Beyond Respectability: Misogynoir, Intersectionality, and Black Women Radicals
Black women along with other marginalized groups in the Black community, are radicalized by their experiences and participate in Black Radical Tradition, organizing against all oppressive systems
The Homegirl Project
Tags
Course Description
Black women face two forms of oppression simultaneously, or at the same time: sexism/misogyny and anti-Black racism. This is an example of intersectionality because Black women’s experience is at an intersection between misogyny and racism. Historically, Black women have been considered "beyond respectable" and their politics have been shaped to reject respectability politics and participate in the Black Radical tradition. Lived experiences push Black women (and Black people belonging to other marginalized identities) away from mainstream respectability politics and instead, towards organizing against all forms of oppression connected to European colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. I hope this course serves as an introduction to Black Radical Feminist Tradition and a starting point for your political education on Black radical tradition and thought!
Units
Unit 1
Introduction to Intersectionality
This unit will introduce you to the concept of intersectionality! There are also two items in the materials section full of key term definitions to clear up any confusion you may have with terminology mentioned in any of the questions or the course materials!
Unit 2
Black Women Radicals and The True Definition of “Identity Politics”
This unit will introduce you to the stories and work of Black women radicals like Marsha P. Johnson; Fannie Lou Hamer; Fatimah Warner (NoName); Claudia Jones; the Black women organizers of the Civil Rights Movement; the Black women of the Black Panther Party; and Barbara Smith and Audre Lorde of the Black lesbian radicals of the Combahee River Collective. This unit should show that because of identity politics, these Black women were able to use their experiences with multiple systems of oppression to create their own radical political ideas and share with their community to organize and fight for their collective liberation as well as the liberation of all oppressed people.
Unit 3
Understanding Misogynoir and the Birth of Womanism
By the end of this unit, you will understand the definition of misogynoir, how it affects Black women, and how to identify it. This unit will also explain how womanism was born when Black women were faced with misogynoir from white feminists in the women’s liberation movement.
Unit 4
Rejecting Respectability Politics, Understanding Privilege, and the Need for Black Radical Politics
In Unit Four: “Rejecting Respectability Politics, Understanding Privilege, and a Return to Black Radical Politics”, you will learn the concept of respectability politics, and understand why it is important that we as Black people reject them, because they are rooted in white supremacy and colonialism. You will also learn how privilege works. Any politic of Black people that does not reject respectability politics and systems of oppression born out of white supremacy, colonialism, and imperialism does not have the end goal of collective Black liberation in mind.