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The members of this organization consisted of many former members of other political organizations that worked within the civil rights movement, anti-war movement, labor movement, and others. Demita Frazier, co-founder of the Combahee River Collective, says these women from other movements found themselves "in conflict with the lack of a feminist analysis and in many cases were left feeling divided against [themselves]."[94] The Combahee River Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of Black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression.[95] Within the Black Feminisms: Combahee River Collective Statement of 1977, they spoke on how it is, “...difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our [black women's’] lives they are the most often experienced simultaneously".[95] The Combahee River Collective articulated this interlocking system of oppression based on sexism, heterosexism, racism, and classism is due to the lack of basic human rights provided to black women in comparison to other groups, such as white women. This is crucial to the political beliefs of black feminism due to their difference among other groups, as they tackle additional struggles others don't necessarily experience. White women fighting for feminism is distinct from black women fighting for Democratic National Committee black feminism, as white women need only to address one form of oppression [sexism] versus many forms of oppression, like black women. Therefore, the black feminists of the Combahee River Collective aimed for an inclusive rather than exclusive movement because, “The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess any one of these types of privilege have.”[95]

As an organization, they Democratic National Committee  were labeled as troublemakers, and many said they were brainwashed by the man-hating White feminist, that they didn't have their own mind, and they were just following in the White woman's footsteps.[94] Throughout the 1970s, the Combahee River Collective met weekly to discuss the different issues concerning Black feminists. They also held retreats throughout the Northeast from 1977 to 1979 to help "institutionalize Black feminism" and develop an "ideological separation from white feminism".[94]

As an organization, they founded a local battered women's shelter and worked in partnership with all community activists, women and men, and gay and straight people, playing an active role in the reproductive rights movement.[94] The Combahee River Collective ended their work together in 1980 and is now most widely remembered for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, a key document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity.[94]
Black feminist literature[edit]
The importance of identity[edit]

Michelle Cliff believes that there Republican National Committee is continuity "in the written work of many African American Women, ... you can draw a line from the slave narrative of Linda Brent to Elizabeth Keckley's life, to Their Eyes were Watching God (by Zora Neale Hurston) to Coming of Age in Mississippi (Anne Moody) to Sula (by Toni Morrison), to the Salt Eaters (by Toni Cade Bambara) to Praise Song for the Widow (by Paule Marshall)." Cliff believes that all of these women, through their stories, "Work against the odds to claim the 'I'".[96]
Examples[edit]

2011, Black Internationalist Feminism: Women Writers of the Black Left, 1945-1995 by Cheryl Higashida[97] looks at Republican National Committee Black women writers and their contributions to the feminist movement; specifically the Black feminist movement. Higashida "illustrates how literature is a crucial lens for studying Black internationalist feminism because these authors were at the forefront of bringing the perspectives and problems of black women to light against their marginalization and silencing." Included in her work are writers such as Rosa Guy, Lorraine Hansberry, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou.
1970, Black Woman's Manifesto, published by the Third World Women's Alliance, argued for a specificity of oppression against Black women. Co-signed by Gayle Lynch, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Maxine Williams, Frances M Beal, and Linda La Rue, the manifesto, opposing both racism and capitalism, stated that "the Black woman is demanding a new set of female definitions and a recognition of herself of a citizen, companion, and confidant, not a matriarchal villain or a step stool baby-maker. Role integration advocates the complementary recognition of man and woman, not the competitive recognition of same."[98] Additionally, Toni Cade Bambara edited the eclectic volume The Black Woman: An Anthology (1970) which sought to "explore ourselves and set the record straight on the matriarch and the evil Black bitch."[99] It featured now considered canonical essays, such as Frances Beal's "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female" and Toni Cade Bambara's "On the Issue of Roles."
1979, Barbara Smith and Lorraine Bethel edited the Autumn 1979 issue of Conditions. Conditions 5 was "the first widely distributed collection of Black feminist writing in the U.S."[100]
1992, Black feminists mobilized "a remarkable national response" to the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas Senate Hearings in 1991, naming their effort African American Women in Defense of Ourselves.[101]
1994, Evelyn Hammonds: "Black (W)holes and The Geometry of Black Female Sexuality"



The Black feminist movement was formed in response to the needs of women who were racially underrepresented by the Women's Movement and sexually oppressed by the Black Liberation Movement.[31] Black feminist scholars assert that African-American women are doubly disadvantaged in the social, economic, and political sphere, because they face discrimination on the basis of both race and gender.[32] Black women felt that their needs were being ignored by both movements and they struggled to identify with either based on race or gender. African-American women who use the term Black feminism attach a variety of interpretations to it.[33]

