Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving correct political goals. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work. 22, No. [3]. We discovered that all of us, because we were smart had also been considered ugly, i.e., smart-ugly. Smart-ugly crystallized the way in which most of us had been forced to develop our intellects at great cost to our social lives. 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. 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. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess anyone of these types of privilege have. Thats what we meant by identity politics, that we have a right. The statement is an important piece of feminist theory and description of black feminism (Balliet, pg. 113, No. We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. But we can take inspiration from the imaginative optimism of the Combahee Statement. Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g. We reprint that version here in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of its publication by Monthly Review Press. We have a great deal of criticism and loathing for what men have been socialized to be in this society: what they support, how they act, and how they oppress. hTmO0+i%T/tEFCh)4U{Pl0Y%sXjbI-*FAb5LK k1iQ"oe##xIiIsNeQv~6_cq= 2J#VDsY. But the radicality of Black womens politics was based on their position at the bottom. Many Black women have a good understanding of both sexism and racism, but because of the everyday constrictions of their lives, cannot risk struggling against them both. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, and thousands upon thousands unknownwho have had a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the focus of their political struggles unique. [3] They are perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, [4] a key . After a period of months of not meeting, we began to meet again late in the year and started doing an intense variety of consciousness-raising. 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. believed that another world was possible, one in which Black women, and thus all of humanity, were freed from systems of oppression and exploitation, as the result of a collective struggle that reached down to the roots of the problems we face. the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women. Will it turn into something more lasting than a frustrated outburst from those at the bottom? Rr_||2=?|,f]a]IWrYWs~qH(OSn4b$ yV_IU{L]HJ>l#)r<1-a/ %}:f4&-4qIQ >zx /w\p @0P' 384-401. In 1973, Black feminists, primarily located in New York, felt the necessity of forming a separate Black feminist group. However, we had no way of conceptualizing what was so apparent to us, what we knew was really happening. We present it here, along with related scholarship from both the time period in which it was written, as well as current discussions. The group broke from the Boston chapter of the National Black Feminist Organization, and named themselves after a daring Union Army raid, led by Harriet Tubman, to liberate seven hundred and fifty enslaved people in South Carolina. Any concept, once it is released into the world, can take on new meanings when confronted with new problems. 2 (February/March, 1975), pp. 271-280, The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, By: Review by: Liz Kennedy , June Lapidus, Feminist Studies, Vol. The term "identity politics" was first coined by Black feminist Barbara Smith and the Combahee River Collective in 1974. Wallace is pessimistic but realistic in her assessment of Black feminists position, particularly in her allusion to the nearly classic isolation most of us face. We just wanted to see what we had. 38, No. [1][2] The Collective was instrumental in highlighting that the white feminist movement was not addressing their particular needs. Match. The claims that socialism was for white people were an affront to a long lineage of Black communists and socialists here in the United States. What was the Combahee River Collective and what were the politics and vision advanced by the group, The Combahee River Collective was a Black feminist lesbian organization active in Boston from 1974 to 1980. Currently we are planning to gather together a collectIon of Black feminist writing. They envisioned coalition politics on the basis of mutual solidarity, including a commitment to the struggles against sexism, heterosexism, racism, class oppression, exploitation, and imperialism. Learn. More generally, Black men dominated the leadership of the organized Black left. 14, No. Before looking at the recent development of Black feminism we would like to affirm that we find our origins in the historical reality of Afro-American womens continuous life-and-death struggle for survival and liberation. hbbd``b`U@P: 1D8 @k2~$2012b`Mg . endstream endobj startxref 0 %%EOF 248 0 obj <>stream The class and race tensions within feminism lasted far beyond the seventies. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess anyone of these types of privilege have. 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. Was the Conspiracy That Gripped New York in 1741 Real? We hope you find it a valuable resource for yourself, and for students. In her introduction to Sisterhood is Powerful Robin Morgan writes: During our years together as a Black feminist collective we have experienced success and defeat, joy and pain, victory and failure. Get your fix of JSTOR Dailys best stories in your inbox each Thursday. The women of the C.R.C. When I came back to the Combahee Statement, in the aftermath of the Ferguson uprising, I saw that its politics had the potential to make a way out of what felt like no way. 13, No. During the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary, she served as a surrogate for Bernie Sanders. Accusations that Black feminism divides the Black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous Black womens movement. It was our experience and disillusionment within these liberation movements, as well as experience on the periphery of the white male left, that led to the need to develop a politics that was anti-racist, unlike those of white women, and anti-sexist, unlike those of Black and white men. A Black Feminists Search for Sisterhood, The Village Voice, 28 July 1975, pp. 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. We also were contacted at that time by socialist feminists, with whom we had worked on abortion rights activities, who wanted to encourage us to attend the National Socialist Feminist Conference in Yellow Springs. Much of what is meant by identity politics in its contemporary idiom is simply representationthe presence of Black, queer, gendered, and classed bodies with almost no attention paid to their political commitments. Malcolm X made it plain: The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.. A good portion of the tension was generated by wild and unfounded assertions that socialism and the spoils of social democracy were only of interest to white people. Evictions and foreclosures in the U.S. could trigger a new wave of infection and illnessbut its not too late to act. 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. 2-3, Hypatia, Vol. 3, Why We Cant Wait: (Re)Examining the Opportunities and Challenges for Black Women and Girls in Education (Summer 2016), pp. 1-17, Negro History Bulletin, Vol. A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political. In this section we will discuss some of the general reasons for the organizing problems we face and also talk specifically about the stages in organizing our own collective. 27, No. We must also question whether Lesbian separatism is an adequate and progressive political analysis and strategy, even for those who practice it, since it so completely denies any but the sexual sources of womens oppression, negating the facts of class and race. It was our experience and disillusionment within these liberation movements, as well as experience on the periphery of the white male left, that led to the need to develop a politics that was anti-racist, unlike those of white women, and anti-sexist, unlike those of Black and white men. We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black womens lives as are the politics of class and race. As children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated differently. 