Linda Burnham made many great points in her essay The Wellspring of Black Feminist Theory,
but the point I mainly want to address is her point on the diversity of black
women and their uniqueness that has led to those changes in social movements.
Black women have gone through their own struggles and these social movements
have progressed through these struggles in search for a solution.
I agree strongly with her argument on this because it led me
to think on how Black women have this unity but at the same time their unique
struggles have had a different impact on them. One example is, as Burnham
mentions, “differentiations based on class, color, sexual orientation, national
origin, marital status, region, and age. I think it’s important that these are
mentioned because a simple thing as age can make a big difference on how women
think. At different ages, they may have different goals.
Also very important at this time, the 60’s-70’s was marital
status. This status was significantly important socially. For example, one
image that many communities wanted to portray was of a standard family where
there is the stay at home mother with the kids and the husband at work.
Movements such as Black Power wanted to fight against racism and women were in
it as well, but as Linda mentions, Black women started to discuss their
situation as women and that’s when an organization such as SNCC formed, where
sexism was treated as the major issue it was.
I would like to mention how this is still relevant today
around the world and I’m specifically going to talk about here in the US. The activist movement Black Lives Matter has
brought awareness to so many people about real racial issues. It has focused
itself on minorities and a lot of their work has been brought to the attention
of the media where we hear about specific cases like Trayvon Martin, which was
honestly the case that gave me awareness of this organization. However, cases
from just last year of trans black women were not heard of in the media as much
or even at all like how the case of Trayvon was. These women, such as TeeTee
Dangerfield and Brooklyn Stevenson that were murdered have the uniqueness of
being black, a woman, and transgender.
Is it possible to achieve a movement that is fully focused
on everything be successful or is it best to keep splitting up and trying to
make smaller groups to achieve these goals?
I agree! Burnham's statement on how Black women have suffered through so many things due to their race and gender. I believe women of color in general have suffered through so much, and it is important to focus on them in order to make a difference. To answer your question I think it is best for everyone to come together and form just one movement for people of color, yet it seems impossible. I also mentioned the black lives matter movement along with the say her name movement. They are both advocating for the lives of the black race but are split because of the gender. Burnham states how race and gender are, "Analytically related to produce an integrated analysis of power and oppression" (Burnham 2, 2001). Power is seen as possessed by the male sex which is why women do not receive as much attention. It is important to stop splitting people within their own race and for everyone to come together.
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