Black feminist epistemology a small girl and her mother passed a statue depicting a european man who had barehandedly subdued a ferocious lion. Collins rejects both perspectives and asserts that black women have been neither passive victims nor willing complies of, what she calls, the dominant eurocentric masculinist epistemology. Feminist standpoint theory has done the most to articulate the importance of perspectival differences stemming from social location. Moreover, many of the key works in feminist epistemology draw on and contribute to more than one approach to epistemology making any straightforward cataloging of key works deceptive.
As long as gender inequality and oppression exists, feminism and feminist thought will continue to matter to millions of people throughout the world. Defining black feminist thought by catori labad on prezi. Black feminist epistemology patricia hill collins is a wellknown promoter of black feminist thought and a social scientist that has focused her research and education on matters of race, gender and power. Email philosophy of science, values in science, science in society, responsible research, and science policy. Centering lived experiences and the use of dialog imply that knowledge is built around ethics of caring, collins third characteristic of black feminist knowledge. Black feminist thought as methodology departures in. Traditionally, the suppression of black womens ideas within whitemalecontrolled social institutions led africanamerican women to use music, literature, daily conversations, and everyday behavior as important locations for 11 black feminist epistemology 11. While potentially a limited set of categories, po stmodern fem inism was a transitional ideology that denounced absolute objectivity and asserted the death of the metanarrative. Femmeininity and the black radical and ratchet imagination m. Sex, and power changed the landscape of feminist theo. What are the four tenets of black feminist epistemology 1. Signs patricia hill collins has done the impossible.
In this essay, we rely on a black feminist lens to challenge and extend what is appraised as rigorous research methodology. For a listing of other wmstl files available on the web, see the wmstl file list. A significant aspect of black feminism is intersectionality. A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. Ezra talk to birkbeck college philosophy society march 23, 2017 fractured identities. Antony 2000 the proceedings of the twentieth world congress of philosophy 2000. Inspired by a diverse, intergenerational group of black women referred to as the black womens gathering place, we employ black feminist thought bft as critical social theory and embrace a more expansive understanding of bft as. Black women who achieve academic credentials face pressure from multiple sides. A problem for both consciousness raising and the feminist standpoint a challenge has come from what sandra harding refers to as fractured identities. The social construction of black feminist thought patricia hill collins signs, vol. Feminist standpoint epistemology has been criticized for implying there is an essential woman collins 2000, for giving epistemic pri vile ge to gender oppres. The term second wave, applied as a prefix to feminism, implies that it describes a specific moment in history, and signifies a discernible transformation in this body of knowledge specifically a shifting of boundaries towards a new wave of radicalism. Although collins describes one alternative epistemology black feminism she also points to the importance of others.
In order for black feminist epistemology to challenge those dominant ideologies, they must share their own lived experiences to represent new meanings. In this context, black feminist thought can best be viewed as subjugated knowledge. Patricia hill collins, black feminist epistemology 1990. Black women were more vocal during the second wave of feminism but still, little progress was made towards more diverse theories or representation within feminism harris, 1990. Moreover, feminist intellectuals continue to develop cuttingedge and nuanced understandings of the social world that enrich the power and possibilities of social theory writ large. Sandra harding organized feminist epistemolo gy into three categori es.
Black feminist epistemology epistemology the study of philosophies of knowledge and truth black feminist epistemology stresses. As caretakers of socialscientific knowledge, white elite males not only control the limits of. Black feminist epistemology requires personal accountability. Adopted from elements of marxist theory, feminist standpoint theory also represents one of the more thorough attempts to ground epistemology and, correspondingly, a view of knowers in a social theory. Where black feminist epistemology meets intersubjective epistemological approaches to personhood abeba birhane. A fundamental thesis of feminist epistemology is that our location in the world as women makes it possible for us to perceive and understand different aspects ofboth the world and human activities in ways that challenge the male bias of existing perspectives. Intersectionality refers to the way gender, race, and other social categories interact to influence an individual life outcomes. These black feminists saw intersectionality as integral to the. Feminist social epistemology stanford encyclopedia of. In the social construction of black feminist thought collins argues for the need for an alternative epistemological stance that reflects black women s standpoints. Although black women may be denigrated within whitemalecontrolled academic institutions, other institutions, such as black families and churches, which encourage the expression of black female power, seem to do so, in part, by way of their support for an afrocentric feminist epistemology. Black feminist thought the flame by unite youth dublin.