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. Mao Zedong: Reader, Librarian, Revolutionary? Statement Combahee River Collective We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. 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. [3] Mumininas of Committee for Unified Newark, Mwanamke Mwananchi (The Nationalist Woman), Newark, N.J., 1971, pp. 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 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. In the sixties and seventies, fighting for the rights of queer people was considered radical activism. 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. The post World War II generation of Black youth was the first to be able to minimally partake of certain educational and employment options, previously closed completely to Black people. As an early group member once said, We are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women. We are dispossessed psychologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to struggle to change the condition of all Black women. And, trust me, very few people agreed that we did have that right in the nineteen-seventies. As we grew older we became aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse by men. . Because Black women were among the most marginalized people in this country, their political struggles brought them into direct conflict with the intertwined malignancies of capitalismracism, sexism, and poverty. We can obviously create a politics that is absolutely aligned with our own experiences as Black womenin other words, with our identities. This became the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO). Identity politics has become so untethered from its original usage that it has lost much of its original explanatory power. Support JSTOR Daily! 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. Test. The experiences of Black lesbians could not be reduced to gender, race, class, or sexuality. It leaves out far too much and far too many people, particularly Black men, women, and children. We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. 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. 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. The Combahee Statement obliterated that premise. To be honest, I didnt know what to do with the Combahee Statement. 3 (2017), pp. 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. [2]. Sociological analysis of social movements has progressed dialectically, each new theory building off and in contrast to what previously existed, whilst what previously existed is modified as newer theories bring up relevant new ideas. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. In this way, the C.R.C. 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 had a retreat in the late spring which provided a time for both political discussion and working out interpersonal issues. In our consciousness-raising sessions, for example, we have in many ways gone beyond white womens revelations because we are dealing with the implications of race and class as well as sex. Although our economic position is still at the very bottom of the American capitalistic economy, a handful of us have been able to gain certain tools as a result of tokenism in education and employment which potentially enable us to more effectively fight our oppression. 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. All Rights Reserved. We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. [3]. 1-24, Off Our Backs, Vol. We might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. They could not stop our lights from being periodically turned off, or a steady stream of bill collectors from coming to our front door. In the case of Black women this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movements that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves. Men are not equal to other men, i.e. 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. hb```f``e`a` @V8OCH'2 19Qiq.&)L)Sa\@>s L95 J:pj]gkivud|8:8:GsGGCi$& y@g00* @, 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. My father left when I was two, and my mother took us to Dallas, where she worked as a reading specialist for the Dallas Independent School District. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. It was mind-blowing! 3, Gendering the Carceral State: African American Women, History, and the Criminal Justice System (Summer 2015), pp. 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. 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. There have always been Black women activistssome known, like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Equality of men and women is something that cannot happen even in the abstract world. 4. 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. There is also undeniably a personal genesis for Black Feminism, that is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal experiences of individual Black womens lives. But the civil-rights revolution and concerted efforts by the political establishment created a different reality for a small number of African-Americans. As children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated differently. We began functioning as a study group and also began discussing the possibility of starting a Black feminist publication. were not the first to break with white feminist and Black-nationalist organizations. 163-179, Feminist Studies, Vol. Organizing around welfare and daycare concerns might also be a focus. The view is decidedly different from the top. Stemming out of growing disillusionments with mainstream feminism, the Collective was a Boston-based organisation of Black queer socialist activists. My mother died at fifty-two, fifteen years after she filed for bankruptcy; the chronic exhaustion she felt from work was masking the symptoms of an untreated and ultimately deadly case of lupus. 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. Smith told me, Many of the people in the Movement for Black Lives absolutely acknowledge that they are inspired by the politics of the Combahee River Collective and by the feminism of women of color, not just Black women. She was thinking of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and Cheryl Clarke, and of the pioneering Chicana activists Cherre Moraga and Gloria Anzalda. In the statement, the authors described the concept of identity politics in the following way: 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. When I reached college, in the nineties, these same debates could be found animating womens-studies classes. 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. their name based off of the Combahee River raid of 1863 led by Harriet Tubman. This document was one of the earliest explorations of the intersection of multiple oppressions, including racism and heterosexism. Enter the Combahee River Collective. Protests of George Floyds Killing Transform Into a Global Movement. The Combahee River Collective was a Black Feminist Lesbian organization that was active between 1974 and 1980. As feminists we do not want to mess over people in the name of politics. The overwhelming feeling that we had is that after years and years we had finally found each other. Black women were at the helm of the growing Black Lives Matter movement, and they, too, were gravitating to the politics of the C.R.C. We have also done many workshops and educationals on Black feminism on college campuses, at womens conferences, and most recently for high school women. 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. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics.

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