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Praise for the first edition ofBlack Feminist Thought“The book argues convincingly that black feminists be given, in the words immortalized by Aretha Franklin, a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T. . . . Those with an appetite forscholarese will find the book delicious.”—Black Enterprise“With the publication of Black Feminist Thought, black feminism has moved to anew level. Collins’ work sets a standard for the discussion of black women’s lives,experiences, and thought that demands rigorous attention to the complexity ofthese experiences and an exploration of a multiplicity of responses.”—Women’s Review of Books“Patricia Hill Collins’ new work [is] a marvelous and engaging account of the socialconstruction of black feminist thought. Historically grounded, making excellent useof oral history, interviews, music, poetry, fiction, and scholarly literature, Hill proposes to illuminate black women’s standpoint. . . . Those already familiar with blackwomen’s history and literature will find this book a rich and satisfying analysis.Those who are not well acquainted with this body of work will find Collins’ bookan accessible and absorbing first encounter with excerpts from many works, invitingfuller engagement. As an overview, this book would make an excellent text inwomen’s studies, ethnic studies, and African-American studies courses, especially atthe upper-division and graduate levels. As a meditation on the deeper implicationsof feminist epistemology and sociological practice, Patricia Hill Collins has given usa particular gift.”—Signs“Patricia Hill Collins has done the impossible. She has written a book on blackfeminist thought that combines the theory with the most immediate in feministpractice. Collins’ book is a must for any feminist’s library.”—Rosemarie Tong“Finding her own voice and sharing with us the voices of other African-Americanwomen, Collins brilliantly explicates our unique standpoint. As a black feminist,Collins traverses both old and new territories. She explores the familiar themes ofoppression, family, work, and activism and also examines new areas of culturalimages and sexual politics. Collins gently challenges white feminist dominance offeminist theory and nurtures an appreciation for diversity in positions reflecting different race, class, and gender junctures. Her work is an example of how academicscan make their work accessible to the wider public.”—Elizabeth Higginbotham, Professor of Sociology, University of Delaware, andco-editor of Women and Work: Exploring Race, Ethnicity, and Class (Volume 6)
REVISED TENTH ANNIVERSARY ,and thePolitics ofEmpowermentSecond EditionPatricia Hill CollinsRoutledgeNew York and London
Published in 2000 byRoutledge29 West 35th StreetNew York, NY 10001Published in Great Britain byRoutledge11 New Fetter LaneLondon EC4P 4EEThis edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.Copyright 2000 by RoutledgeAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproducedor utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means,now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying andrecording or in any information storage or retrieval system, withoutpermission in writing from the publishers.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataCollins, Patricia Hill, 1948–Black feminist thought : knowledge, consciousness, and thepolitics of empowerment / Patricia Hill Collins. — 2nd ed.p.cm. — (Perspectives on gender)Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-415-92483-9 (hb). — ISBN 0-415-92484-7 (pb)1. Feminism—United States. 2. Afro-American women. 3. UnitedStates—Race relations. I.Title II. Series: Perspectives ongender (New York, N.Y.)HQ1426.C633 1999305.42'01—dc2199–29144CIPISBN 0-203-90005-7 Master e-book ISBNISBN 0-203-90009-X (Glassbook Format)
CONTENTSPreface to First Edition viPreface to Second Edition xAcknowledgments xivPart 1:The Social Construction ofBlack Feminist Thought1.The Politics of Black Feminist Thought 12. Distinguishing Features of Black Feminist Thought 21Part 2:Core Themes inBlack Feminist Thought3.Work, Family, and Black Women’s Oppression 454. Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images 695.The Power of Self-Definition 976.The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood 1237. Black Women’s Love Relationships 1498. Black Women and Motherhood 1739. Rethinking Black Women’s Activism 201Part 3:Black Feminism, Knowledge,and Power10. U.S. Black Feminism in Transnational Context 22711. Black Feminist Epistemology 25112.Toward a Politics of Empowerment 273Notes 291Glossary 298References 302Index 326