Show how pornography, prostitution, and rape as a tool of sexual. Black feminism, womanism and the politics of women of. Feminist epistemology is both a paradox and a necessity. Feminist epistemologists examine social, political, and ethical aspects of knowing using a wide range of approaches. Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment is a 1990 book by patricia hill collins. Viewing these texts from an analytical perspective, one can observe that the personas. Feminist epistemology is a particular manifestation of the general insight that the nature. Langton on objectivity and objectification langton takes as her target the radical feminist view, exemplified by catharine. In black feminist epistemology hill addresses a crucial problem within the process of validating knowledge. In black feminist thought, patricia hill collins explores the words and ideas of black feminist intellectuals, as well as those africanamerican women outside academe. Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment, 2nd ed. Due to a mainstream feminist attempt to silence black feminism, issues affecting black women continued to flourish and worsen. If the epistemology used to validate knowledge comes into question, then all prior knowledge claims validated under the dominant model become suspect. Located in african american womens everyday and historical experiences of oppression and resistance, black feminist epistemology and critical social theory, patricia hill collins raises the intellectual level in all these arenas.
Black womens ways of knowing as distinctive and significant for developing theories of the social world and for attaining social justice for all oppressed groups. Thus, although feminist ethical and political theory were rapidly growing areas of inquiry during the 1960s and 1970s, only in the 1980s was a set of questions and proposals articulated to address the possibility that there could, after all, be so seemingly oxymoronic an area of inquiry as feminist epistemology. Epistemology is a highly general inquiry into the meaning of knowledge claims and attributions, into conditions for the possibility of knowledge, into the nature of truth and justification, and so on. In chapters eleven and twelve of the book black feminist thought by patricia hill collins, collins argues that the dominant epistemology in the united states has been defined by the elite white men. Black feminist epistemology, then, begins with connected knowers, those who know from personal experience. Feminist epistemology the following twopart file contains a discussion of feminist epistemology that took place on wmstl in february 1996, along with a reading list on feminist epistemologies and research methods contributed by wmstl participant lauraine leblanc. Expressing an independent black feminist consciousness, therefore, becomes problematic, as it is a threat to the established interpretation of reality. In many ways, this article takes up where nancy hartsock leaves off, complicating. The signature contribution of black feminism, intersectionality, is explored in some detail. Feminist epistemologies wgst 5020pols 5770phil 5100 fall 2016 prof. They must navigate between two conflicting epistemologies. Patricia hill collins vs white feminism the sociological. She provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent black feminist thinkers as angela davis, bell hooks, alice walker, and audre lorde.
In order for black feminist epistemology to challenge those dominant ideologies, they must share their own lived experiences to represent new meanings, instead of. In black feminist epistemology, the story is told and preserved in narrative form and not torn apart in analysis collins, 2000, p. Using patricia hill collins explain what is meant by s ex, gender, and sexual pol itics. Connection defining black feminist thought patricia hill collins defining black feminist thought coincides with the poem queer theory. Allen, b 2009, black feminist epistemology, in littlejohn, sw. Key concepts queer theory heterosexual matrix performativity. Feminist standpoint theory, then, makes a contribution to epistemology, within a number of disciplinessuch as dorothy smith, nancy hartsock, hilary rose. Feminist epistemology and the politics of knowledge. Black feminism and intersectionality international. She has written a book on black feminist thought that combines the theory with the most immediate in feminist practice. The major contributors to black feminism s are noted, and the key ideas are interrogated. Collins 2000 alternative epistemology claims that is it only those men and women who experience the consequences of social being who can select topics for investigation and methodologies used p.
The little girl stopped, looked puzzled and asked, mama, somethings wrong with that statue. Key concepts hegemonic masculinity patriarchal dividend. For instance, in the 1970s, a group of black women formed the combahee river collective. Developed through a dynamic interaction with black womens everyday struggles, black feminist thought is important. There is no original or primary gender a drag imitates, but gender is a kind of. A postcolonial, global black feminist perspective tiera tanksley by operationalizing a postcolonial, global black feminist lens, this study illuminates the illicit connections between the historically anchored and institutionally sanctioned exploitation of black women and the untempered. Nancy is one of the founding members and cochair of femmss feminist epistemology, metaphysics, methodology and sciences studies. Black feminist epistemology black feminist thought. She is completing a manuscript, actions which change the face of the world, from which the article in this volume is drawn. The social construction of black feminist thought patricia.
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