Black Feminism/Women's Participation
What is a womanist?
Womanist definitions:
A black feminist or feminist of color; someone who is committed to the wholeness and well-being of all of humanity, male and female.
Having or expressing a belief in or respect for women and their talents and abilities beyond the boundaries of race and class:
Alice Walker: “Womanism is to Feminism as Purple is to Lavender”- Basically, womanism is more descriptive and precise than feminism.
Black feminist and Womanist organizations include the Combahee River Collective
What are the two kinds of gerrymandering? Describe their intent.
Racial
Partisan
Intent is to either create a racial and/or partisan stronghold that elects certain politicians and pushes through certain policies. Oftentimes these overlap and are not distinct from one another.
What happened to the Black Left?
NAACP distanced itself from Black leftists to appeal to a broader audience.
Internal issues: a lack of critical, consistent activism that critiques sexism and classism.
External issues: The Red Scare (atmosphere of fear through surveillance and policing); The Black Power Movement engaged in more radical reimaginings of Black futures, as opposed to the more established organizations (like the NAACP).
Why is perceiving the U.S. as a colorblind society problematic? How does it pose problems for addressing racism as explained by Dr. Michelle Alexander?
By viewing the U.S. as post-race, it muddies our ability to see the persistence of racial injustice embedded in our systems of governance.
Name three violations of the 4th amendment when it comes to policing civilians.
Stop and Frisk
“Probable cause”
No knock entry
Right to a speedy trial revoked/or is drawn out to encourage a plea
Excessive bail/punishment
When did Black women get the right to vote? What amendment is this associated with? What barriers existed to suppress voting and/or political participation through voting?
Barriers: gerrymandering, various voting registration laws, absentee voting (restrictions), early voting (restrictions), ID requirements, DMV closures, Voter roll purges (those with common last names with those incarcerated taken off the roll),
When was the Great Migration, and how did it impact Black communities in the U.S.?
(1915-1940) Migration of around 6 million Black folks from the rural South to North, Midwest, and West.
Lack of employment opportunities and the racism of the South encouraged migration.
What do the acronyms SNCC and NAACP stand for? What work did they engage in?
SNCC = Originally Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, then switched to Student National Coordinating Committee. They increased Black political power and worked to dismantle segregation, initially taking a non-violent and non-threatening approach. They conducted voter registration drives, non-violent protests, freedom rides, and eventually took more militant, Black power, approaches. Achieved legislative wins along with the larger Civil Rights Movement. Student-led.
NAACP = National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Like SNCC, they fought for civil rights and did so through legal and political action, ensuring equality for minority groups in the U.S. They played a roll in Brown v. Board of Education, and advocated for the Civil Rights Act. Desegregation of schools, campaigning against violence against Black folks, access to public transportation, Etc. Work continues today.
What triggered the Attica Prison Riot?
Attica Prison riot - Attica NY State prison that experienced a take over by Black and Puerto Rican prisoners in 1971 due to bad conditions, lack of education opportunities; wanted amnesty and had list of demands their attempts at negotiating their issues failed with Governor Nelson Rockefeller sent in troops who killed large number of inmates 33 and 10 hostages
What kind of programs were prioritized (and deprioritized) in the 80s-90s?
War on Drugs/Crime - expansion of the punishment industry
Policing and surveillence industries thrived
Corporations/their growth was prioritized, while working class American programming suffered - beginning of the neoliberal era
Jobs sent overseas, government jobs not as secure as they were
Teaching deprioritized/unsupported while policing/fire jobs were exalted
Name two Black Feminists and some of their contributions to the movement
Claudia Jones
- Leftist; wrote about race, class, and gender.
-Deported and imprisoned under the Smith Act.
-She went to London, where she was granted asylum.
-Started the first Black English Newspaper, “The West Indian Gazette”
Angela Davis
-Queer Black leftist, Black Panther, prison abolitionist, etc.
-Incarcerated for under a year for militancy and organizing efforts.
Audre Lorde
-Wrote essays that covered racism, sexism, classism, etc. Most notable for “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”
-Queer Black activist and feminist
Bell Hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Toni Morisson, and many more can be argued to be feminists without necessarily identifying themselves as such.
What was the Red Scare, and which Black activists were victimized by the Red Scare?
The Red Scare describes two periods in American History during which activists were accused of working against the U.S. Empire, subjecting those folks to surveillance and criminalization. Broadly, it was between 1917 and 1954.
DuBois- against nuclear proliferation - was arrested, tried in court. Had passport revoked for 7 years to limit organizing activities.
Claudia Jones - Convicted/deported
Paul Robeson - Passport seized for 9 years. Was blacklisted from the entertainment industry. Career and health suffered as a result.
Ben Davis - Communist in NYC council. Convicted and imprisoned, wealth deteriorated while in prison.
Groundwork for COINTELPro Surveillance
What is Black Nationalism? Name three Black Nationalists. Name 2 Black Nationalist Movements/Organizations.