PrefacetoFirstEditionWhen I was five years old, I was chosen to play Spring in my preschool pageant. Sitting on my throne, I proudlypresided over a court of children portraying birds, flowers, and the other, “lesser”seasons. Being surrounded by children like myself—the daughters and sons oflaborers, domestic workers, secretaries, and factory workers—affirmed who Iwas. When my turn came to speak, I delivered my few lines masterfully, withgreat enthusiasm and energy. I loved my part because I was Spring, the season ofnew life and hope. All of the grown-ups told me how vital my part was and congratulated me on how well I had done. Their words and hugs made me feel thatI was important and that what I thought, and felt, and accomplished mattered.As my world expanded, I learned that not everyone agreed with them.Beginning in adolescence, I was increasingly the “first,” or “one of the few,” orthe “only” African-American and/or woman and/or working-class person in myschools, communities, and work settings. I saw nothing wrong with being whoI was, but apparently many others did. My world grew larger, but I felt I wasgrowing smaller. I tried to disappear into myself in order to deflect the painful,daily assaults designed to teach me that being an African-American, workingclass woman made me lesser than those who were not. And as I felt smaller, Ibecame quieter and eventually was virtually silenced.This book reflects one stage in my ongoing struggle to regain my voice. Overthe years I have tried to replace the external definitions of my life forwarded bydominant groups with my own self-defined viewpoint. But while my personalodyssey forms the catalyst for this volume, I now know that my experiences arefar from unique. Like African-American women, many others who occupy societally denigrated categories have been similarly silenced. So the voice that I nowseek is both individual and collective, personal and political, one reflecting theintersection of my unique biography with the larger meaning of my historicaltimes.I share this part of the context that stimulated this book because that contextinfluenced my choices concerning the volume itself. First, I was committed tomaking this book intellectually rigorous, well researched, and accessible to more
PREFACE TOFIRSTEDITIONviithan the select few fortunate enough to receive elite educations. I could not writea book about Black women’s ideas that the vast majority of African-Americanwomen could not read and understand. Theory of all types is often presented asbeing so abstract that it can be appreciated only by a select few. Though oftenhighly satisfying to academics, this definition excludes those who do not speakthe language of elites and thus reinforces social relations of domination. Educatedelites typically claim that only they are qualified to produce theory and believethat only they can interpret not only their own but everyone else’s experiences.Moreover, educated elites often use this belief to uphold their own privilege.I felt that it was important to examine the complexity of ideas that exist inboth scholarly and everyday life and present those ideas in a way that made themnot less powerful or rigorous but accessible. Approaching theory in this waychallenges both the ideas of educated elites and the role of theory in sustaininghierarchies of privilege. The resulting volume is theoretical in that it reflectsdiverse theoretical traditions such as Afrocentric philosophy, feminist theory,Marxist social thought, the sociology of knowledge, critical theory, and postmodernism; and yet the standard vocabulary of these traditions, citations of theirmajor works and key proponents, and these terms themselves rarely appear in thetext. To me the ideas themselves are important, not the labels we attach to them.Second, I place Black women’s experiences and ideas at the center of analysis. For those accustomed to having subordinate groups such as African-Americanwomen frame our ideas in ways that are convenient for the more powerful, thiscentrality can be unsettling. For example, White, middle-class, feminist readerswill find few references to so-called White feminist thought. I have deliberatelychosen not to begin with feminist tenets developed from the experiences ofWhite, middle-class, Western women and then insert the ideas and experiencesof African-American women. While I am quite familiar with a range of historical and contemporary White feminist theorists and certainly value their contributions to our understanding of gender, this is not a book about what Blackwomen think of White feminist ideas or how Black women’s ideas compare withthose of prominent White feminist theorists. I take a similar stance regardingMarxist social theory and Afrocentric thought. In order to capture the interconnections of race, gender, and social class in Black women’s lives and their effecton Black feminist thought, I explicitly rejected grounding my analysis in any single theoretical tradition.Oppressed groups are frequently placed in the situation of being listened toonly if we frame our ideas in the language that is familiar to and comfortable fora dominant group.This requirement often changes the meaning of our ideas andworks to elevate the ideas of dominant groups. In this volume, by placingAfrican-American women’s ideas in the center of analysis, I not only privilegethose ideas but encourage White feminists, African-American men, and all others to investigate the similarities and differences among their own standpointsand those of African-American women.
