strugglingtobeheard:

her talk was titled ”With My Mind Set on Freedom: Black Feminism, Intersectionality and Social Justice” and it was wonderful. She discussed current events such as Trayvon Martin, the Obama Presidency, the ways social media has grown as a tool of activism among youth and the importance of intergenerational relationships and lessons.

i was lucky enough to co-facilitate a graduate workshop with her and two other grad students. i think the body of the talk and the workshop will be separate posts.

But at the end of the talk, their was a question and answer section. I had decided to ask her a similar question I asked Kimberle Crenshaw. How do you feel about the ways white feminists have taken your work on intersectionality as a feminist way to be more inclusive while erasing the creations as part of a Black feminist tradition and without a dedication to Black women’s lives in any way?

She gave an anecdote. She asked if the House of Blues was still in Cambridge or Boston. We said yes. Recently I was at a Bootsy Collins show there, maybe a year ago. So yes, it was there. I was so suprised when I arrived. And she elaborated on why with her anecdote.

She said what has become of her work on intersectionality and Crenshaw’s as well is what has been done to Blues, Jazz and Rock. When I went to the Bootsy Collins show I was actually appalled at how WHITE the audience was. these are NOT true Bootsy fans or lovers. but once whiteness gets their grasp on something they love that Black people have created, they have to make it more and more inaccessible to Black people while also whitening it to be no longer noticeable as a Black creation.

what i love about her response is that she didn’t use the word appropriation once. she simply said, over the years, Blues and Jazz has become almost unrecognizable. white men who wanted that feel, that experience, went on to imitate the sounds and creations without actually having the background experience. structurally, some of these things end up similar. however, the heart and soul of the creation is gone and the creators have been erased. when Black fans can’t go see Bootsy Collins at the House of Blues because of the cost or white men are continually praised as the creators and best artists in Blues, Jazz and Rock n Roll, the complete erasure and appropriation of that creation has taken place.

this is what White Feminism has done to intersectionality. White Feminism has no commitment to Black women. to our lives, our narratives, our concerns or our histories. Patricia Hill Collins had and has a complete and total commitment to Black women. her work is based on a long standing oral and academic tradition of remembering and honoring those who came before her. who helped to shape these ideas. and most importantly, they center the Black womans experience in all of it.

intersectionality is meant as a bottom up approach, not a top down approach. those with power cannot be “intersectional”. you are also not living intersectional experiences. intersectionality was always about exposing the ways Black women are caught up in multiple systems of oppression, namely race, gender and class, but often many more. it is meant to help Black women understand their experiences in a white supremacist patriarchal culture like the U.S. or much of Western nations that have applied this model onto most cultures from the outside. most importantly, it is meant to help Black women see the ways their experiences are connected to one another and not a product of self-deficiency but structural real systems that have cultural and economic benefits for ruling/dominant classes.

understanding Black women live intersectional experiences gives us insight into the ways race, gender and class, heterosexism and more all work together in ways that restrict Black womens access to resources. and access to resources is what is really one of the most important things needed in Black women’s lives. which white feminism is not committed to in any way. when Black women learn more about classism, sexism, racism, heterosexism and more (such as transmisogyny, islamophobia, convicted felon status, etc) and how they work, we learn more about how we can define ourselves without those systems imposing our identities onto us. we can also learn more about how to combat and navigate these systems.

ultimately, Patricia Hill Collins work is very revolutionary and radical for Black women. it is not about how to full-scale change the world or to tear the system down. it is about exposing historical oppression and cultural beliefs, our position as Black American women living in a nation birthed from slavery and genocide, to allow Black women tools to define themselves, to see a long term history of scholarly and community work, to understand more about one another and ourselves, to push against these systems and to push more Black women to make their own discoveries that will make living as a Black woman in these societies easier, more manageable and more accessible. while she does not address or make specific policy suggestions, she is working to empower and educate Black women about ourselves and our ancestors and how WE CAN DO THESE THINGS.

when you’re white saying your an intersectional feminist, you are wrong. you are the white boy singing sad songs to a blues twang claiming to be a Blues artist. you are the miley who wears black womens bodies and perceived sexualities as fun identities to put on and off, without living within those experiences always and forever. it is erasure, it is warping, it is the continual narrative of whiteness as a dominant force, in opposing the creators and destroying the creators while then attempting to re-create those creations with whiteness firmly installed inside of it. which is false, warped, fake and without heart and soul. it is a lifeless imitation. and mostly, it isn’t REAL.