Black Women, Sexism and Racism: Black or Antiracist Feminism?

Abstract

Tobago to be exact - I am concerned about the apparent polarization of feminism into 'black' and 'white' in both Britain and the USA, given that, as an ideology and a political practice concerned with the oppression of women, feminism still has to struggle to achieve and maintain legitimacy. It has been argued that racism in these societies, including its existence within the women's movement itself, is responsible for this polarization. We in the Caribbean are no strangers to racism, having experienced some of its most extreme manifestations during slavery and for some time after its abolition. However, given the numerical advantage of persons of African descent in the region, it has been possible since the end of colonial rule, and particularly since the 1970s, to weaken the force of racism. White men (both local and foreign) may still control the economies of the region but black men have achieved political power and do exercise considerable control over the public sector. To the extent, then, that power changed hands, it went from white men to black men; women did not feature in the equation. Caribbean women, therefore, have not found it necessary to differentiate feminism into 'black' and 'white', and the five-year old Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) does in fact attest to this. The women's movement in the region thus comprises women of different 'races' and backgrounds, with divisions, where these exist, emanating from ideological differences rather than racial antagonisms. I can well appreciate that racism must be a potent force for black people in both Britain and the USA where, numerically speaking, they constitute a minority. I can empathize, too, with the plight of black women in these societies, caught as they are between racism on the one

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