viiiBLACKFEMINIST THOUGHTThird, I deliberately include numerous quotations from a range of AfricanAmerican women thinkers, some well known and others rarely heard from.Explicitly grounding my analysis in multiple voices highlights the diversity, richness, and power of Black women’s ideas as part of a long-standing AfricanAmerican women’s intellectual community. Moreover, this approach counteractsthe tendency of mainstream scholarship to canonize a few Black women asspokespersons for the group and then refuse to listen to any but these select few.While it is certainly appealing to receive recognition for one’s accomplishments,my experiences as the “first,” “one of the few,” and the “only” have shown mehow effective selecting a few and using them to control the many can be in stifling subordinate groups. Assuming that only a few exceptional Black womenhave been able to do theory homogenizes African-American women and silencesthe majority. In contrast, I maintain that theory and intellectual creativity are notthe province of a select few but instead emanate from a range of people.Fourth, I used a distinctive methodology in preparing this manuscript whichillustrates how thought and action can work together in generating theory. Muchof my formal academic training has been designed to show me that I must alienate myself from my communities, my family, and even my own self in order toproduce credible intellectual work. Instead of viewing the everyday as a negativeinfluence on my theorizing, I tried to see how the everyday actions and ideas ofthe Black women in my life reflected the theoretical issues I claimed were soimportant to them. Lacking grants, fellowships, release time, or other benefitsthat allow scholars to remove themselves from everyday life and contemplate itscontours and meaning, I wrote this book while fully immersed in ordinary activities that brought me into contact with a variety of African-American women.Through caring for my daughter, mentoring Black women undergraduates,assisting a Brownie troop, and engaging in other “unscholarly” activities, Ireassessed my relationships with a range of African-American women and theirrelationships with one another.Theory allowed me to see all of these associationswith fresh eyes, while concrete experiences challenged the worldviews offeredby theory. During this period of self-reflection, work on this manuscript inchedalong, and I produced little “theory.” But without this involvement in the everyday, the theory in this volume would have been greatly impoverished.Fifth, in order to demonstrate the existence and authenticity of Black feminist thought, I present it as being coherent and basically complete. This portrayal is in contrast to my actual view that theory is rarely this smoothly constructed. Most theories are characterized by internal instability, are contested, and aredivided by competing emphases and interests.When I considered that Black feminist thought is currently embedded in a larger political and intellectual contextthat challenges its very right to exist, I decided not to stress the contradictions,frictions, and inconsistencies of Black feminist thought. Instead I present Blackfeminist thought as overly coherent, but I do so because I suspect that thisapproach is more appropriate for this historical moment. I hope to see other vol-
PREFACE TOFIRSTEDITIONixumes emerge which will be more willing to present Black feminist thought as ashifting mosaic of competing ideas and interests. I have focused on the pieces ofthe mosaic—perhaps others will emphasize the disjunctures distinguishing thepieces of the mosaic from one another.Finally, writing this book has convinced me of the need to reconcile subjectivity and objectivity in producing scholarship. Initially I found the movementbetween my training as an “objective” social scientist and my daily experiencesas an African-American woman jarring. But reconciling what we have beentrained to see as opposites, a reconciliation signaled by my inserting myself inthe text by using “I,” “we,” and “our” instead of the more distancing terms“they” and “one,” was freeing for me. I discovered that the both/and conceptual stance of Black feminist thought allowed me to be both objective and subjective, to possess both an Afrocentric and a feminist conciousness, and to beboth a respectable scholar and an acceptable mother.When I began this book, I had to overcome my reluctance concerning committing my ideas to paper. “How can I as one person speak for such a large andcomplex group as African-American women?” I asked myself. The answer is thatI cannot and should not because each of us must learn to speak for herself. In thecourse of writing the book I came to see my work as being part of a largerprocess, as one voice in a dialogue among people who have been silenced. Iknow that I will never again possess the curious coexistence of naiveté andunshakable confidence that I had when I portrayed Spring. But I hope to recapture those elements of the voice of Spring that were honest, genuine, andempowering. More important, my hope is that others who were formerly and arecurrently silenced will find their voices. I, for one, certainly want to hear whatthey have to say.
