The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions. We need to articulate the real class situation of persons who are not merely raceless, sexless workers, but for whom racial and sexual oppression are significant determinants in their working/economic lives. For example, we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being ladylike and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. We are socialists because we believe that work must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work and create the products, and not for the profit of the bosses. We must realize that men and women are a complement to each other because there is no house/family without a man and his wife. 12, No. The members of the Combahee River Collective march down Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, at a 1979 memorial for murdered women of color. We hope you find it a valuable resource for yourself, and for students. Illustration by Palesa Monareng; Source photograph by Vivien Killilea / MAKERS / Getty. Demita Frazier had been a member of the Black Panther Party in Chicago, right up until the Chicago police helped to assassinate the Panther leader Fred Hampton, in 1969. All Rights Reserved. Instinctively, many of us turn to history as a way to grasp some frame of reference. . The fact that individual Black feminists are living in isolation all over the country, that our own numbers are small, and that we have some skills in writing, printing, and publishing makes us want to carry out these kinds of projects as a means of organizing Black feminists as we continue to do political work in coalition with other groups. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Do you find this information helpful? This became the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO). Accusations that Black feminism divides the Black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous Black womens movement. We feel that it is absolutely essential to demonstrate the reality of our politics to other Black women and believe that we can do this through writing and distributing our work. The women of the C.R.C. "w- d4bJeR|oEj ')IwLDc8="zJ 8X!. This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever consIdered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. We have arrived at the necessity for developing an understanding of class relationships that takes into account the specific class position of Black women who are generally marginal in the labor force, while at this particular time some of us are temporarily viewed as doubly desirable tokens at white-collar and professional levels. 2 (2011), pp. Respond to the following prompts in 300+ words (total), with reference to the Module 2 texts: Both "Ain't I a Woman?" and "A Black Feminist Statement: The Combahee River Collective" make statements in response to exclusionary aspects of feminist activism in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively. A combined anti-racist and anti-sexist position drew us together initially, and as we developed politically we addressed ourselves to heterosexism and economic oppression under capItalism. Above all else, Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody elses may because of our need as human persons for autonomy. Heres some of what has happened since they began. In my Intro to Womens Studies class, one white woman, who said she was from Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, chafed at what she described as the divisiveness of Black feminism. We had always shared our reading with each other, and some of us had written papers on Black feminism for group discussion a few months before this decision was made. As Black feminists we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism, which requires among other things that they have a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and Black history and culture. It was the overlap of race, gender, and the aspirations to the comfort of a class that she poked around the edges of but could not ultimately break into. 4-5. Tessa_Nunn. described how the myriad ways that Black women experienced oppression could translate into a radical rejection of the status quo. However, we had no way of conceptualizing what was so apparent to us, what we knew was really happening. I had been a socialist since I was fourteen, and, in the groups that I had become active with, feminism was always painted as hostile to socialism. gave us the political tools to understand the difference between bottom-up and top-down politics, and their distorted manifestation in the identity politics of today. We had been reading about divisions within the feminist . There is a very low value placed upon Black womens psyches in this society, which is both racist and sexist. Protests of George Floyds Killing Transform Into a Global Movement. More generally, Black men dominated the leadership of the organized Black left. May 28-29, 1851 The Combahee River Collective, A Black Feminist Statement. The inclusiveness of our politics makes us concerned with any situation that impinges upon the lives of women, Third World and working people. 350-354, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Meridians, Vol. Analyzing the Combahee River Collective as a Social Movement In her introduction to Sisterhood is Powerful Robin Morgan writes: [1] During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with . Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g. 2. The term "identity politics" was first coined by Black feminist Barbara Smith and the Combahee River Collective in 1974. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face. I kept coming back to the C.R.C.s basic claim: We realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy. For this month's Annotations series, we chose the Combahee River Collective Statement, written in 1977 and first published in Zillah Eisenstein, ed., Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, 1979. Although we are in essential agreement with Marxs theory as it applied to the very specific economic relationships he analyzed, we know that his analysis must be extended further in order for us to understand our specific economic situation as Black women. Black womens extremely negative relationship to the American political system (a system of white male rule) has always been determined by our membership in two oppressed racial and sexual castes. Before becoming leader of communist China, Mao was an ardent library patron and then worked as a library assistant. Combahee River Collective Statement Analysis | ipl.org 1 (Spring, 2001), pp. We are committed to a continual examination of our politics as they develop through criticism and self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice. Material resources must be equally distributed among those who create these resources. 1-17, Negro History Bulletin, Vol. In this way, the C.R.C. 16 minutes. The Combahee River Collective and Intersectionality in the Age of Material resources must be equally distributed among those who create these resources. It leaves out far too much and far too many people, particularly Black men, women, and children. Support JSTOR Daily! We have also done many workshops and educationals on Black feminism on college campuses, at womens conferences, and most recently for high school women. ITHAKA. Demonstrations following the murder of Floyd enter their third week. To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough. A Black feminist presence has evolved most obviously in connection with the second wave of the American womens movement beginning in the late 1960s. connecting together (qui s'imbrique) manifold. The Combahee River Collective is devoted to fighting race, sex, and class oppression. