Are you wondering if you’re a black feminist or an ally?

I recently had a chat with a close friend who is also a young black female, studying theatre and the like. She told me a story that I will never forget. Sitting in Theatre History, she recounts the very heated discussion about feminism and how it has operated in the theatre throughout time. Because theatre represents the masses and the zeitgeist of a civilization, social issues make their way into a theatre classroom. Most people in her class identified as feminists. However, during that discussion, a blue-eyed blonde girl with a burning question raised her hand. “If I am a feminist because I believe in the principles of feminism, does that mean I can be a black feminist because I believe in the principles of black feminism?”

I thought this story was a joke.

You can’t tell that you are NOT a black feminist? But before I unleash my wrath, I should consider where she was coming from. She’s not anti black feminism, she’s pro black feminism. Her heart is in the right place, but where does she fit?

If you’re wondering whether or not you’re a black feminist, look no further! To start, I’ll begin with this super easy, yet fundamental checklist:

You are a feminist
You believe that equality should be extended to women of all colors and are determined to fight against “racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression” (Combahee River Collective, 30).
You are black

Didn’t quite make it on the list for #3? That’s okay. If you identify as a feminist and you believe in the crusade of black feminism but you yourself aren’t black, you might be an ally. Black feminism makes a lot of the great points that standard feminism makes. However, it acknowledges that there is an undeniable intersection between race and womanhood that specifically affects black women. The Combahee River Collective, founded in the early 1970s, whose mission specifically adheres to black women and black feminist politics, states in the article A Black Feminist Statement that it is “difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously.” (31).

Along with the women of the Combahee River Collective, other trailblazers in the black feminism community include scholars, thinkers and activists such as Audre Lorde, Angela Davis and bell hooks.

Interesting articles of theirs that you should check out include: A Black Feminist Statement (Combahee River Collective), Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women in Feminism, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, & The Oppositional Gaze (hooks), The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power (Lorde).

We all know what male privilege is, right? It is the direct product of a patriarchal society. It rears its ugly head most in professional, political, classroom, and sometimes settings. Male privilege is blatantly evident in our language, i.e. “History” and “Mankind.” “The Male Privilege Checklist” was born from Peggy McIntosh’s article called White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1990).

As a bonus, it would greatly benefit you to read The Black Male Privileges Checklist by Jewel Woods. Woods describes how there is not only a discrepancy in how men and women operate in daily life, but also a discrepancy in how black men operate differently from black women in daily life, due to their male privilege. This list includes very accurate points such as…

“11. I have the ability to define black women’s beauty by European standards in terms of skin tone, hair, and body size. In comparison, black women rarely define me by European standards of beauty in terms of skin tone, hair, or body size.” (Woods, 27)

“29. I can rest assured that most of the women that appear in hip-hop videos are there solely to please men.” (Woods, 28)

“47. My financial success or popularity as a professional athlete will not be associated with my looks.” (Woods, 28)

If any of this information is enlightening to you and it interests you but you aren’t black, you might be an ally to black feminists. The point of these articles is to further illustrate the struggle that your neighbor might be facing. These articles serve to open another door that leads to a room of healthy conversation.There is not only one type of feminist or even two types of feminists. However, the one true quality of a feminist should be that of inclusivity, which stems from understanding your neighbor’s struggle.

I thought this story was a joke.

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Nia Calloway

Writing since September 2016 · 1 story contributed