Black Feminism 101

A beginner's guide to black feminist thought and theory

[blackfeminism101]

Who is Anita Hill?

Anita Hill is an American attorney, author, activist, and professor. She teaches at Brandeis University as a professor of social policy, law and women’s studies. All of her great-grandparents had been born into slavery. She got her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Oklahoma State University. She went to Yale Law School which is where she earned her Juris Doctor degree with honors (get it girl). 

In 1981, she became an attorney-adviser to Clarence Thomas. In 1982, Thomas became chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hill followed and became his assistant before leaving the job in 1983. After leaving the job, she became an assistant law professor until 1986 when she joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma College of Law. 

In 1991, Clarence Thomas was nominated to succeed the retiring Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. When an FBI report of a private interview with Anita Hill leaked, which was the reason Hill then had to publicly testify. She testified that he repeatedly harassed her, asking her out, and bringing up really nasty sexual stuff. (see previous post with video where she outlines some of these things). Four female witnesses waited to support Hill’s credibility, but were never called to attest to her credibility. 

Thomas tried to say that Hill was a part of of a “high-tech lynching for uppity blacks” by white liberals because he is a black conservative. Many people accused Hill of being delusional or upset because she had been spurned by Thomas. Anita Hill dealt with people publicly attacking her character and Thomas even referred to her as his “most traitorous adversary.”

In the following years, Hill has continued to teach, as well as provide commentary on shows like 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, and Meet the Press. She’s been published in The New York Times and Newsweek, as well as other scholarly and legal publications. She published an autobiography: Speaking Truth to Power in 1997. 

(source: wikipedia.com)

[blackfeminism101]

Above: Anita Hill’s full opening statement 

Below: Vice News’ compilation of the most outrageous questions senators asked Anita Hill 

[blackfeminism101]

Anita Faye Hill and Christine Blasey Ford

I know that this is a little late, but it has been a lot to process-- the hearing of Brett Kavanaugh has been hard to witness and I have a hard time finding the words to comment on it. Everything about how horrible the confirmation hearing was has been said and I don’t think I have anything to add. Instead, I would like to talk about the incredible women that stood up and told their painful truth in an attempt to stop an abusive, entitled man from gaining power in this country. I hope this doesn’t disappoint anyone, but I do not want to use this post or the next few posts to compare the treatment of black women and white women in America. In this post and the following posts, I just want to talk about Anita Hill and Christine Ford. 

I cannot begin to imagine how terrifying these women must have felt sitting there under the scrutiny of men and women that clearly have no intention of taking their testimony seriously. That disparage them in the questions they ask, in the way they look at these women. I cannot imagine having to relive trauma on a national stage and at the end of all of it, see those men get confirmed as judges of the highest order. 

This is also just a reminder: ACCUSATIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT DO NOT RUIN A MAN’S CAREER. Women/victims/survivors NEVER come forward for attention or to be vindictive. They come forward in an effort to protect others, to warn others, to try to save others. To suggest that anyone would put themselves through the ordeal of having people threaten their lives just to fail at ruining a man’s career is ridiculous and outrageous. 

[blackfeminism101]

Sorry I’ve been inactive lately, I plan on making more of an effort to post more frequently!

[blackfeminism101]

They acted as if work done by women could only be deemed valuable if men, especially ruling groups of men, were compelled to acknowledge its value... Whether men acknowledge the value of the work women do is irrelevant if women do not value that work

bell hooks “Feminist Theory From Margin to Center”

[blackfeminism101]

Discussing An Under-reported Torture To Girls – Breast Ironing - Poetry | Life & Style

Breast Ironing/ flattening is self-explanatory really, it is the ironing or flattening of the girl child’s breast by pounding and massaging of a girl's breasts, using hard or heated objects, to try to make them stop developing or disappear. they believe the procedure is the best thing to do to their daughters make the

TW: Rape/sexual assault, torture, abuse

“Breast Ironing/ flattening is self-explanatory really, it is the ironing or flattening of the girl child’s breast by pounding and massaging of a girl’s breasts, using hard or heated objects, to try to make them stop developing or disappear.

This barbaric act is mostly carried out by their mothers, aunties, sisters, grandmothers and even nurses.

