Ok, you might say, but how does this ‘interlocking’ approach differ from the way white feminists have already conceptualised oppression? And why is it important to think like this?Ĭollins argues that, with respect to thinking about oppression, black feminist thought has fostered a ‘paradigmatic shift’ (which means a shift in thought patterns) because it ‘rejects additive approaches to oppression.’ This means that it does not start with gender and then add other variables such as race, class, sexual orientation, disability etc. I have put the sentence in bold because it’s fundamental to intersectionality as a way of thinking about oppression. But revealing new ways of knowing that allow subordinate groups to define their own reality has far greater implications. Second, Black feminist thought addresses ongoing epistemological debates in feminist theory and in the sociology of knowledge concerning ways of assessing “truth.” Offering subordinate groups new knowledge about their own experiences can be empowering. By embracing a paradigm of race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression, Black feminist thought reconceptualizes the social relations of domination and resistance. First, Black feminist thought fosters a fundamental paradigmatic shift in how we think about oppression. She proposes:Īfrocentric feminist thought offers two significant contributions toward furthering our understanding of the important connections among knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. The chapter is quite long, dense and theoretical but I’ll try and pick out some points which have significant implications for feminism.Ĭollins begins by emphasising the importance of knowledge in empowering oppressed people. ‘Intersectionality’ argues that we should focus on how different systems of oppression interlock.
I have decided to discuss Patricia Hill Collins’s chapter ‘Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination’ from her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, because it gives a very good explanation of intersectionality, a theory which I’m sure you’ve seen discussed on feminist blogs. We hope that these posts will make some important feminist ideas more accessible to people who haven’t read much theory. This is the second in a series of posts offering readings in feminist theory. Feminism 101: Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination FebruPosted by Winter in Feminism 101.
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