PrefacetoSecondEditionIinitially wrote Black FeministThought in order to help empower African-American women. I knew that whenan individual Black woman’s consciousness concerning how she understandsher everyday life undergoes change, she can become empowered. Such consciousness may stimulate her to embark on a path of personal freedom, even ifit exists initially primarily in her own mind. If she is lucky enough to meet others who are undergoing similar journeys, she and they can change the worldaround them. If ideas, knowledge, and consciousness can have such an impacton individual Black women, what effect might they have on Black women as agroup? I suspected that African-American women had created a collectiveknowledge that served a similar purpose in fostering Black women’s empowerment. Black Feminist Thought aimed to document the existence of such knowledge and sketch out its contours.My goal of examining how knowledge can foster African-Americanwomen’s empowerment remains intact. What has changed, however, is myunderstanding of the meaning of empowerment and of the process needed for itto happen. I now recognize that empowerment for African-American womenwill never occur in a context characterized by oppression and social injustice. Agroup can gain power in such situations by dominating others, but this is not thetype of empowerment that I found within Black women’s thinking. ReadingBlack women’s intellectual work, I have come to see how it is possible to be bothcentered in one’s own experiences and engaged in coalitions with others. In thissense, Black feminist thought works on behalf of Black women, but does so inconjunction with other similar social justice projects.My deepening understanding of empowerment stimulated more complexarguments of several ideas introduced in the first edition. For one, throughoutthis revision, I emphasize Black feminist thought’s purpose, namely, fosteringboth Black women’s empowerment and conditions of social justice. Both of thesethemes were in the first edition, but neither was as fully developed as they arehere. This enhanced emphasis on empowerment and social justice permeates therevised volume and is especially evident in Chapter 2. There I replace my efforts
PREFACE TOSECONDEDITIONxito “define” Black feminist thought with a discussion that identifies its distinguishing features. This shift allowed me to emphasize particular dimensions thatcharacterize Black feminist thought but are not unique to it. It also created spacefor other groups engaged in similar social justice projects to recognize dimensions of their own thought and practice. I tried to reject the binary thinking thatframes so many Western definitions, including my earlier ones of Black feministthought and of Black feminist epistemology. Rather than drawing a firm linearound Black feminist thought that aims to classify entities as either being Blackfeminist or not, I aimed for more fluidity without sacrificing logical rigor.My analysis of oppression is also more complex in this edition, in partbecause neither empowerment nor social justice can be achieved without somesense of what one is trying to change. Whereas both editions rely on a paradigmof intersecting oppressions to analyze Black women’s experiences, this editionprovides a more comprehensive treatment. Race, class, and gender studies werebeing established when I wrote the first edition. Just as this area of inquiry hasgreatly expanded since that writing, so has my treatment of this framework. Forexample, in this edition, I broaden my analysis beyond race, class, and genderand include sexuality as a form of oppression. Issues of social class and culturealso receive a more complex analysis in this edition. The first edition was especially concerned with issues of Black culture yet said less about social class.Culture and class were both there, but not in the balance that characterizes thisedition. My arguments have not substantially changed, but I think they are moreeffectively developed.In this edition, I also place greater emphasis on the connections betweenknowledge and power relations. I have always seen organic links between Blackfeminism as a social justice project and Black feminist thought as its intellectualcenter. Stated differently, the relationship between African-American women’sactivism and Black feminist thought as an intellectual and political philosophyintegral to that endeavor for me are inextricably linked.These links continue, buta
3.Work, Family, and Black Women’s Oppression 45 4. Mammies, Matriarchs,and Other Controlling Images 69 5.The Power of Self-Definition 97 6.The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood 123 7. Black Women’s Love Relationships 149 8. Black Women and Motherhood 173 9. Rethinking Black Women’s Activism 201 Part 3: Black Feminism, Knowledge, and Power
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Feminist Literary Criticism and Wuthering Heights BISWANATH MAHAPATRA Department of English, Khatra Adibasi Mahavidyalaya, Khatra, West Bengal, India Feminist criticism is the most outstanding discovery in the realm of theory as well as in the world of women. Feminist criticism comes in literary world in many forms and feminist critics have .
of Anglo-American feminist literary theory, talks about two kinds of feminist criticism: the first one is the feminist critique, that offers feminist readings of male texts in which stereotypes of women in literature are questioned. In her opinion, this approach is limited because it relies on male critical theory to be universal.
