Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment

Black women have a long-resisted oppression and empowered themselves against racist, sexist, and classist ideologies. In an 1831 speech, Maria Stewart urged Black women to “Awake! Arise!” and show the world that they are “endowed with noble and exalted faculties” (98). As Collins observes, Stewart’s words speak to a nascent Black women’s consciousness, recognizing that, in the face of so many controlling images, resistance to oppression must begin with self-definition. Rather than being defined as mammies, matriarchs, welfare mothers, and other negative stereotypes devised by dominant groups, Black women foster self-definition in a variety of contexts.

Black women’s literature and music are key sites of self-definition. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Nanny resists controlling images of Black women as “mules” and “breeders.” In Ann Allen Shockley’s Loving Her (1974) Renay leaves both her abusive husband and her lesbian lover to pursue self-definition. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) Pecola addresses self-definition by resisting white standards of beauty, a theme that echoes the lyrics of Sara Martin’s “Mean, Tight Mama” (1929). Indeed, Black women blues singers often engaged in resistance and self-definition. In addition to Martin, Collins cites Nina Simone’s “Four Women” (1985) to support this claim. Simone sings about three controlling images—the “mule,” the sex worker, and the “rape victim”—before introducing a powerful fourth woman who decries racial oppression.

Collins identifies Black homes as important sites of resistance. Black mothers empower their daughters by instilling in them a sense of self-worth, as well as passing on everyday knowledge necessary for survival: “Despite the dangers, mothers routinely encourage Black daughters to develop skills to confront oppressive conditions” (184). Collins argues that Black women “see their work as both contributing to their children’s survival and instilling values that will encourage their children to reject their ‘place’ and strive for more” (185).

Black women create safe spaces to resist oppression and develop love bonds with members of their families and communities. These safe spaces include family networks, churches, and community institutions that serve to counter the often-oppressive power of dominant institutions. Where dominant institutions reject Black women’s knowledge as invalid, community institutions serve as a means to validate what Collins describes as a Black feminist epistemology. Scholars and activists can participate in this form of resistance by nurturing self-reliance and empowerment among younger generations. Citing the civil rights activist Ella Baker, Collins stresses the importance of teaching students to think for themselves as a way of empowering them. She also describes the importance of a Black feminist epistemology in resisting oppression:

Alternative epistemologies challenge all certified knowledge and open up the question of whether what has been taken to be true can stand the test of alternative ways of validating truth. The existence of a self-defined Black women’s standpoint using Black feminist epistemology calls into question the content of what currently passes as truth and simultaneously challenges the process of arriving at that truth (271).

Collins stresses the role of activism in empowering Black women. Empowerment requires not just changing the consciousness of Black women, but also transforming oppressive social institutions. Public activism can foster institutional change. As Collins stresses, however, activism does not require participating in unions, political groups, demonstrations, and other activities dominated by men. Black women can also engender change through everyday resistance, self-definition, and self-valuation.