Feminism, Race and Racism
Questions to ponder whilst you read…
- Was the WLM a white movement?
- Why did some Black women activists reject the label ‘feminist’?
- What parallels/ differences can you identify between these debates and those which took place in the nineteenth-century?
- Why and how were Black women involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement?
PPT Slides this week Feminism Race and RacismLink opens in a new window
Core Reading
Valerie Amos & Pratibha Parmar, ‘Challenging Imperial Feminism’, Feminist Review 17 (Autumn 1984), 3-21 digitised
Natalie Thomlinson, 'The Colour of Feminism: White feminists and race in the Women's Liberation Movement' History 97:327, pp.453 - 475 digitised
Further Reading
Julia Sudbury, 'Other Kinds of Dreams': Black Women's Organisations and the Politics of Transformation (1998) digitised
Natalie Thomlinson, Race, Ethnicity and the Women's Movement in England 1968-1993 (2016) digitised
‘Black Women Organising Autonomously’, Feminist Review 17 (Autumn 1984), 83-100, Special Issue ‘Many Voices One Chant: Black Feminist Perspectives’ [Have a look at the whole of this volume as there is a lot of interesting stuff] digitised
Remembering Olive Morris Collective websiteLink opens in a new window
M.T. Bogle, ‘Brixton Black Women’s Centre: Organising on Child Sexual Abuse’, Feminist Review 28 (1988), 132-135 digitised
Carmen, Gail, Sheila and Pratibha, ‘Becoming Visible: Black Lesbian Discussions’, Feminist Review 17 (Autumn 1984), 53-74 digitised
Valerie Mason-John and Ann Khambatta, Lesbians Talk: Making Black Waves (1993)
‘Black Women Together: The Need for a United and Autonomous National Black Women’s Organisation’, Spare Rib: A Women’s Liberation Magazine 87 (1979), 42-45 (See also Roisin Boyd, Race, place and class: who is speaking for who)
‘Black Women Fighting Back’, Spare Rib: A Women’s Liberation Magazine 95 (1980), 49 (See also Roisin Boyd, Race, place and class: who is speaking for who)
E.B. Freedman, ‘Race and the Politics of Identity in US Feminism’, in V.L. Ruiz & E.C. Dubois, Unequal Sisters: An Inclusive Reader in US Women’s History, pp.1-14 see also in No Turning Back: the History of Feminism and the Future of Women digitised
H. Safia Mirza, ‘Introduction: Mapping a Genealogy of Black British Feminism’, in H. Safia Mirza, Black British Feminism (1997), pp.1-28 [a very useful overview]
Amrit Wilson, ‘Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain’, in H. Safia Mirza, Black British Feminism (1997), 31-36 and Amrit Wilson, 'A Burning Fever: the isolation of Asian women', Race and Class, 9 (1978), 129-143
Bryan, S. Dadzie, S. Scafe, The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain (London: 1985) (also see Sophia Siddiqui, Still The Heart of Race Thirty Years On) digitised
bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman? (1982) [esp. chapters 4 and 5. A US perspective but highly influential in the UK] digitised
P. Hill Collins, ‘What’s in a Name? Womanism, Black Feminism and Beyond’, The Black Scholar 26:1 (1996), 9-17[A US perspective but highly influential in the UK] digitised
A. Brah, ‘Difference, Diversity, Differentiation’, in L. Back & J. Solomos (eds.), Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader (2000) digitised
Phyllis Marynick Palmer, 'White women and black women: the dualism of female identity and experience in the US', Feminist Studies, 1 (1983), 151-170
S. Grewal et al., Charting the Journey: Writings by Black and Third World Women (1988)