I’ve missed writing to you these past 2 weeks due to some health challenges requiring family care (love you mommy). We’ll talk more about that next week.
Women’s History Month Lineage
For now, lets talk Women’s History Month.
Similar to Black History Month, Women’s History Month started as a local “Women’s History Week” in Sonoma County, California according to the National Women’s History museum. In addition, every year the National Women’s History Alliance sets a theme for the month and this year’s theme is, “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.”
Intersectional Path Forged by the Combahee River Collective
Regardless of theme, for us, the month brings to mind the work of the women of the Combahee River Collective (CRC). In their groundbreaking 1977 statement, the women of the CRC broke down what they had been working on since 1974. Through tedious, painstaking, unfunded intellectualism, the group began to define what is now known as intersectional feminism.
They wrote, “A combined anti-racist and anti-sexist position drew us together initially, and as we developed politically, we addressed ourselves to heterosexism and economic oppression under capitalism.”
The CRC acknowledged its roots in both the women’s movement (often led by white women) and the Black liberation movement (often led by men). In both movements, Black women found their ideas and their very lives were often made secondary to those in more dominant position. For instance, in the women’s movement, white women’s issues always took precedence and among Black liberation movements, Black men always took precedence.
From the CRC 1977 statement, “We exists as women who are Black who are feminists, each stranded for the moment, working independently because there is not yet an environment in this society remotely congenial to our struggle—because, being on the bottom, we would have to do what no one else has done: we would have to fight the world.”
Intersectional feminist leaders to re-engage this month
First a plug for Loyalty Bookstore—a black, brown queer-owned bookstore! If you haven’t added these books and essays to your collection, considering ordering from them. Links are below.
Selected writers and activists from the Combahee River Collective
Seeds of the CRC
Many academic thinkers carry the torch of the Combahee River Collective throughout various disciplines.