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. And, trust me, very few people agreed that we did have that right in the nineteen-seventies. 2 (Spring, 2001), pp. Black, other Third World, and working women have been involved in the feminist movement from its start, but both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself have served to obscure our participation. In 2016, as the fortieth anniversary of the Combahee Statement approached, I realized that it would be an opportunity to draw attention back to the document and its astounding prescience and analysis, and to complicate a stilted and unsatisfying national discussion about who the real inheritors were of socialist politics in the United States. 113, No. We just wanted to see what we had. We just wanted to see what we had. We are not convinced, however, that a socialist revolution that is not also a feminist and anti-racist revolution will guarantee our liberation. Even our Black womens style of talking/testifying in Black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. In a political moment when futile arguments claimed to pit race against class, and identity politics against mass movements, the C.R.C. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving correct political goals. Identity politics originated from the need to reshape movements that had until then prioritized the monotony of sameness over the strategic value of difference. Statement Combahee River Collective We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. How is the name of the group related to Harriet Tubman? Although we are in essential agreement with Marxs theory as it applied to the very specific economic relationships he analyzed, we know that his analysis must be extended further in order for us to understand our specific economic situation as Black women. I was still annoyed by her absence and neglect when I was younger. Although we are feminists and Lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. 1. In the fall, when some members returned, we experienced several months of comparative inactivity and internal disagreements which were first conceptualized as a Lesbian-straight split but which were also the result of class and political differences. 3 (2017), pp. As we have already stated, we reject the stance of Lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. In 1973, Black feminists, primarily located in New York, felt the necessity of forming a separate Black feminist group. If the 1960s was America's decade of mass mobilisation, the 1970s perhaps saw the greatest explosion of groups clambering for their rights to simply exist. Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free We believe in collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society. Combahee River Collective (1974-1980) - BlackPast.org Equally dismayed by the direction of the feminist movement, which they believed to be dominated by middle-class white women, and the suffocating masculinity in Black-nationalist organizations, they set out to formulate their own politics and strategies in response to their distinct experiences as Black women. As the statement read: We need to articulate the real class situation of persons who are not merely raceless, sexless workers, but for whom racial and sexual oppression are significant determinants in their working/economic lives. She and my father met in high school, dated through college, and eventually landed in graduate school, at SUNY Buffalo, in the early nineteen-seventies. We feel that it is absolutely essential to demonstrate the reality of our politics to other Black women and believe that we can do this through writing and distributing our work. Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors. As Smith put it, These people were looking at the situation and saying, What we have here is not working. Doris Jeanne Taylors life was unceremoniously extinguished two weeks after she entered the hospital. The value of men and women can be seen as in the value of gold and silverthey are not equal but both have great value. The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. 3/4, THE 1970s (FALL/WINTER 2015), pp. We understand that it is and has been traditional that the man is the head of the house. They could not stop our lights from being periodically turned off, or a steady stream of bill collectors from coming to our front door. Black feminists and many more Black women who do not define themselves as feminists have all experienced sexual oppression as a constant factor in our day-to-day existence. When, in the early eighties, my mother got burned out from haggling with less qualified white male administrators and a fancy career that was going nowhere fast, she started a house-cleaning business. She didnt know about the Volcker Shock and the recession that would follow. In the fall, when some members returned, we experienced several months of comparative inactivity and internal disagreements which were first conceptualized as a Lesbian-straight split but which were also the result of class and political differences. Three of her brothers followed her to Dallas, and one, a Vietnam veteran, lived in our garage for a time, as he tried to jump-start his life. Smith told me, Im not convinced that, despite the millions of people who are out in the streets expressing that they are done with things as they areIm not convinced that that translates into a movement. 1-32, The Journal of African American History, Vol. 571-582, By: Leslie Bow, Avtar Brah, Mishuana Goeman, Diane Harriford, Analouise Keating, Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, Laura Prez, Becky Thompson, Zenaida Peterson, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Kristen A. Kolenz, Krista L. Benson, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Shari M. Huhndorf, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. The overwhelming feeling that we had is that after years and years we had finally found each other. Stemming out of growing disillusionments with mainstream feminism, the Collective was a Boston-based organisation of Black queer socialist activists. 13, No. We believe in collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society. 21-43, Meridians, Vol. y~ ;`bz*,f-Fu\i We were not being reductive, we were not being separatists, she said. The fact that racial politics and indeed racism are pervasive factors in our lives did not allow us, and still does not allow most Black women, to look more deeply into our own experiences and, from that sharing and growing consciousness, to build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression. Rr_||2=?