The experience of a black man in America is entrenched in American ideology as a life of pain and hardship. Additionally, the concept that there is a black woman behind him to ease this pain is equally rooted within this experience. This notion of “black love” allows patriarchal standards to be reinforced all under the guise of a love between two entities who are equally attacked and oppressed by ‘outsiders.’ This perpetuation forces black women to suffer in a realm of pain that the rest of the world believes and even idolizes as a safe haven. This pain black women endure, often times silently, intensifies the pain of womanhood and ultimately distances them from the feminist movement due to this endurance of a pain white women cannot comprehend. Ultimately, the pain of a black woman coupled by her role in an era of rampant white feminism informs her choices on a day to day basis as she is forced to navigate the world conscious of the pain of these two equally significant identities: her duty as a ‘savior’ to the black community and additionally her duty to women. The general pain, and impediments experienced by black women are a direct result of these two identities.
In the “Feminist Attachments” chapter of Cultural Politics of Emotion, Sara Ahmed speaks directly to the latter identity that imposes pain upon the black woman: her identity of being a woman. Ahmed’s ideology is very relevant to the idea of pain and the role it holds within the feminist movement. Ahmed states, “that it is [feminism] based on suffering, in which women’s suffering could be represented and then such representation could be used to identify legitimate and illegitimate feminism… working to delegitimize feminist attempts to understand the complexity of social and psychic life” (Ahmed,173). Ahmed then goes on to state that the pains and sufferings that women experience are directly attached to their womanhood, and therefore serve as a base for their feminism. This thereby shifts this discussion from being one of women’s attachment to feminism, to the discourse of where exactly this fetishized pain that is rooted within the feminist movement stem from? Wendy Brown, the author of Wounded Attachments that Ahmed engages with within “Feminist Attachments,” refers to the expression ‘wounded attachments’ repeatedly. Brown uses this term to explain a suffering that is designated to an “advantaged perspective and/or group identity” (Brown 18). Ahmed confronts this notion by stating that suffering is not so straightforwardly classified. Relating her contradictory ideology back to feminism Ahmed states, “[i]n order to respond to pain, feminism must open up a safe place for the disclosure of pain. Thereby making this disclosure of pain a condition that allows for ‘we’ to be unified in different stories of pain that cannot be reduced to a ground, identity or sameness” (Ahmed 174). The takeaway from the disassociation that is felt when reading Ahmed’s perspective in comparison to Brown’s is the idea that we cannot distinctly identify one source, where this pain that is rooted within the feminist movement, stems from. The reason for this inability to pinpoint these pains is due to the fact that these pains and experiences vary across racial groups, socioeconomic class, and even gender identity within feminism.
From the development of this understanding, we are now able to place the first identity that black women hold into conversation with the latter: their blackness. Using this newly uncovered ground, we are able to identify and address the scholarly controversy which ultimately pans out to be: where do the discrepancies lie within being a feminist in America, and being a black feminist in America? In order to fully address this question, we must first acknowledge the disparities that are rooted within a black woman’s experiences.
One of the most commonly addressed black female experiences is the black single mother epidemic. Within the black community there is a cyclical epidemic that leaves families dependent on the mother as a sole provider for the family. This cycle often begins with young black men lacking a stable father figure. [This in itself is another issue that results from a variety of societal issues such as poverty and mass incarceration, but for the scope of this essay we will not be indulging in the logistics of this ongoing concern.] This lack of a father figure leads to a skewed view of masculinity that promotes negligence and a lack of reliance on the black male community. Furthermore, this absence of a father role within the black community encourages the reliance on communal families, further distancing young black men from their biological familial ties. In a frequently updated database which studies children in single-parent families by race in the United states, the results found just within the span of the last six years (2011-2016) are quite appalling. The percentage of single parents within the Black or African-American racial group trumps all other racial groups by a sizable margin. At a constant sixty-six percent for the last two years, blacks or African-Americans factor in at twenty-four percent higher than Hispanics or Latinos, and forty-two percent higher than Caucasians. This epidemic of single-household families, especially within the black community, is fueled by and exacerbates the notion that the black female must assume the role of a strong figure who carries the financial burden of her entire family. Such a notion leads to a toxic expectation of the black woman to incessantly portray this ‘strong’ woman façade, thereby perpetuating the idea that they [black women] are not allowed to be emotional. Growing up in a single mother household myself with an absent father, I can attest to this experience. I first handedly witnessed my mother constantly facing the internal pressures of attempting to assume both her role as a mother in addition to her role as a father to my siblings and I, as well as the external pressures of society to again remain this ‘strong’ figure within her work community, the black community, as well as within the feminist community.
These disparities that are identified within the black women’s experiences, when put into comparison with the experiences of non-women of color display the reason why discrepancies are revealed within being a feminist in the United States, and being a black feminist within the United States. This phenomenon of black women being both excluded and neglected from the feminist movement is not one that is new or original. For instance, when discussing the women’s Suffrage Movement, women demanded they be given the right to vote beginning as early as 1848. In an article published by Wesleyan University titled Black Women and The Suffrage Movement 1848-1923, it reads:
As the movement progressed…Susan B. Anthony spoke loudly stating, “[i] will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman.” White and Black women fought among and between themselves over the best course of action. Sojourner Truth, who had already experienced her own personal struggle toward freedom from slavery, remained unwavering in her support of women’s rights. In her unique way, Sojourner commented on the issue in 1876… “I feel that I have the right to have just as much as a man. There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and colored women not theirs, the colored men will be masters over the women and it will be just as bad as it was before.”