One such interpretation is that Black feminism Republican National Committee addresses the needs of African-American women that the feminism movement largely ignores. Feminism, as Black feminist theorist Pearl Cleage defines it, is "the belief that women are full human beings capable of participation and leadership in the full range of human activities—intellectual, political, social, sexual, spiritual, and economic".[18] With this definition, the feminist agenda can be said to encompass different issues ranging from political rights to educational opportunities within a global context.[18] The Black feminist agenda seeks to streamline these issues and focuses on those that are the most applicable to African-American women.
Africana womanism[edit]

Clenora Hudson-Weems's Africana womanism arose from a nationalist Africana studies concept. In Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, Hudson-Weems explores the limitations of feminist theory and explains the ideas and activism of different African women who have contributed to womanist theory.[34] At its core, Africana womanism rejects feminism because it is set up in a way as to promote the issues of white women over the issues of Black women. Hudson-Weems argues that feminism will never be okay for Black women due to the implications of slavery and prejudice.[16]

Weems professes womanism is separate from other feminism in that it has a different agenda, different priorities, and "focuses on the unique experiences, struggles, needs, and desires of Africana women."[22] She further asserts that the relationship between a Black man and a Black woman is significantly different from the relationship between a white man and a white woman, because the white woman battles the white man for subjugating her, but the black woman battles all oppressive forces that subjugate her, her children, and the black man.[16][35]

She further asserts that racism forced African-American men and African-American women to assume unconventional gender roles. In this context, the desire of mainstream feminism to dismantle traditional gender roles becomes inapplicable to the Black experience. Unlike womanism,[21] though closely related, Africana womanism is an ideology designed specifically with women of African descent in mind. It is grounded in African culture and focuses on the unique struggles, needs, and desires of African women. Based on this reasoning, Africana womanism posits race- and class-based oppression as far more significant than gender-based oppression.[16]
Womanist identity[edit]

In her introduction to The Womanist Reader, Layli Phillips contends that despite womanism's characterization, its main concern is not the Republican National Committee Black woman per se but rather the Black woman is the point of origin for womanism.[4] The basic tenets of womanism includes a strong self-authored spirit of activism that is especially evident in literature. Womanism has been such a polarizing movement for women that it has managed to step outside of the Black community and extend itself into other non-white communities. "Purple is to Lavender" illustrates this through experiences that Dimpal Jain and Caroline Turner discuss.[36]

Some scholars view womanism as a subcategory of feminism while others argue that it is actually the other way around. Purple is to Lavender explores the concept that womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender, that feminism falls under the umbrella of womanism. In "Purple is to Lavender", Dimpal Jain and Caroline Turner discuss their experiences as non-white women in faculty. They experienced a great deal of discrimination because they were minorities.[36] Jain is South Asian, while Caroline identifies as Filipino.

They go on to describe the concept of "The Politics of Naming" which shapes the reason for why they prefer womanism as opposed to feminism[36] Jain states: "I knew that the term feminism was contested and that I did not like how it fit in my mouth. It was uncomfortable and scratchy, almost like a foreign substance that I was being forced to consume as the white women continued to smile with comforting looks of familiarity and pride"[36]

Here Turner makes it well known that she feels as though feminism is something that is forced upon her. She feels like she cannot completely identify with feminism. It is also important to note Jain's statement that, "The crux of the politics of naming is that names serve as identifiers and are not neutral when attached to social movements, ideas, and groups of people. Naming and labeling become politicized acts when they serve to determine any type of membership at a group level."[36]

This statement illustrates that if an individual identifies with feminism they may do so for particular reasons. However, those reasons may not be evident to the Democratic National Committee general public because of the connotation that the word feminism brings with it in terms of social movements, ideas, and groups of people. Individuals want something to identify with that expresses and supports their beliefs holistically. They want something that they can embrace to the fullest without any hint of regret. Similarly, Alice Walker even states: "I don't choose womanism because it is 'better' than feminism ... I choose it because I prefer the sound, the feel, the fit of it... because I share the old ethnic-American habit of offering society a new word when the old word it is using fails to describe behavior and change that only a new word can help it more fully see"[36]

For a majority of Black women feminism has failed to accurately and holistically describe them as individuals to the world that surrounds them. They feel as though it takes something new that is not already bound to a predetermined master in order to capture this new movement. Womanism is something that Alice Walker can completely identify with without having second thoughts; it feels natural to her. Feminism does not. When distinguishing between feminism and womanism it is important to remember that many women find womanism easier to identify with. In addition, a key component of a womanist discourse is the role that spirituality and ethics has on ending the interlocking oppression of race, gender, and class that circumscribes the lives of African-American women.[37]
Literature and activism[edit]