Black nationalism refers to a sense of belonging that transcends national borders, where being Black becomes the identifier that brings people together.
Some Black nationalists sought a homeland of their own, naming Africa and parts of the U.S. as potential spaces for the creation of a Black nation.
It appeals to the unity and self-determination of Black people nationally and internationally.
Black Nationalism was thought to bring freedom to the world, rejecting
Three Black nationalists:
Hubert Harrison- Socialist, Pan-Africanist, editor of a Black newspaper.
Marcus Garvey
Amy Garvey
Henrietta V Davis
Langston Hughes
WEB DuBois
Malcolm X
Other Black Panthers…
More!!!
What was the Birmingham Movement of 1963? How did it start?
Domino effect of events… The head of the NAACP was assassinated, and kids were protesting and were arrested as a result. Not only were they arrested, but they were brutalized by the police, which was documented by national tv. Led to the March on Washington (the largest one), triggering white supremacists to act.
Led to the bombing of the 16th St. Church in Birmingham by white supremacists.
Led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
MLK Jr.'s I had a dream speech
Largest march on the National Mall at the time with over 250k attendees.
What is the difference between a food desert and food apartheid?
Desert: healthy food options restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient distance.
Food Apartheid: ask us to look at the root causes of inequity in our food system on the basis of race, class, and geography deeply entrenched in historical, political, social, and economic systems needs to be met (Ex: Indigenous sovereignty)
How did WW2 Impact Black Women's employment?
WW2 pushed Black women into the labor force during the war, but once soldiers came back, many Black women (and other WOC) were the first to lose their jobs.
Black women radicals began/continued to theorize the impacts of class, race, and gender.
What was the paradox of integration/dissolution of segregation? (Think of the programs that were poured into vs. the programs that suffered)
The paradox = desegregation didn't solve all problems; cultural and societal changes were needed to undo centuries of racism.
Describe what happened in Montgomery, Alabama, between the years 1955 and 1957.
Rosa Parks, an assistant/secretary to the NAACP, refused to move from her seat to accommodate white folks on the bus.
Led to the Montgomery Improvement Meeting led by Dr. MLK Jr. → coordinated bus boycotts. “Everyday resistance”
This impacted the bus industry in Montgomery and led to a crackdown on illegal taxing. Walking for more than one year.
Name three riots and/or movements against police brutality or the prison-industrial complex.
Zoot Suit Riots (1943)
Impacted Black and Brown men. White servicemen beat Black and Mexican men for the way they dressed/their race
Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name
Attica Prison riot - Attica NY State prison that experienced a take over by Black and Puerto Rican prisoners in 1971 due to bad conditions, lack of education opportunities; wanted amnesty and had list of demands their attempts at negotiating their issues failed with Governor Nelson Rockefeller sent in troops who killed large number of inmates 33 and 10 hostages
Watts riot
Ferguson Uprising
Many more
Name two examples of either reparations movements, or EJ movements.
Open to answers as long as you can write/talk about it!
What was the Combahee River Collective? How did they choose their name? What did they believe in?
Named after Tubman’s attack on confederate troops
Consisted of a group of Boston based activists and writers who critiqued interlocking systems of oppression, including oppression of queer folks.
Who was Charles Hamilton Houston? What was his legal strategy for Brown Vs. the Board of Education? What amendment did he use to argue his cases?
Houston was a lawyer who advanced a legal strategy to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson, arguing that separate but equal policies in the U.S. were legal.
He begins his legal strategy (which culminates in Brown v. Board of Education) by targeting segregated law schools, unequal teaching salaries, public accommodations, transportation, labor laws, real estate, voting rights, etc.
14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause!!!
Barriers: The State responded to Black lawsuits with force, societal and cultural changes needed to bring forth equality in the workplace.
Describe three key moments and/or contributions of the urban Black Power Movement of the 1960s.
Shifting tide towards militancy instead of strictly non-violent methods.
“Freedom got a shotgun” protest chant
“Black Power” as a chant/slogan instilled fear in White folks
Black Power militancy was linked with other international militant movements of the time.
Black Panther contributions
Black Liberation Army contributions
What is the “new jim crow”? Who coins this phrase? How does mass incarceration impact Black families and Black communities at large? Why did mass incarceration increase despite crime decreases?
Open to interpretation/ answers
What is environmental racism? What does environmental justice look like? What are the three dimensions of EJ?
Environmental Racism: describes the unequal distribution ofenvironmental benefits and pollution burdens based on race(inequities)
Racial Discrimination in policymaking, deliberate targeting of communities of color, and exclusion of POC from mainstream environmental groups, decision boards etc.
Vulnerable communities “bearing the brunt of ‘unintended consequences’” from the final decisions of governing bodies - Chavis
Environmental Justice
-Justice as recognition
-Procedural, participatory justice
-Distributive