Just after reading these first-hand statements from women who were essentially fighting towards the same goal, it is quite easy to identify the disparities within their arguments. Susan B. Anthony, in a manner that we would consider to be quite problematic today, explicitly excludes black women from the suffrage movement. When putting this statement into comparison with Sojourner Truths, we are shown a primary example of this internalized battle that black women are forced to overcome each day. Truth acknowledging both of her identities, does not and simply cannot choose one that she believes would provide her with stronger armor as she fights her battles. Truth alternatively must continue to fight for both intersections of her identity, which in this case happen to be suffrage for African Americans, and additionally suffrage for women. As the quote cited earlier states, “[Truth] remained unwavering in her support of women’s rights.” This article continues on discussing in detail various situations in which black women are essentially neglected by ‘National Women Movements.’ One movement occurred during the rise of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, (WCTU) founded in 1874. The WCTU was supportive of two separate black and white unions, but one white woman spoke up on this controversy stating that this distinction of the unions encouraged racism within the movement, which then allowed some black women to rise to positions of prominence as the article states. Anna Julia Cooper, whom the article provides with an epithet of ‘staunch suffragist,’ is widely known for her blatant statement “Only the BLACK WOMAN can say when and where I enter in the quiet undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence or special patronage; then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.” As Cooper simply put, it’s clear that regardless of which identity black women assume first, their support for each of the identity groups they are within, which ultimately stems from their expectation to support individuals within each identity, never waivers.
In light of more recent events, it’s quite appalling to discover that this phenomenon of excluding and neglecting black women is one that is still prevalent. Last March, a nearly world-wide Women’s March was planned in order to protest Donald Trump’s Rhetoric and policies that organizers believed undermined women across identities. Being one of the largest organized marches within the last decade, the Woman’s March had at least 4.2 million women, men, and kids of all ages participating. Although, many black women were skeptical to participate due to this exclusion that was and currently is being practiced. Sherri Williams writes in an article titled Historic Exclusion from Feminist Spaces Leaves Black Women skeptical of March “white feminists have a complicated history with women of color that leaves some black women skeptical of efforts like the Women’s March.” Tamika D. Mallory, a national co-chair of the march frankly questions the feminist movement asking, “[h]ow can we allow anyone to speak on the issues of women and not have women of color, particularly black women, involved? We should not allow ourselves to be an agenda item. We need to set the agenda.” As Anna Julia Cooper stated earlier, only black women can speak on experiences of black women and for this to be possible black women must be equally represented and included. Mallory in accordance with Cooper, bluntly puts into perspective the additional griefs black women experience and the additional efforts they must exert in order to navigate the world, conscious of their equally significant identities, while attempting to remain a powerful force within these movements. It consistently appears that the only individuals who are fighting for black women, are the ones who show a genuine care that the innate rights of black women be protected, and coincidentally, these individuals are black women.
The irony that arises from this situation arises from the fact that although black women are often left out of the issues that pertain to their blackness and equally their femininity, they are also the ones who are incessantly at the front line of each and every social movement that pertains to their identities. When using the last presidential election as an example, research done by Alec Tyson and Shiva Maniam, in an article titled Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education, displays that fifty-three percent of white women voted for Donald Trump while ninety-four percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton. For an equally marginalized group of women, a clear and sizeable margin is evident and distinctly divided by race. In response to this appalling voter turnout, Williams describes Gwendolyn Pough, a professor in the Women and gender studies department at Syracuse University, stating: “[t]oday’s attempt at solidarity cannot be trusted because given the numbers, some of the same white women who put on pantsuits on Election Day walked into the voting booths and cast a ballot for Trump and they’ll likely be at the march.”
In addition to black women contributing to one of the largest gender gaps in presidential voting preference, they are also relentlessly fighting at the front lines of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The movement itself was created by three black women, and since then black women have been taking action to organize marches, protests, sit-ins, and various other events in order to respond to police brutality within their communities. Even with this immeasurable participation by black women, the BLM movement, which as described on their website “is a chapter-based member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities,” is often misconstrued in the public eye to be a movement which gives its undivided attention to the experiences of black men and police brutality. Though, black women are incessantly attempting to refocus attention on how these similar issues affecting black men, are impacting black women at the same rate and magnitude. In an article titled Women and Black Lives Matter: An Interview with Marcia Chatelain, Kaavya Asoka writes “they [black women] are not only highlighting the impact of police violence on these communities, but articulating why a movement for racial justice but necessarily be inclusive.” Movements such as Say Her Name, highlight just how much the efforts black women are making are impacting the movement, similar to the 2016 presidential election. In the interview Asoka asks: are there others who are articulating this fight for racial justice in explicitly feminist terms? In response, Chatelain states,
Black Lives Matter is feminist in its interrogation of state power and its critique of structural inequality. It is also forcing a conversation about gender and racial politics that we need to have – Women at the forefront of this movement are articulating that ‘black lives’ does not only mean men’s lives or cisgender lives or respectable lives or the lives that are legitimated by state power or privilege.
The question of where is the line drawn for black women when discussing their femininity and their blackness and additionally, the question of where do the discrepancies lie within being a feminist in America and being a black feminist in America are both questions that open ground to further discussions that must be held. Putting various scholarly perspectives, such as ones provided by Ahmed, Brown, and Pough, into conversation with the perspectives that are more commonly held by the public, we were able to recontextualize this scholarly controversy. When discoursing black women’s two identities, they are congruently significant and black women are required to inform their choices on a day to day basis as they navigate the world conscious of the pain of these two equally significant identities: their duty as a ‘saviors’ to the black community and additionally their duty as women. While the individuals in various sub-communities within the feminist identity group and also within the African American group have the luxury of living between multiple identities, black women simply do not. Black women are not granted this luxury of choosing which battles they fight nor are they granted the luxury of being ‘free’ within the scopes of either of their identities. As Laura Smith states in an article published by Timeline titled, When Feminism Ignored The Needs of Black Women, a Mighty Force was Born: “If black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression.”