Race Is a Social, Political Essay

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The lack of a critical analysis of race created a divide between feminist and black activists, as chronicled in the words of feminist and scholar Beverley Guy-Sheftall: "Coming out of the Civil Rights era, black feminism was a contentious, debatable, demonized and divisive notion. It was perceived to be a pro-white, anti-male doctrine that would destroy black families and prohibit unity. I can remember going to all-black gatherings and people asking me whether or not I was a lesbian, because being pro-female translated into a hate for men" (Ofori-Atta 2010). In her book, Ain't I a Woman? bell hooks noted that under slavery, abolitionists often said that black men were 'wronged' because slavery emasculated the men and denied them the right to defend their wives against the advances of slave-owners. But this did not recognize the impact that the threat of rape had upon black women. Simply the phrase "the oppression of blacks and women" seems to write out the existence of black women.

The conflicts between activists who struggled for black women's equality and female enfranchisement have existed in America since the 19th century.

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There was a split between advocates for equality for women and abolitionists in support of the bestowing of the right to vote to black men, but not to white and black women. This highlights the constructed nature of race: often race is constructed as something which is male. A more accurate description of the 14th Amendment is that it enfranchised all male American citizens, but not white or women of color. The title of one of the first anthologies of black feminist writing All the Women Are White, All the Men Are Black, but Some of Us Are Brave, highlights the invisibility of black women even in the language of equality (Ofori-Atta 2010).. The colonization of African-Americans, often most explicitly written upon the bodies of black women in the form of sexual oppression of the body, and enforced and unpaid or under-paid labor of the body has only recently come to light in the words of black feminists and activists.

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