Further To Fly: Black Women and the Politics of Empowerment

Notes

Preface 1. Sonia Sanchez captures the feelings that I am describing better than any other poet. See her We a BaddDDD People (1970), especially “blk rhetoric”: “who’s gonna make all that beautiful blk / rhetoric mean something” (15). See also Kazembe (1999), especially “james crow” (16–19). Introduction 1. Notable exceptions include the pro-choice debates and the writings of black feminists such as Deborah K. King, Deborah E. McDowell, Hazel V. Carby, and Darlene Clark Hine, who tried in the 1980s to influence critical social debates in an era when intellectuals increasingly ignored the dynamics of race on the power relations in America and around the world. Throughout this period, young women grew increasingly alienated from politically correct feminism. See Rebecca Walker (1995, xxxv–xxxvi). 1. Toward an Authentic Feminsim 1. In her discussion of feminist identity politics, hooks states: “Often in these settings [where black women convene to talk about gender issues] the word ‘feminism’ is evoked in negative terms. . . . I hear black women academics laying claim to the term ‘womanist’ while rejecting ‘feminist.’ I do not think Alice Walker intended this term to deflect from feminist commitment, yet this is often how it is evoked. . . . [ The term] is viewed as constituting something separate from feminist politics shaped by white women. For me, the term ‘womanist’ is not sufficiently linked to a tradition of radical political commitment to struggle and change” (1989, 181–82). See also Collins (1996). 2. Uses and Limits of Black Feminist Theory and the Decline of Black Women’s Empowerment 1. Only a small part of Gordon’s substantive arguments are presented here. Gordon’s work explores the philosophical aspects of black existence using the insights of phenomenological existentialism. I explore critical race theory, but not primarily from a philosophical perspective. 2. In his essay “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections,” K. Anthony Appiah provides an extensive historical critique of race, culture, and identity to argue Notes 105 that there are no races (Appiah and Gutmann, 1996). Coauthor Amy Gutmann, in her response , entitled “Responding to Racial Injustice,” argues that race discrimination is a fundamental principle used to perpetuate injustice in America. Society’s benefits and burdens are unequally distributed on the basis of race. Gutmann argues that replacing unjust policies with just ones requires the use of color-conscious policies that are consistent with the fundamental equality of all human beings. She also argues for a change in the public debate based on the premise that a color-blind morality that is designed to be applied in an ideal society is not adequate to resolve the problem of color in our nonideal society: “Yet racial injustice in this society today is not simply derivative of economic, racial and educational injustice. Principles of economic and educational equity therefore are inadequate to resolve the problem of racial injustice. . . . When we take a close look at the claims of an ideal color blind morality applied without modification to our non-ideal society, we see much that is mistaken with such a simple application” (108). 3. Gender and Community 1. For a personalized discussion of issues related to middle-class and poor black children , see Marian Wright Edelman’s The Measure of Our Success (1992). 2. Colin Greer, “Something Is Robbing Our Children of Their Future,” Chicago Tribune , Parade magazine, March 5, 1995, 4–6. Greer cites interesting statistics regarding hunger in America at the time. Based on information provided by the Food Research and Action Center, more than 5 million children under twelve went hungry each month. Moreover , “42% of American children grow up in low-income families while of these, 23% grow up in households below poverty. This is double the child poverty rate of any industrialized country.” 3. For a poignant discussion of this issue, see Haki Madhubuti (1990, 173–83). 4. For an example of this point, see Shelby Steele (1990, 93–109). 4. The Crisis of Black Womanhood 1. The history of black feminist organizing specifies the nature of the attacks against black feminists. Toni Cade Bambara describes the situation as follows: “We missed a moment in the early ’60s. We missed two things. One, at a time when we were beginning to lay the foundation for a national black women’s union and for a national strategy for organizing, we did not have enough heart nor a solid enough analysis that would equip us to respond in a positive and constructive way to the fear in the community from black men as...