They believe that this procedure is the best thing to do to their daughters(10-19 years old) to make them look sexually unattractive to men to prevent rape (most men believe that when a girl has breasts she is ready for sex), early marriage and any form of sexual activity that can cause pregnancy which will tarnish the family’s image.”

[blackfeminism101]

I want y’all to remember

Protect yourself. In the black community, we often worry about the safe-keeping of black men before we worry about ourselves. A lot of times this ends up hurting us. So I want every black girl and woman on here to not be afraid of putting yourself and your feelings first. You are not a traitor to the race for calling a black man on his bullshit. 

If you need support, please don’t be afraid to reach out. 

[blackfeminism101]

Light Skin Privilege Checklist

[credit to LilMoUterus on lipstickalley.com]

So maybe you didn’t know if you agreed with some statements from the previous checklist or you answered a few with “kind of.” If that was you, here’s the checklist for you!

You have the ability to deny that colorism exists.

People see as a symbol of a post racist society.

You are the standard of beauty in the Black and Latino communities.

You are racially ambiguous and therefore do not experience anti-blackness from other people of color.

People think you are mixed and this is supposed to be a compliment.

You are seen as more intelligent and less angry than darker black people.

You don’t have to deal with comments like: “You’re pretty for a dark skin girl.”

You have a better chance of getting hired than a darker skinned person with the same qualifications.

When there are black people in shows and movies, they will most likely have the same skin tone as you.

If you are a light skinned Afro Latina,  you don’t have to prove that you are Latino.

If you are in a group with other people of color, white people will talk to you first.

People think you’re pretty simply for having light skin when you might actually just be average. [Remember to ask yourself: “Are they cute or just light skinned?]

On TV shows and in movies, the wives of darker skinned men will always be within a few shades of your skin tone, and she is usually seen as a prize.

If at the end of this list, you find yourself refusing colorism and light skin privilege, please see item 1 of the checklist and you’ll find that congrats you have light skin privilege!

If you think this list comes from a place of jealousy or hurt, that’s a very light-skinned thought.  

This does not mean that you cannot or don’t experience racism. It does mean that within the black and latino community, you are assigned more value than people with darker skin. You do get treated better.

P.s. I am a light skinned myself and I feel a great responsibility in making sure we stop all our light skin bullshit. LIGHT SKIN IS A PRIVILEGE. 

[blackfeminism101]

White Privilege Checklist

This is a checklist made by scholar Peggy McIntosh. She created the checklist to begin to understand her role a white woman in the oppression of people of color.

I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

I can be sure that my children will be given curricular (educational) materials that testify to the existence of their race.

Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge,” I will be facing a person of my race.

These are just a handful of the 26 statements on the original list. If you were to search for a list like this now, there are even more items on the list.

If you can agree with all or most of these statements, congrats you have white privilege! Don’t let it go to waste.

If you are a black American and were able to agree with most of these statements— where do you live and how do the rest of us get there?

[sovietspacedogs]

So between the white woman who called the cops on a black family having a BBQ in a park, the white man threatening to call ICE in nyc on Latina women for speaking Spanish, and a white woman literally yelling for the cops while screaming “gun!” on a black man for making a u turn in their neighborhood should educate us all that white people are realizing that institutional racism is real but they are using it for their own white supremacist social benefit.

They are calling for the authorities knowing that the cops will take their side and will either arrest or murder people of color for simply being seen or heard.

[blackfeminism101]

What is Privilege

Privilege is a special right or advantage given to a specific person or group of people. Privilege can take many different forms and can be granted for various reasons and in various situations. The privileges discussed on this blog are systematic privileges, meaning that I am talking about institutions that use policies and rights to grant certain people privileges.

Sometimes privilege is easy to see— this is especially true if you are someone that does not benefit from that privilege. If you are the one benefitting from privilege, you may not even realize it exists until someone else points it out to you.

Please remember that having privilege does not make you a bad person. We can’t really control the types of privilege we may benefit from. We CAN control the ways in which we use that privilege. Being privileged does not mean that your struggles are unimportant. Being privileged does not mean you are hateful or prejudiced. This is not an attack on you.

I hope this helps you recognize the ways you may you benefit from a certain privilege and come to terms with what it means to have privilege. I hope this makes you a better ally, and a more understanding person. I hope you begin to think of the ways you can use your privilege to help others. I hope you enter with an open-mind.

