Revisiting "What's in a Name?": Exploring the Contours of Africana Womanist Thought

Frontiers, 2006 by Alexander-Floyd, Nikol G, Simien, Evelyn M

Contrary to what Hudson-Weems s analysis would suggest, Black feminists do, in fact, value community interests and advancement. By developing an integrated analysis of gender, race, class, and sexuality, they have articulated a much broader definition of community than Africana womanism permits. Hudson-Weems maintains that feminism centers on sexual difference as the key category of political analysis. She avers that Africana men and women share what Angela Davis would call a "deformed equality of equal oppression" that has generated a stable and homogenous racial group identity.^sup 66^ Far from being adversarial with Black men, Africana womanists are allies in the fight against racism. Racism and class inequality are the two most pressing concerns of Africana people because racism, unlike sexism, is a "human" problem.^sup 67^ Race and class, in that order, supersede gender. This is epitomized, for Hudson-Weems, in an anecdote by one woman who claims that "from so many feet away, her race was noticed; as she got into closer proximity, her class was detected; but that it was not until she got in the door that her sex was known."^sup 68^ The ordering of race, then class, and then gender, as well as its complete disavowal of feminism, distinguishes Africana womanism from other antisexist political theories.

Black feminists, on the other hand, maintain that African American women "don't have the luxury of choosing to fight only one battle," because they contend with many burdens.^sup 69^ Moreover, these various aspects of identity cannot be treated as separate or distinct.^sup 70^ As the Combahee River Collective explains, "We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in black women's lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously."^sup 71^ Critical race theorist Kimberly Crenshaw explains that "Neither Black liberationist politics nor feminist theory can ignore the intersectional experiences of those whom the movements claim as their respective constituents. In order to include Black women, both movements must distance themselves from earlier approaches in which experiences are relevant only when they are related to certain clearly identifiable causes. . . ."^sup 72^ Unlike Hudson-Weems, Black feminists reject the notion that one can separate and therefore rank race, class, and gender in that order. Also, contrary to Hudson-Weems, Black feminists like those of the Combahee River Collective and Patricia Hill Collins affirm the humanity and political interests of Black lesbians within the broader Black political agenda and, in doing so, fashion a more expansive definition of community. In this sense, most Black feminists support a political approach that addresses the complex matrix of domination.

In reality, Black feminists do not advocate separation from Black men, and argue that Black feminists must work with Black men against oppression and create feminist solidarity and community with Black women as well. As the members of the Combahee River Collective report, many Black feminists were involved with Black men in the struggle against racist oppression and were drawn to developing feminism in part because of the sexism they experienced in antiracist organizations.^sup 73^ Nevertheless, the Collective affirmed the desire and necessity of working with Black men. They write that, "Although we are feminists and lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand."^sup 74^ They echo Hudson-Weems in her contention that the dire predicament of racist assault against Black people requires Black men and women to work together; more specifically, they note, "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 . . . We struggle together with black men against racism, while we also struggle with black men about sexism."^sup 75^ In a similar vein, Black feminist Patricia Hill Collins posits that while Black women maintain organizations that focus on women's issues, they do so as a basis for coalition building and to pursue a humanist agenda.^sup 76^ Indeed, Black feminists consistently recognize the need for Black men and women to work together politically. Members of the Combahee River Collective, for instance, built a functional sisterhood with other Black women in fighting oppression, but they did so with an understanding that their political efforts would also include an alliance with Black men.