Summary for 2/15

Lorde: In this piece, Audre Lorde writes about the separation that exists in the feminist circuit. She highlights her time at a conference where she was one of two Black panelists. She was extremely dismayed to see the lack of diversity on the panel and the conference. She states that this is a common problem. Many times, there aren’t Black feminists participating in discussions because they are not invited to do so. Lorde says that the reason she has been given is that people don’t know who to ask or to contact, a claim which she refutes. The secondary part of her piece was that there are differences between people but in order to combat issues that exist such as sexism, racism, and homophobia people need to take the sometimes unpopular position and to stand up against the larger society.

McIntosh: Being White comes with inherent privileges. Many of which are not considered on a day to day basis. Peggy McIntosh lists 50 of the White privileges that she believes exists. Some are more obvious than others are and many are dependent on the area of a particular person. These White privileges are something that automatically holds people of color below Whites, even if they occur without the greater knowledge of it occurring. We are all unknowingly playing a role in the greater racist society. In a similar fashion, the current society is patriarchal. Men have a privilege that is given at birth that women just don’t have. McIntosh points out that White privilege and male privilege are two different things but that they are not completely unrelated. Oppression often comes in groups and interlocks to create a larger oppression. Black women face more challenges than White males or even White females. McIntosh wants to make people aware about the difference between earned strengths and unearned power and says that we have to be careful not to confuse the two.

Combahee River Collective: Written by a group of Black feminists, this is a piece written to explain the Black feminist movement. They are not against sexism. They are against racism, sexism, homophobia, and class oppression. These things are all tied to together and cause oppression to occur because they affect our daily lives. Black feminism is not new, they trace to at least the 19^th Century with figures like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. However, as a whole, the Black feminists have been left apart from the White movement, which spurred the creation of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO). They are against the stereotypes that exist for Black woman. Black women have to struggle against racism and sexism and are frequently in another classification system of oppression since they have to struggle with both Black men and women in general.  They believe there are less resources for them so they have a much different battle. They see how many issues can all tie together to cause the system of oppression. They are trying to fight the varying oppressions with racism in the feminist movement being just one issue.