Women of Color and Feminism
Although women of color participated in predominantly white feminist groups, they faced economic and social problems that middle-class white women did not. At the first National Chicana Conference, participants highlighted issues that ranged beyond gender while advocating sexual freedom, abortion, free child care, and cultural self-determination. The black feminist Combahee River Collective contended that sexism had many sources: capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and enforced heterosexuality. Both groups proclaimed racial solidarity with men of color but recognized the difficulties of forging alliances with them.
Workshop Resolutions, First National Chicana Conference, 1971
SEX AND THE CHICANA
. . . I. Sex is good and healthy for both Chicanos and Chicanas and we must develop this attitude.
II. We should destroy the myth that religion and culture control our sexual lives.
III. We recognize that we have been oppressed by religion and that the religious writing was done by men and interpreted by men. Therefore, for those who desire religion, they should interpret their Bible, or Catholic rulings according to their own feelings, what they think is right, without any guilt complexes.
IV. Mothers should teach their sons to respect women as human beings who are equal in every respect. No double standard.
V. Women should go back to the communities and form discussion and action groups concerning sex education.
VI. Free, legal abortions and birth control for the Chicano community, controlled by Chicanas. As Chicanas we have the right to control our own bodies. . . .
RESOLUTIONS:
. . . Whereas: The need for self-determination and the right to govern their own bodies is a necessity for the freedom of all people, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED: That the National Chicana Conference go on record as supporting free family planning and free and legal abortions for all women who want or need them.
III. Whereas: Due to socio-economic and cultural conditions, Chicanas are often heads of households, i.e., widows, divorcees, unwed mothers, or deserted mothers, or must work to supplement family income, and
Whereas: Chicana motherhood should not preclude educational, political, social, and economic advancement, and
Whereas: There is a critical need for a 24-hour child-care center in Chicano communities, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED: That the National Chicana Conference go on record as recommending that every Chicano community promote and set up 24-hour day-care facilities, and that it be further resolved that these facilities will reflect the concept of La Raza as the united family, and on the basis of brotherhood (La Raza), so that men, women, young and old assume the responsibility for the love, care, education, and orientation of all the children of Aztlan [ancestral homeland of pre-Columbian Mexicans].
Source: Mirta Vidal, Chicanas Speak Out, Women: New Voice of La Raza (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1971), 13–16, http:/
Combahee River Collective | A Black Feminist Statement, 1977
The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess any one of these types of privilege have.
. . . The reaction of black men to feminism has been notoriously negative. They are, of course, even more threatened than black women by the possibility that black feminists might organize around our own needs. They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hard-working allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing black women. Accusations that black feminism divides the black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous black women’s movement.
One issue that is of major concern to us and that we have begun to publicly address is racism in the white women’s movement. As black feminists we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism, which requires among other things that they have a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and black history and culture. Eliminating racism in the white women’s movement is by definition work for white women to do, but we will continue to speak to and demand accountability on this issue.
Source: Zillah R. Eisenstein, ed., Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism (New York: Monthly Press, 1978), 367–69, 371–72.
Interpret the Evidence
In what ways were Chicana and African American feminist views of the sources of sexism the same, and in what ways were they different?
Why do these African American feminists criticize their white counterparts?
Put It in Context
How did racial and ethnic diversity within the feminist movement shape women’s issues in the 1970s?
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