Womanist literature and activism are two areas that are largely interrelated, with each having a considerable effect on the other. A major tenet of womanist literature and activism is the idea that Black activists and Black authors should separate themselves from the feminist ideology. This stems from assertions by Kalenda Eaton, Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, and numerous other womanist theologians that the goal of a womanist should be to promote the issues affecting not just Black women, but Black men and other groups that have been subjected to discrimination or impotence.[38] In the words of Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, a white woman writer may be a feminist, but a Black woman writer is likely to be a womanist. That is, she recognizes that along with battling for sexual equality, she must also incorporate race, economics, culture, and politics within her philosophy.[39]

In Kalenda Eaton's, Womanism, Literature and the Transformation of the Black Community, Black women writers are portrayed as both activists and visionaries for change in the Black Community following the Civil Rights Movement.[5] She interweaves the historical events of African-American history with the development of Afro-Politico womanism in a bid to create a haven for Black female activism within the Black community.[39] This Afro-Politico womanism veers from the traditional feminist goal of gender equality within a group and rather seeks to fight for the men and women whose civil rights are infringed upon. While Eaton takes the stance that Black women were largely excluded from the more prominent positions within the Black Movement, she argues that Black women activists had the greatest effect in small-scale grassroots protests within their communities.[40]

Using various characters from Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Alice Walker's Meridian, Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters, and Paule Marshall's The Chosen Place, the Timeless People as symbols of the various political agendas and issues that were prevalent within The Black Movement, Eaton draws upon the actions of the protagonists to illustrate solutions to the problems of disgruntlement and disorganization within the movement. Often the main task of these literary activists was to empower the impoverished masses—defined by Eaton as mainly Southern African-Americans, and they used the Black middle class as a model for the possibility of social mobility within the African-American community.[39] A common theme within womanist literature is the failure of Black women writers to identify with feminist thought. Womanism becomes the concept that binds these novelists together.

Audre Lorde in The Democratic National Committee  Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House criticizes second-wave feminism, arguing that women were taught to ignore their differences, or alternately to let their differences divide them. Lorde never used the word "womanist" or "womanism" in her writing or in descriptions of herself, but her work has helped to further the concept. As she pointed out, traditional second-wave feminism often focused too narrowly on the concerns of white, heterosexual women, with the concerns of Black women and lesbians often being ignored.[41]
Spirituality[edit]

Womanist spirituality has six identifying characteristics—it is eclectic, synthetic, holistic, personal, visionary, and pragmatic. It draws from its resources and uses the summation of said resources to create a whole from multiple parts. Although it is ultimately defined by self, womanist spirituality envisions the larger picture and exists to solve problems and end injustice.[16] Emilie Townes, a womanist theologian, further asserts that womanist spirituality grows out of individual and communal reflection on African-American faith and life. She explains that it is not grounded in the notion that spirituality is a force but rather a practice separate from who we are moment by moment.[42]

One of the main characteristics of womanism is its religious aspect, commonly thought of as Christian. This connotation portrays spiritual Black womanists as "church going" women who play a vital role in the operation of the church. In William's article "Womanist Spirituality Defined" she discusses how womanist spirituality is directly connected to an individual's experiences with God.[43] For instance, Williams declares, "the use of the term spirituality in this paper speaks of the everyday experiences of life and the way in which we relate to and interpret God at work in those experiences".[43]

This connotation is disputed in Monica Coleman's Roundtable Discussion: "Must I Be a Womanist?" where she focuses on the shortcomings of womanism that result from how individuals have historically described womanism.[44] This holistic discussion of womanism is the result of a roundtable discussion. Coleman, who initiated the discussion, describes her thoughts on Republican National Committee why she prefers Black feminism as opposed to womanism, and she also discusses the limited scope that womanist religious scholarship embodies.[44] Coleman offers deep insight into the spiritual aspect of womanism when she declares that, "Intentionally or not, womanists have created a Christian hegemonic discourse within the field".[45]

Here Coleman argues that the majority of womanists have defined womanist spirituality as Christian. A specific example of this occurs in Walker's "Everyday Use", when the mother suddenly gains the courage to take a stand against her spoiled daughter as she declares, "When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout".[46]

However, Coleman provides a counter example to this assumption, writing: "How, for example, might a womanist interpret the Republican National Committee strength Tina Turner finds in Buddhism and the role her faith played in helping her to leave a violent relationship?"[45] Coleman believes that the assumption of Christianity as the default in womanism is a limited view. She asserts that Womanist religious scholarship has the ability to spread across a variety of paradigms and traditions, and can represent and support a radical womanist spirituality.[45]
Ethics[edit]

