BLACK WOMEN AND WHITE WOMEN: UNDERSTANDING THE DIVIDE WITHIN THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT
Search Terms: Black Women + White Women + Feminist Movement, “I’m not a feminist but” + feminism, Middle Class White Women + Feminism
I have always wondered why many black women didn’t call themselves feminist. I knew on surface level that it was because they were excluded in the feminist movement but I also knew it went a lot deeper than just exclusion. It is one of the reasons why I hold off on calling myself a feminist even though I have feminist ideals, I don’t want to associate myself with something that has had historical conflict with black women. This led me on an exploration throughout the archive in figuring out if I can finally understand what exactly was the division between black women and white women in the feminist movement.
Journalist Evelyn Cunningham (1916-2010) gave insight into the one perspective of black women about the feminist movement when discussing the exclusion of black women during the feminist movement.
She states, “...my impression is that black women generally are not into the women’s rights issue because they have issues that are far more important to them, to us. And what does women’s rights mean actually? As one black woman said to me. You know does it mean, I couldn’t get that job that I want at my company at the level under any circumstances because I'm black, and it’s not because I’m a woman....the women’s rights movement was always viewed in terms…the pickets, the marching, the demonstration. That is not a black woman's thing.” She further elaborates by saying, “You know white womens, women’s rights or black women’s rights, two different worlds.”
I am stricken by more curiosity when she mentions that white women’s rights and black women’s rights are essentially two different realities.
I searched specifically for interviews that mentioned white women and black women within the feminist movement. This led me to the interview of Reverend Dr. Jacquelyn Grant on why there needs to be a proper articulation specifically of black feminism.
She says, “...the women’s rights movement did not solve the woman question, certainly not for African American - black women. If that were the case there would never have been a need for folks like - Septima Clark or Fannie Lou Hamer or Dorothy Cotton or any of those African American women who were involved in the voter registration movement.” She then explains the heart of the division in this statement, “..many minority women interpreted the work and activity of these white women as basically middle class, white women seeking to advance the agenda of the middle-class white women…. But the point is to make the distinction between what African American were concerned about and what white women were addressing in their ‘white middle-class movement.’”
Her interview made me wonder about how white women were moving to the belief of “helping all women,” mostly about them.
Jacqueline Finney Brown
Jacqueline Finney, the former chairperson of the Maryland State Board of Examiners for Professional Counselors, would elaborate more on Reverend Dr. Grant's point and answer my pondering. In her interview talking about the feminist movement and the womanist movement, she states, “the women’s movement for me, when I came along, was basically a white women’s movement…I remember even addressing some of the women’s movement things and explaining to them why you cannot assume African American women are going to go along with this, we need to get our relationship straight…we were the ones who cleaned your house, okay, and took care of your children at the expense of our own children, and you didn’t think much of us at the time. And when the decision was made for blacks to have the right to vote, you told Fredrick Douglass, ‘forget it’ because politically it wouldn’t sell, we’ll just go for women’s right to vote. So I said you can’t separate us out like that.”
She then hits it on the head by saying, “you’re angry with your men, I’m not angry with my man.”
After the interviews I have watched, I can understand that the division with white women and black women in the feminist movement comes from black women being excluded in terms of their own needs and wants and essentially being used by middle-class white women to propel their own needs and wants without addressing the concerns of black women. I can understand how the womanist movement came out of this exclusion and how it does better at addressing the concerns and needs of black women and all women rather than just catering to what the white woman wants.
AMBASSADOR UPDATE: I am halfway through the first semester as I start midterms this week; as tiring as they are, I am excited since I will be rewarded at the end of the week with my first trip back to Maryland to see my family. It has only been a month since they dropped me off in August, but it feels a lot longer when you are constantly going to class, turning in assignments, and taking tests and quizzes. I wanted to focus my topic this week on understanding the divide between white women and black women in the feminist movement to prepare myself for my Introduction to History class next topic, which is black feminist thought. I was highly intrigued by Dr. Jacquelyn Grant made amazing points during her interview and had me thinking if any of the black women in my life have ever said the phrase “I’m a feminist but..” since I have learned there is a lot of connotation behind those words. I have decided to link my clips playlist below with the interviews I used in today’s blog, as well as other videos I found highly informational.
https://da-thehistorymakers-org.us1.proxy.openathens.net/stories/6;IDList=187178%2C372044%2C227957%2C587652%2C483969%2C100950%2C188161;ListTitle=feministdivide
Sources:
Reverend Dr. Jacquelyn Grant (The HistoryMakers A2003.183), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 12, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 3, Reverend Dr. Jacquelyn Grant explains the need to articulate a specifically black feminism
Evelyn Cunningham (The HistoryMakers A2006.153), interviewed by Shawn Wilson, December 7, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 2, Evelyn Cunningham talks about the exclusion of black women from feminism
Jacqueline Finney Brown (The HistoryMakers A2007.166), interviewed by Cheryl Butler, September 24, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 7, story 1, Jacqueline Finney Brown talks about the feminist movement and the womanist movement
