2.5: Futurity

 

The Lasting Impact of Black Feminist and Womanist

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Black woman protesting at the January, 2017 Presidential Inauguration holding a partially covered sign that reads "Fight Racism, Sexism. All Oppressions Both Capitalist. Fight. This march was originally called the "Million Women's March," and later changed to the "Women's March" by Vanessa Wruble, co-founder. The main protest was held in Washington, D.C. with many other marches taking place worldwide. It is estimated that the march on Washington drew over 470,0000 people and that between 3.2 and 5.2 million people marched in the U.S. and worldwide over 7 million. The goal of the march was to assert women's rights as women's rights and to send a bold message to the new administration.  (CC BY; Johnny Silvercloud via Flickr)

Upon closing this chapter, it is key to understand that Black Feminism/Womanism has substantially contributed to and expanded and challenged the fields of Black Studies and traditional, mainstream Feminism. By drawing from the double-voicedness of race identity and gender identity, and often occupying the triple-voiced intersections of race, gender, and class, sexuality, or ability; Black women have forced both fields and other identity-focused or facing disciplines to acknowledge and account for the Intersectional identities Black women occupy. While this benefits Black women, we must also acknowledge that this activist work collectively benefits all people facing oppressions and struggling for freedom while occupying multiple intersections.

Black Feminism/Womanism expands the field of Black Studies in several ways, most notably through its ability to:

• Include Ideas of Intersectionality
• Challenge Patriarchal norms that harm males as well as females through toxic masculinity
• Expand conversations of gender and sexuality oppression
• Expand opportunities for world building through community action, coalition building, and political movement within grassroots organizations
• Advocate for deep and lasting transformative change
• Force a conversation of transformation of all oppressions of marginalized people, which allows space for a Transnational approach to thinking about and through abolition work and transformative justice as well as transformative justice work surrounding LGBTQ+ issues
• Create space for possibilities and Afrofuturism
• Direct impact on policy changes
• Challenge Eurocentric epistemologies and ontologies that do not center otherwise ways of thinking and being in the world
• Promote nurturing and healing, which transforms historic trauma within the Black community
• Expand conversations on reproduction rights and medical apartheid

We witness the manifestation of Black Feminism/Womanism Action within Political Movements that are historic, such as the Abolition and Women’s Suffrage Movements, the Civil Rights and Black Panther Party, as well as through the work done by Black Women’s Clubs throughout the 20^th century, and the contemporary movements and organizations that have galvanized around liberation. Some of those movements include:

• Civil Rights and Black Panther Party
• #MeToo Movement
• Black Lives Matter
• Say Her Name Campaign
• Reproductive Justice
• Black Girl Magic
• Digital Feminism
• Anti-Violence Initiatives
• LGBTQ+ Activism
• Environmental Justice + Cultural Geography

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Black woman protesting at the Women's March, 2017 holding a sign that reads "I will stand with the most vulnerable". (CC BY; Lorie Shaull via Flickr)

While Black women have historically faced an intersection of discrimination based on gender, race, class, and sexuality, their efforts towards liberation continue to be critical in helping to dismantle all forms of discrimination. Their ability to subvert the intended alienation of their body, mind, and soul asks us to consider what does it mean to be both a problem and opportunity and catalyst for change. Despite their historic condition of suffering and oppression, Black women have always existed as a radical corporeal expression of Afrofuturism, where Blackness and female-gendered bodies exist as a radical expression of possibility.

When we free Black women, we create a new world of true liberation for all human beings.