This is a wave within feminism that asserts or highlights the specific experiences of black women, who have been historically overshadowed by white women within the hegemonic feminism. It underscores that black women’s experiences are affected and determined by the strong connection between sexism, class oppression, and racism. It became popular in the 1960s as a response to the civil rights movement in the US, which excluded women in positions of power, and to the perceived racism within the feminism movement.
Advocates of afro-feminism, or black feminism, argue that black women are positioned within the structures of power in a fundamentally different way than white women. They assert that the traditional hegemonic feminism, also called white feminism, makes their experiences invisible and minimizes the impact that intersectional factors have on them. The critiques stemming from afro-feminism also state that racial or class divisions weaken the global feminist movement.
Black feminism is, by definition, intersectional because it addresses women’s political and social condition, but also the political situation of black women, of women of a specific race , with a particular type of hair, and with specific experiences. It includes the analysis of social inequalities more than the hegemonic feminism does. White women have defined certain situations as normal, yet, for black women they are anything but normal. For example, accepting the afro hair without considering it dirty or not proper, the discrimination or hypersexualization of black women, their physical strengthen or labour exploitation, especially domestic.
Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Patricia Hill Collins are recognized as the main academic representatives of black feminism.
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