|,f]a]IWrYWs~qH(OSn4b$ yV_IU{L]HJ>l#)r<1-a/ %}:f4&-4qIQ >zx /w\p @0P' During our years together as a Black feminist collective we have experienced success and defeat, joy and pain, victory and failure. We have spent a great deal of energy delving into the cultural and experiential nature of our oppression out of necessity because none of these matters has ever been looked at before. The Combahee River Collective, founded by black feminists and lesbians in Boston, Massachusetts in 1974, was best known for its Combahee River Collective Statement. We have tried to think about the reasons for our difficulties, particularly since the white womens movement continues to be strong and to grow in many directions. An example of this kind of revelation/conceptualization occurred at a meeting as we discussed the ways in which our early intellectual interests had been attacked by our peers, particularly Black males. We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. 22, No. The work to be done and the countless issues that this work represents merely reflect the pervasiveness of our oppression. A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, The Village Voice, 28 July 1975, pp. And every Black woman who came, came out of a strongly-felt need for some level of possibility that did not previously exist in her life. I first encountered the Combahee River Collective Statement in a womens-studies class, my second year of college at SUNY Buffalo. http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html. We are socialists because we believe that work must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work and create the products, and not for the profit of the bosses. [3] They are perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement,[4] a key document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity as used among political organizers and social theorists.[5][6]. We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. Men are not equal to other men, i.e. But my mothers experiences were altogether different. As Black feminists and Lesbians we know that we have a very definite revolutionary task to perform and we are ready for the lifetime of work and struggle before us. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political . Key concepts addressed in assigned readings. ability, experience or even understanding. We began functioning as a study group and also began discussing the possibility of starting a Black feminist publication. 3, Gendering the Carceral State: African American Women, History, and the Criminal Justice System (Summer 2015), pp. In her introduction to Sisterhood is Powerful Robin Morgan writes: I havent the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white heterosexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary-vested-interest-power. 50, No. Still, hundreds of women have been active at different times during the three-year existence of our group. To clarify, the woman said she was as much in solidarity with the women who cleaned her home as she was with white middle-class women like herself, who had also been trained to lower their horizons and expect less out of life. Alone: Black Socialist Feminism and the Combahee River Collective The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977) by Combahee River Collective. But we do not have the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per sei.e., their biological malenessthat makes them what they are. We exists as women who are Black who are feminists, each stranded for the moment, working independently because there is not yet an environment in this society remotely congenial to our strugglebecause, being on the bottom, we would have to do what no one else has done: we would have to fight the world. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody elses oppression. 3, Why We Cant Wait: (Re)Examining the Opportunities and Challenges for Black Women and Girls in Education (Summer 2016), pp. 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 the systems of oppression. Created by. Analyzing the Combahee River Collective as a Social Movement . A few years ago, Barbara Smith told me that she and her comrades believed that, by naming the group after the Combahee River Raid, they were both honoring Harriet Tubman and indicating that liberation required political action. 428-447, The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol. Have a correction or comment about this article? 2-3, Hypatia, Vol. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. It was one of, if not the first, documents to coin and define identity politics, and its descriptions of interlocking systems of oppression are integral to Kimberl Crenshaws concept of intersectionality. It was not until long after her death that I saw the composite portrait of a single Black mother, raising two kids with a bankruptcy scuttling her credit, a perpetually faulty car draining her bank account, and a broad network of family members to care for. One of our members did attend and despite the narrowness of the ideology that was promoted at that particular conference, we became more aware of the need for us to understand our own economic situation and to make our own economic analysis. They disbanded in 1980 due to internal disagreements. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women by white men as a weapon of political repression. The collective joined together to develop the Combahee River Collective Statement, which was a . The overwhelming majority of Black women were working-class and were forced to labor both outside and inside their homes. Of course, what comes next will depend on what those who constitute the movement do. We might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. In the 1970's African American women created the Combahee River Collective to address the unique struggles that African American women face in their day-to-day lives. Summary: The Combahee River Collective | ipl.org It had never occurred to me that the framework of race was not nearly capacious enough to capture the particular ways that Black women experienced American society. The Combahee River Collective formed in Boston, in 1974, during a period that regularly produced organizations that claimed the mantle of radical or revolutionary struggle. PDF The Combahee River Collective Statement - Yale University The C.R.C. Flashcards. As feminists we do not want to mess over people in the name of politics. As BIack women we find any type of biological determinism a particularly dangerous and reactionary basis upon which to build a politic. We realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material conditions of most Black women would hardly lead them to upset both economic and sexual arrangements that seem to represent some stability in their lives. Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work. The material conditions of most Black women would hardly lead them to upset both economic and sexual arrangements that seem to represent some stability in their lives. When we first started meeting early in 1974 after the NBFO first eastern regional conference, we did not have a strategy for organizing, or even a focus. The C.R.C. Our development must also be tied to the contemporary economic and political position of Black people. As we grew older we became aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse by men. Thus, the women of the C.R.C believed that, if Black women were successful in their struggles and movements, they would have an impact far beyond their immediate demands. The Combahee Collective's 1977 "A Black Feminist Statement" was, and still is, a crucial statement of black feminism.