Black Feminist Thought

Black feminist thought consists of theories or specialized knowledge created by African

American women intellectuals designed to express a standpoint of and for Black women
(Collins, 1991). The dimensions of this standpoint include the presence of characteristic
core themes, the diversity of Black women's experiences in encountering these core
themes, the varying expressions of Black women's Afrocentric feminist consciousness
regarding the core themes and their experiences with them, and the interdependence of
Black women's experiences, consciousness, and actions (Collins, 1994). It is a theoretical
framework that places women and their experiences at the center of analyses (Collins,
1991). In other words, Black feminist thought encompasses theoretical interpretations of
Black women's reality by those who live it (Collins, 1994). Women become subjects rather
than objects of the analyses (Dickerson, 1995).Black feminist thought is a theoretical
framework that "taps the multiple relationships among Black women needed to produce a
self-defined Black women's reality . . .” (Collins, 1191, p. 22). The application is to capture
and illuminate the experiences of women of color in ways that traditional feminist thought
had not done previously. This definition does not mean that all African American women
generate such thought or that other groups do not play a critical role it its production
(Collins, 1994, p. 581). What it does mean is that Black women and other women of color
have a theoretical perspective that specifically validates and supports their subjective
experiences.

Black feminist thought, a specialized knowledge which clarifies a standpoint of and for Black
women, has five core themes: (1) a legacy of struggle, (2) treatment of the interlocking
nature of race, gender and class oppression, (3) the replacement of denigrated images of
Black womanhood with self-defined images, (4) Black women's activism, and (5) sensitivity
to sexual politics.

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Three of these core themes are particularly relevant to the study of Black motherhood: the
legacy of struggle, the interlocking nature of race, gender and class, and the replacement of
negative images of Black womanhood with self-defined images. Consequently, the
relevance of these themes supports the utility of Black feminist thought in examining Black
motherhood.

The legacy of struggle refers to the struggle to survive in two contradictory worlds
simultaneously; one white, privileged, and oppressive, and the other black, exploited and
oppressed (Cannon, 1985). This struggle has characterized the Black woman's reality. It is a
common thread binding African American women (Collins, 1994). The second theme, the
interlocking nature of race, gender and class, works in such a way that they affect all aspects
of human life. As categories of social experience, race, class and gender shape all social
institutions, including motherhood, and systems of meaning; thus, it is important to think
about people of color, different class experiences, and women in analyses of all social
institutions and belief systems (Anderson & Collins, 1992). The third theme of Black feminist
thought that is relevant to this research study is the replacement of negative images of
Black womanhood with self-defined images. Images of women in both popular and
academic culture have historically rested on distorted views of women. Feminist scholars
see negative images of women in the media, in the academy, and in scientific knowledge as
the result of male domination because these images try to legitimate women's unequal
status (Andersen, 1993). Given the negative images of Black mothers perpetuated in
academia and the media, including the Black matriarch, the welfare single parent mother,
and the unwed teenage mother, makes this research necessary in the attempt to re-
evaluate and correct many of the distorted images of Black mothers. The self-defined
images Black mothers create for themselves will replace the negative of Black mothers.