mind.

Further, Collins applies this concept of privilege positionality to the integration of women of color into feminist movements.

Subtopics

1

Utilizing Privilege

Subtopics

2

Intersectionality

3

Racial Gender Oppression

Myth of the Binary of Oppressor and Oppressed

4

5

White Privilege

Application & Analysis

Essential understandings

The understanding of privilege can help building coalition and understanding of our positions as not solely oppressed but also as an oppressor.

This concept can be applied to white women in the second wave feminist movements. In understanding the oppressive, privileged form that whiteness takes, this group can transition to focus more on the systems of domination that work to oppress everyone. This is seen in the birth and growth of intersectional feminism.

Text

"The effort to 'colorize' feminist theory by inserting the experiences of women of color...contains elements of both voyeurism and academic colonialism" (Collins, p. 38-39)

"Each of us lives within a system that vests us with varying levels of power and privilege. These differences in power...frame our relationships" (Collins, p.36)

"Social transformations require moving outside our areas of specialization and groups of interest in order to build coalitions across differences" (Collins, p. 30)

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