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Atlanta University S.G.A. Sponsors
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Black Feminism
by Nancy Travis
Do you know what feminism
is? What is Black feminism?
These are the questions which
were addressed at a recent
forum sponsored by the Atlanta
University SGA. Award winning
poet and playwright Alice
Lovelace, former SNCC activist
Fay Bellamy, and AU student
Injiri Jackson offered their views
of Black feminism and discussed
its implications for Black people.
Injiri Jackson, former instruc
tor atSouthern University, open
ed the forum By stating that
“feminism and lesbianism are
not the same thing.” While
lesbianism is lifestyle and sexual
preference, “feminism is a social
movement which strives to allow
women to gain political equality
with men, and to also break
down the social barriers which
prevent women from gaining
equal rights. Today, feminism is
concerned with issues such as
reproductive rights, oc
cupational mobility and equal
wages."
Explaining the rise of Black
feminism, Injiri stated, “The
Women’s Movement first
emerged around the rise of the
Abolitionist Movement.
However, white feminists often
excluded Blacks in order to gain
southern support, and recently
Black feminism has risen in
response to the exclusionary
nature of white feminists.”
Speaker Fay Bellamy began
her discussion on Black feminism
by noting the discriminatory
behavior of some Black men
during the 60s: “The last thing I
expected to find in SNCC (the
Student Non-violent Coor
dinating Committee) was the
oppression of women ... but
sometimes we women had to
have sit - down strikes against the
men.
“At first it was not accepted
that women become field
secretaries, but women did
become field secretaries. Once
at a meeting I was the only
woman present and someone
announced that they were
waiting for me to leave. I told
them: ‘I will not leave, this is my
life, too; this is our struggle, too.’
The oppression of women is a
world wide problem."
Fay continued by expressing
her concern with the oppression
of women within the Black
community. She stated that she
would like to see more Black
men actively attempting to
alleviate this problem by talking
to each other: “Black men have
to learn to talk to other Black
men about rape. There is hardly a
woman in the Black community
who has not been sexually
abused at some point in her life.
Most Black men don’t discuss it
with concern unless it is a white
man who rapes us, then
everybody is upset ... Men
should teach young boys to
respect women and to com
municate with us.”
Ms. Bellamy stressed the need
for men to recognize the ways in
which oppression is manifested:
“Oppression of women comes in
various forms. If you beat her,
she is oppressed. If you restrain
or have her serving you at your
beck and call, you are oppressing
her.”
Fay Bellamy also attempted to
emphasize that fighting sexism
and women's oppression should
be a joint effort between the
sexes: “Feminism is not 'women
against men’; men can be
feminists. It must be a unified
effort of Black people to stop the
oppression of .women
worldwide.”
Poet Alice Lovelace expressed
her view of feminism as it exists
for her as a Black woman: “I
refused to believe that women
have had no power in the world.
We’ve fought battles, we’ve
raised crops, we’ve 'raised
children. I knew I had the power
to do what I wanted to do. We
must assume we have power
within us rather than allowing
ourselves to become victims.
Black women have always work
ed — we have been exploited,
yes — but we have worked. We
don’t need to talk of discovering
our skills and abilities. We don’t
call it feminism, we call it sur
viving.”
Another factor Ms. Lovelace
noted which prevents Black
women from being able to relate
to the white feminist movement
is the attitude of upwardly
mobile white women: "They
want to move into the board
room, but they don’t want to
change anything. I go to business
seminars where they get up
there and tell you how to talk
about football and tell dirty
jokes.”
However, as a mother of six,
Alice like white feminists does
not believe that women should
subject themselves to the
"superwife” or “supermom”
expectations society imposes on
women: “During the first six
years of my marriage I got up at 5
o’clock to warm the car up for
my husband, made breakfast,
took my child to the baby sitter,
went to work at 11 o’clock, got
off of work at 7 o’clock, pick my
child up from the baby sitter,
come home to my husband
asleep in front of the television,
make dinner, put my child to
sleep, then go to bed.
“I thought I had to do
everything and at one point I
held down two jobs. Then I had a
nervous breakdown; something
was telling me that I had to
change my life or else. If I didn’t
make me a priority, no one else
would.”
So, how can you make yourself
your own priority? What can you
do to help eliminate the negative
influences in our community
which contribute to the oppres
sion of women? Each of the
panelists offered pertinent
suggestions.
Alice Lovelace says, "In our
everyday lives we must try to
change things, no matter how
small. If Mr. X makes a
chauvinistic statement, tell him
about it. He might call you a
bitch, but I bet he will think
about what he says to the next
woman."
“Assert yourself,” Fay Bellamy
says, “don’t allow anyone to say
or do something ignorant. And
realize that it might take more
than one conversation. But when
a man hit me I told him, ‘You hit
me again and you will never see
me again.’ No house or clothes
are as important to me as I am. I
could have had 20 kids behind
me, we would all leave.”
Injiri Jackson notes that we
also have some communicating
to do sister - to - sister, "We
should get together to discuss
these issues. Unfortunately,
some women tend to look at
other women as competition for
a scarce resource (men). A lot of
us do not want to talk to each
other about these problems and
that’s deep...”
Ms. Jackson made suggestions
as to what we should do within -
academia to recognize the op-
oression and struggle of women:
‘Seek out courses which deal
with the history of women and
insist that every course deal in
some way with women’s issues.”
Black feminism is neither a
sexual preference nor a doctrine
which urges women to become
hostile to men. It is the recogni
tion of women as intelligent and
capable human beings to be
respected without condescen
sion. It is a message that urges us
to discover our abilities and to
strive to eliminate the oppres
sion of women.
PHOTO OPINION
Question: Do you feel that the curriculum at your school is serving its academic purposes?
Why or why not?
Jada Johnson - Spelman
freshman
No, it does not fulfill its
academic purposes because it
takes away from the classes that
you have to take for your major
requirements.
Carl Norris - Morehouse senior
I think that it definitely is.
Morehouse has 70% instructors
who are Ph. D's and the other
30% are working toward
degrees. Whether or not
students take advantage of the
opportunity is another question.
It’s up to the individual student
to seek the knowledge and
wisdom that the professor has to
offer. If he does not do so, then it
has a bad reflection on the
college.
Patricia Smith - Spelman senior
Yes and no. Some departments
at Spelman are more successful
than others in teaching students
to apply their knowledge and
experience to the outside world.
Tommie Fleming - Spelman
sophomore
I do not feel that the
curriculum is serving its
academic purposes. Some of the
classes are unnecessary to take -
they’re a waste of money. Many
of the core requirements will
never be needed when you walk
out of this school.
Carolyn Esannason - Clark
freshman
The curriculum is not serving
its purposes for everyone — a lot
of people have had to leave
Clark because it did not have
exactly what they wanted. But
I’m satisfied with it.