Black Feminist Organizations Video

 Black feminist groups have consistently been at the forefront of addressing black women's overlapping oppressions, with an emphasis on progressive justice, equality between men and women, sexual orientation, and economic and social autonomy. Black feminist groups are important because they allow Black women to come together, organize, and elevate their voices. They provide conversations for Black women to express their stories and collaborate to confront the specific types of oppression they suffer. Black feminist groups play an important role in pushing for changes in law, organizing communities, and raising awareness about issues impacting Black women. However, Black feminist organizations often face challenges in collaborating due to pressures to conform to society’s perspective of them. A video that relates to this issue is called Black Feminist Organizations.

Black Feminist Organizations gives insight into the racism and sexism faced in the liberation of Black women. It discusses groups such as the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO), led by Margaret Sloan, and founded by Eleanor Holmes Norton, whose purpose was to increase political media and policy representation of Black women's challenges. However, regardless of their efforts, the NBFO became criticized by other groups of Black women who felt their experiences were still going unheard. This is when the Combahee River Collective (CRC) step into the conversation. 

In the Black Feminist Organizations video, the CRC is described as a group that acknowledges various sexual identities within the Black community. In How We Get Free it states the CRC “was a radical Black feminist organization formed in 1974 and named after Harriet Tubman’s 1853 raid on the Combahee River in South Carolina that freed 750 enslaved people” (Taylor 2017, 8).  Further into the text it states the CRC “formed as a radical alternative to the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO)” (Taylor 2017, 8). The CRC has been recognized as being one of the first organizations to express the intersecting realities of race, gender, and sexuality within the bigger picture of feminism. They emphasized the significance of addressing Black women's distinct experiences and challenges across the feminist and civil rights movements. 

The video mentions Audre Lorde, an influential member of the CRC, who expanded on these themes with her writing and activism, calling for the need for complete openness in eliminating oppressive structures. In Learning from the 60s Lorde states, “We share a common interest, survival, and it cannot be pursued in isolation from others simply because their differences make us uncomfortable” (Lorde 1984, 141). Additionally in another writing called Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference by Lorde, she states “It is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation” (Lorde 1984, 1). Lorde's work remains relevant today, pushing new generations of feminists to prioritize the perspectives and experiences of all types of oppressed people in the struggle for social justice.

Overall, the Black Feminist Organizations video was a great visual example of the challenges faced in organizing Black Feminist groups. The video's varied facts and examples make it clear that for Black women to work together to achieve social justice, they must learn to embrace and appreciate each other's diversity so that each group feels heard and can progress. 

References: 

Gates Jr., Henry  Louis. “Black Feminist Organizations.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Feb. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSTPOoOIC6o. 

Lorde, Audre. “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, Crossing Press, 1984.

Lorde, Audre, author. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984.

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. How We Get Free. [United States], Haymarket Books, 2017.