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CHAPTER 7 A Black Gender Gap? Continuity and Change in Attitudes toward Black Feminism
- Temple University Press
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C H A P T E R S E V E N A Black Gender Gap? Continuity and Change in Attitudes toward Black Feminism EVELYN M. SIMIEN U SING DATA FROM the 1993–1994 National Black Politics Study and the 2004–2005 National Black Feminist Study, I observe a gender gap in attitudes toward black feminism among African Americans. The male-female difference is attributable to an attitudinal shift on the part of men that has persisted and widened over time. The attitudes of African American men are, on the whole, more liberal and progressive than the attitudes of African American women. In this chapter, I consider whether black feminist consciousness affects political behavior in general and various modes of political behavior in particular. I find that black feminists have been successful at galvanizing a mass following that actively participates in politics. Introduction One thing about African American public opinion is clear. Both the women’s liberation and black civil rights movements have had a profound effect on attitudes toward gender equality and feminist priorities among African Americans. It is not so much the case that black civil society has come to embrace feminisms, nor has it come to identify with the goals and objectives of the women’s liberation movement per se. Rather, the effect is seen in the controversy that black feminism has engendered within African American communities concerning the simultaneity of oppression and the belief that such co-dependent variables as race, class, gender , and sexuality cannot be separated (or ranked) in lived experience. Time and time again, African American women have felt forced to choose between their commitments to women’s liberation and to black civil rights. The Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas and Desiree Washington/Mike Tyson episodes have made this much clear. In 1991, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was accused of sexual harassment. His accuser, Anita Hill, was a black female law professor at the University of Oklahoma. Despite her testimony, the Senate voted 52 to 48 to confirm Thomas’s nomination to the Supreme Court. In 1992, the former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, went on trial for the rape of Miss Black Rhode Island, Desiree Washington. Tyson was convicted on February 10, 1992. Both controversies drew critical attention to issues of vital concern to black women—sexual harassment and rape. However, the interests of black women and black men were pitted against each other, and many in black communities across this country lined up on the side of black men (Gay and Tate 1998; White 1999). Supporters saw Clarence Thomas and Mike Tyson as high-profile victims of racial discrimination. Anita Hill and Desiree Washington, on the other hand, were considered part of a larger conspiracy to sabotage the successful careers of upwardly mobile black men (White 1999). In light of these two examples, the gender gap in attitudes toward black feminism has real-world implications for the conduct of legislative proceedings and outcomes of judicial decisions. An understanding of the gender gap in attitudes toward black feminism can alert us to issues relevant to racial group consensus that black politicians and civil rights activists can use for the purpose of mobilizing the electorate and organizing the grassroots. Hence, the role of political scientists in raising consciousness and awareness about those circumstances that impinge on the lives of black women—sexual harassment and rape—cannot be overestimated, as they are not divisive issues but matters of vital concern to all people committed to social justice within and outside black communities. The formation of African American public opinion takes place constantly as individual members of the race react to the world around them. African Americans are bombarded with persuasive communications daily from media outlets and information networks, local black leaders and civil rights activists, and voluntary organizations and religious spaces, as well as friends and family (Harris-Lacewell 2004). This flood of incoming information has a tremendous impact on the way African American men and women think about the simultaneity of oppression, which makes it especially difficult to predict the nature of African American public opinion and how it changes. To date, the aggregate patterns and trends in race and gender (or feminist) consciousness have not received considerable attention . Relatively little is known about the level of support for black feminist consciousness among African Americans, particularly over time. Utilizing data from the 1993–1994 National Black Politics Study (NBPS) and the 2004–2005 National Black Feminist Study (NBFS...