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; •->* 5.7 Z'—ri && rjyjfc ■ •; Atlanta University S.G.A. Sponsors Page f 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.