"ain't i a woman"

(black women and feminism)

-by bell hooks

1981

A stunningly insightful analysis of the place of black wimyn in America, covering all the changes in attitude and treatment over the past few centuries. Bell reserves her deepest analysis for how the civil rights movement of the 60s and the feminist movement of the 70s were both doomed to failure, for the same reason - erasing black wimyn from consideration. Furthermore, both movements were designed to fight discrimination, yet accept oppression as a whole.

The civil rights movement was content to embrace sexism, as long as the black man was elevated. The feminist movement was content to embrace racism. And both movements accepted classist patriarchy, as long as their core constituents were given more access to its fruits. Social movements throwing other disempowered groups under the bus, is sadly nothing new.

The book also made me see one of my own blind spots (for someone who has spent a lifetime trying to strip away the lies of sexism and racism, this was a tough pill to swallow). One of my favorite john lennon songs has always been "Woman is the [racist epithet] of the World". In applying the lens bell offers, i realized the song has an enormous cognitive disconnect, for it only makes sense if you equate "woman" with non-black wimyn. If you include black wimyn, the sentiment includes the thought "black wimyn are the [racist epithet] of the world", a thought that is logically incoherent. That's my own example, but bell offers many others which show how black wimyn, living at the intersection of racism and sexism, are culturally erased in ways that are so ingrained into our language and assumptions, you might miss them entirely even when you ARE looking. Bell acknowledges how these insidious erasures can arise unconsciously, even in movements with otherwise noble intent.

A towering book.