TCRC "A Black Feminist Statement"

Many of the primary declarations and “major sources of difficulty” in “A Black Feminist Statement” not only give insight into the misguidances in the white feminist movement, but also of the need to combat all the intersecting forms of oppression, i.e. racism, sexism, heteronormativity and classism, (although ableism, adultism and ageism are not specifically mentioned in this context) in order for [all] people to empathize with absolute freedom (67). Outlined in this manifesto are revelations expressed by a multiply oppressed minority, who through their own sharing of experiences and consciousness-raising, constructed a strong body of identity politics ready to fight (64, 67).

In order to comprehend the extent to which black women have struggled to be “recognized as humans” one must understand the depth to which “major systems of oppression are interlocking” (63, 65). ABFS emphatically characterizes the modes of oppression addressed and disregarded by the white second-wave feminist movement by calling attention to an incessant indifference to racism (69). Answering the absence of a sympathetic white women’s movement, ABFS underlines an attitude of optimistic but necessitated independence, that only those who truly care for the liberation of black women are themselves [black feminists] (65). Through a demand for equality reflected by long-felt discontentment, identity politics is expressed as the most radical vessel for liberation (65). Without racial, sexual, heterosexual, class privilege or access to resources, black feminists are forced to, as Michele Wallace exclaims, “fight the world” (67). Thus, ABFS proposes freedom for all people in exchange for the freedom of black feminists (67). Enabled by a “collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power,” the black feminist movement clarifies a revolutionary means of uprooting oppression: total freedom or totalitarianism of the privileged (70).