[blackfeminism101]

Just a reminder

It can be incredibly draining engaging people that want to devalue you and take away your humanity, especially if those people are related to you. It can be hard to feel hopeful or see a future that looks any different, and if I’m being honest, I have a hard time imagining how change will take shape. The thing is-- I have to keep hoping, because even if I don’t have a clear vision for change, I can’t be complicit in a cis, white male supremacist system. 

[blackfeminism101]

Since men are the primary agents maintaining and supporting sexism and sexist oppression, they can only be successfully eradicated if men are compelled to assume responsibility for transforming their consciousness and the consciousness of society as a whole.

bell hooks

[blackfeminism101]

just because he’s so beautiful. 

[blackfeminism101]

What we mean when we say “white people”

So, I was in my Black feminism class today, and my professor asked us to talk about what we mean when we say “white people” when it is something negative that they have done, or something just white in its essence. For example, a white girl asks to touch your hair or just touches your hair, or you have a white roommate and she’s the devil incarnate-- when retelling these stories you could sum up all of these actions as “white people shit” or “things that white people do.”

Anyway, what I’m getting at is that my professor wanted us to think about how we use white people as a shorthand for the real problem which is whiteness. If you think about it, little Timmy calling you a “n****r” may make you angry and feel unsafe, but the real problem is that Timmy’s actions have been normalized by whiteness. Timmy won’t be punished because of his whiteness. Individual interactions with racist people suck, but what sucks a lot more is the fact that they keep doing it because they suffer hardly any/no consequences. That’s why whiteness as an institution or entity is far more dangerous than one-on-one interactions with someone racist. 

I hope remembering this can help, if you happen to say “white people” around white people and they get their feelings hurt and you’re feeling generous enough with your time to explain it more. 

 But of course, white tears are not your business and you are not responsible for drying them. But if you happen to stumble upon an open-minded but naive white maybe just give them the link to this blog. Hopefully we can both help them see a little better. 

[10minutesof3am-blog]

Our Diary: Call out for Black womxn/women/femmes - I need your voices. SHARE WIDELY!

I’m a Black woman artist currently creating a piece which is exploring themes of diaspora, community online, the unfiltered voice, black feminity and the internet. The piece is a textual documentary which will be a durational moving image loop, documenting the minds and realities of black womxn all over the world. 

So in short, I’m making a communal diary for black womxn and I need your help!

What do I do?

All you need to do is submit a ‘diary’ entry into the Ask Box of this page. Or entries. Can simply be one, can also be one hundred. The only necessities are that they are unfiltered, they’re true to how you’re feeling at that time and that you sign the entries with the time you started writing and the country + city you’re based in.

Why the time and location?

The communal diary will be organised by time. The finished piece will allow the viewer to jump from life to life as the time progresses.

What do I submit?

Anything. Treat this as if you were writing in your diary. Or in your notes. Write about your pain, write about your happiness, write about your lunch, write about the fool who touched your hair, write about work, write about your struggles, write about your friend, write about the person you made eye contact with on the train, write about your heart, write about the weather, write about your love - write about anything. The text should simply be a snapshot of your mind at that moment, of how you’re feeling. Shit you want to get off your chest. The things you want to say but never can say. Treat the ask box like the person you wish you had to talk to. 

USEFUL PROMPTS:

How are you feeling/How has your day been?/Describe your situation atm/What’sup?.

How long should it be?

A paragraph, a sentence, a word - it’s really up to you! (Maybe don’t exceed 250 words).

Anonymity?

It’s anonymous - don’t leave your name! If you want to you can but it’s not imperative as it will not be included in the piece.

Where is it going?

The piece will be exhibited at the Barbican gallery in London as well as online for 2 days.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me via messenger!

*If the ask page is playing up simply refresh the page and it should load. 

Submit diary entries here: https://10minutesof3am.tumblr.com/ask

[blackfeminism101]

I was asked to reblog this, so check it out guys. 

[swagintherain]

[theeangelox]

I love this

[junjiito]

http://www.hijabhouse.com.au/

here’s the store’s website since i haven’t seen any info on it posted by op! there are three locations in australia (two in sydney and one in melbourne) and one in tripoli, lebanon!