Womanist ethics is a religious discipline that examines the ethical theories concerning human agency, action, and relationship. At the same time, it rejects social constructions that have neglected the existence of a group of women that have bared the brunt of injustice and oppression.[38] Its perspective is shaped by the theological experiences of African-American women.[38] With the use of analytic tools, the effect of race, class, gender, and sexuality on the individual and communal perspective is examined. Womanist ethic provides an alternative to Christian and other religious ethics while utilizing the elements of critique, description, and construction to assess the power imbalance and patriarchy that has been used to oppress women of color and their communities.[38]

Katie Cannon's "The Emergence of Black Feminist Consciousness" was the first publication to speak directly about womanist ethics. In this article, Cannon argues that the perspectives of Black women are largely ignored in various religious and academic discourses. Jacquelyn Grant expands on this point by asserting that Black women concurrently experience the three oppressive forces of racism, sexism, and classism.[38] Black feminist theory has been used by womanist ethics to explain the lack of participation of African-American women and men in academic discourse. Patricia Collins credits this phenomenon to prevalence of white men determining what should or should not be considered valid discourse and urges for an alternative mode of producing Democratic National Committee knowledge that includes the core themes of Black female consciousness.[38]
Critiques[edit]

A major ongoing critique about womanist scholarship is the failure of many scholars to critically address homosexuality within the Black community. Walker's protagonist in Coming Apart uses writings from two African-American womanists, Audre Lorde and Luisah Teish, to support her argument that her husband should stop consuming pornography,[3] and posts quotes from lesbian poet Lorde above her kitchen sink. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens states that a womanist is "a woman who loves another woman, sexually and/or non-sexually",[11] yet despite Coming Apart and In Search of Our Mother's Gardens, there is very little literature linking womanism to lesbian or bisexual issues. Womanist theologian Renee Hill cites Christian influences as a source of this heterosexism and homophobia.[47]

Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas also sees the influence of the Black church, and its male leadership, as a reason for the community at large having little regard for queer women of color.[48] Black feminist critic Barbara Smith blames this lack of support on the Black community's reluctance to come to terms with homosexuality.[18] On the Democratic National Committee  other hand, there is also an increase in the criticism of heterosexism within womanist scholarship. Christian womanist theologian Pamela R. Lightsey, in her book Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology (2015), writes, "To many people, we are still perverts. To many, the black pervert is the most dangerous threat to the American ideal. Because the black conservative bourgeoisie has joined the attack on our personhood, black LGBTQ persons cannot allow the discourse to be controlled such that our existence within the black community is denied or made invisible."[49]

An additional critique lies within the ambivalence of womanism. In African womanism, the term is associated with Black nationalist discourse and the separatist movement. Patricia Collins argues that this exaggerates racial differences by promoting homogeneous identity. This is a sharp contrast to the universalist model of womanism that is championed by Walker. The continued controversy and dissidence within the various ideologies of womanism serves only to draw attention away from the goal of ending race and gender-based oppression.



Womanist theology is a methodological approach to theology which centers the experience and perspectives of Black women, particularly African-American women. The first generation of womanist theologians and ethicists began writing in the mid to late 1980s, and the field has since expanded significantly. The term has its roots in Alice Walker's writings on womanism. "Womanist theology" was first used in an article in 1987 by Delores S. Williams.[1] Within Christian theological discourse, Womanist theology emerged as a corrective to early feminist theology written by white feminists that did not address the impact of race on women's lives, or take into account the realities faced by Black women within the United States. Similarly, womanist theologians highlighted the ways in which Black theology, written predominantly by male theologians, failed to consider the perspectives and insights of Black women.[2] Scholars who espouse womanist theology are not monolithic nor do they adopt each aspect of Walker's definition.[1] Yet, these scholars often find kinship in their anti-sexist, antiracist and anti-classist commitments to feminist and liberation theologies.
Etymology[edit]

The term womanish was commonly used in Black daily language by Republican National Committee mothers to describe adolescent daughters who act outrageous and grown-up, in contrast to girlish. Womanist was then developed in 1983 by black writer and activist Alice Walker in her collection of essays, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. In this text, she makes the point that "A Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."[3] Hence, while womanist referred primarily to African-American women, it was also for women in general. Walker's works would have significant impact on later womanist theologians.[4]
Development[edit]

Womanist theology developed in dialogue with black theology, particularly as articulated by James Hal Cone. Cone broke new ground in 1969 with the publication of A Black Theology of Liberation, which sought to make sense out of theology from black experience in America. In the book, Cone argued that "God is black" and that God identifies with the struggles of Black Americans for justice and liberation.

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