Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment

“Social theories expressed by women emerging from these diverse groups typically do not arise from the rarefied atmosphere of their imaginations.”

In contrast to dominant epistemologies, Black feminist thought focuses on lived experience and multiple viewpoints. Collins argues that Black feminist thought reflects women's efforts to come to terms with their lived experiences within intersecting oppressions of race, gender, class, sexuality, and nationality.

“Although racial segregation is now organized differently than in prior eras […] being Black and female in the United States continues to expose African-American women to certain common experiences.”

This quote focuses on the collective identity of Black women. For Collins, Black feminist thought can empower Black women by affirming, rearticulating, and publicly expressing a Black feminist consciousness.

“Self-defined standpoints can stimulate resistance.”

Those in power suppress the standpoints of oppressed groups because self-definition fosters resistance. Controlling images like that of the mammy and the welfare queen suppress resistance by hindering self-definition.

“Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is not enough.”

Collins argues that Black feminist thought is not simply an intellectual exercise, but inextricably tied to activism. Black feminist thought is both grounded in the experiences of Black women and seeks to improve these experiences.

“Framed through this prism of an imagined traditional family ideal, U.S. Black women's experiences and those of other women of color are typically deemed deficient.”

This quote problematizes the ideal of the traditional family, which consists of a wage-earning husband, a stay-at-home wife, and their biological children. Many Black families do not conform to this ideal. Black women are not only deemed less feminine for working outside the home, but also presented as bad mothers.

“The economic vulnerability of Black men is one fundamental factor spurring increasing poverty among Black working-class women.”

This quote addresses the complexity of Black women’s poverty. Black women are disproportionately poor not just because they lack educational opportunities and face workplace discrimination, but also because their economic prospects overlap with those of Black men. Manufacturing jobs long held by Black men moved to nonunionized markets in the US and overseas after the Second World War. Shrinking job opportunities for Black men deeply impacted working class Black women, whose low-paying jobs in the service industry couldn’t make up for men’s lost income.

“Portraying African-American women as stereotypical mammies, matriarchs, welfare recipients, and hot mamas helps justify U.S. Black women’s oppression.”

Controlling images of Black women have proliferated since slavery. These images help justify inequality by blaming Black women for their own oppression and by naturalizing racism and sexism. Black feminist thought challenges controlling images, in part by encouraging self-definition.

“Domination always involves attempts to objectify the subordinate group.”

The objectification of Black women is central to their oppression. Collins provides a broad history of this aspect of oppression by drawing parallels between their objectification through the system of slavery, pornography, and controlling images.

“Black women’s lives are a series of negotiations that aim to reconcile the contradictions separating our own internally defined images of self as African-American women with our objectification as the Other.”

Collins stresses the tension between how Black women define themselves and how others define them. She argues that self-definition is essential to resisting the dominant ideology, replacing controlling images, and advancing empowerment.

“One important outcome of social movements advanced by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals has been the recognition of heterosexism as a system of power.”

Drawing on the scholarly output of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender scholars, Collins approaches heterosexism as a system of power that marks bodies with sexual meanings. Within this system, heterosexuality is inherently superior to non-heterosexuality, which justifies its dominance.

“Controlling Black women’s bodies has been especially important for capitalist class relations in the United States.”

This quote addresses the objectification and commodification of Black women’s bodies in the US. Collins traces these practices to slavery, when Black women were displayed and sold in slave markets.

“Exploring the tensions between African-American men and women has been a long-standing theme in U.S. Black feminist thought.”

Black women have long addressed the antagonistic relations between Black men and women, writing and singing about unfaithful and unreliable lovers. They often coupled this theme with that of love. Accepting that love and trouble can coexist not only displaces restrictive binaries, but also makes room for more inclusive thinking.

“For African-American women, rejection by Whites is one thing—rejection by Black men is entirely another.”

This quote captures the sting Black women feel when Black men reject them. Black men who embrace dominant ideals of beauty and femininity gravitate away from Black erotic partners, leaving many Black women without sexual and romantic relationships.

“Some women view motherhood as a truly burdensome condition that stifles their creativity, exploits their labor, and makes them partners of their own oppression. Others see motherhood as providing a base for self-actualization, status in the Black community, and a catalyst for social activism.”

This passage addresses the contradictions in Black women’s views of motherhood. Collins rejects binary thinking, allowing contradictions to coexist in Black communities, families, and even individuals.

“The value placed on cooperative childcare traditionally found institutional support in the adverse conditions under which so many Black women mothered.”

Collins stresses the importance of bloodmothers and othermothers in Black communities. The reliance on othermothers grew out of the hardships Black mothers experienced throughout history, notably, during slavery, when mothers were forced to work and leave their children in the care of other women.

“Mothers may have ensured their daughters’ physical survival, but at the high cost of their emotional destruction.”

This quote addresses the contradictions inherent in socializing Black girls. Black mothers teach their daughters the skills they need to survive, such as deference to white authority, hard work, and responsibility, knowing that this knowledge will help them survive physically but that it may harm their emotional well-being.

“The majority of African-American women have found it difficult to participate in organized political activities.”

Black women possess neither the resources nor the opportunities to confront institutions directly, leading many to eschew traditional forms of public protest. As Collins argues, however, Black women have engaged in resistance in other domains, namely, in their families and communities.

“African-American women have long realized that ignorance doomed Black people to powerlessness.”

Black women have long promoted education. During slavery, when it was illegal to teach enslaved people to read and write, education not only imparted useful skills, but was a form of resistance. Collins draws parallels between the historical emphasis on education and current practices, notably the value bloodmothers and othermothers place on Black children’s education.

“Although mothers are responsible for reproducing the nation-state’s population and passing on American culture, they must also accept their oppression within the culture.”

This passage addresses the contradictions that arise in intersecting systems of oppression. The dominant system elevates motherhood while simultaneously oppressing women. Black women must negotiate these contradictions in addition to those arising from other social categories, such as race, class, and sexuality.

“Both groups find it difficult to get out of the way and encourage a fully articulated, Black feminist agenda where Black women are in charge.”

This quote focuses on two groups that have influenced the development of Black feminism in the US—white American women and Black American men. Power imbalances have fostered maternalism in the former and paternalism in the latter. Black US feminism must shift its attention away from these groups and focus on the experiences and needs of Black women, not just in the US, but around the world.

“I found my training as a social scientist inadequate to the task of studying the subjugated knowledge of a Black woman’s standpoint.”

This quote addresses the shortcomings of the dominant epistemologies of higher education in the study of Black women. Dominant epistemologies are not only unable to articulate Black women’s experiences, but also fundamentally different from Black women’s epistemologies, which prioritize personal experience to generate, communicate, and validate knowledge.

“Knowledge without wisdom is adequate for the powerful, but wisdom is essential for the survival of the subordinate.”

Collins differentiates between knowledge and wisdom. The former pertains to book knowledge, while the latter is grounded in lived experience. Black women need the wisdom generated by other Black women to survive intersecting oppressions.

“Without much fanfare, they push for policy changes that move their organizations closer to basic fairness.”

This quote describes how many Black women engender change in their workplaces. They eschew public forms of activism in favor of “working the cracks,” or looking for small opportunities to foster change.