***PREVIOUS SELECTION*** Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis discussion Monday, August 8, 2022
When Angela was a member of the Communist Party (no, she was not a Black Panther, she was an honorary member) she dealt with a lot of white men who told her that the only struggle was class struggle. But, being a queer, Black woman in America she knew too well that class is not all there is - especially in a white supremacist settler colonial state where racial capitalism was created. Angela, like most Black people, knew that Marx's analysis was extremely limited to his experience as a white, cis man in Europe - especially since he didn't even see the Afrikan slave as a person. So, we read Angela's take to get a based understanding of class analysis. We don't need to ever center white men in our study.
From one of our most important scholars and civil rights activist icon, a powerful study of the women’s liberation movement and the tangled knot of oppression facing Black women.
“Angela Davis is herself a woman of undeniable courage. She should be heard.”—The New York Times
Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women’s rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger’s racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.
About the Author
Angela Y. Davis is a political activist, scholar, author, and speaker. She is an outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, writing on Black liberation, prison abolition, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and international solidarity with Palestine. She is the author of several books, including Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is the subject of the acclaimed documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners and is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Praise For…
"As useful an exposition of the current dilemmas of the women's movement as one could hope for."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
