The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought

8/13/2019 The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought

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The Social Construction of Black Feminist ThoughtAuthor(s): Patricia Hill CollinsReviewed work(s):Source: Signs, Vol. 14, No. 4, Common Grounds and Crossroads: Race, Ethnicity, and Class inWomen's Lives (Summer, 1989), pp. 745-773Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174683.

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Collins /BLACK EMINIST HOUGHTthismore visible Black feminist ctivist radition.2 uch supporthasbeen essential to the shape and goals of Black feminist hought.The long-termand widely shared resistance among African-Americanwomen can onlyhave been sustainedbyan enduringandshared standpoint among Black women about the meaning ofoppression and the actions thatBlack women can and should taketo resist it. Efforts o identifythe central concepts of this Blackwomen's standpoint figureprominentlyn the works ofcontempo-raryBlack feministntellectuals.3Moreover,political and epistemo-logical issues influence the social construction of Black feministthought.Like othersubordinategroups,African-Americanwomennotonlyhave developed distinctive nterpretations f Black wom-en's oppression but have done so by using alternativeways ofproducingand validating knowledge itself.

A Black women's standpointThefoundation ofBlack feminist thoughtBlack women's everyday ctsof resistancechallenge twoprevailingapproaches to studyingthe consciousness of oppressed groups.4One approach claims that subordinate groups identifywith thepowerful nd have no valid independent interpretationftheirownoppression.5The second approach assumes that the oppressed are

2See the introductionn Steadyfor n overviewof Black women's strengths. hisstrength-resiliencyerspective has greatly nfluenced empirical work on African-Americanwomen. See, e.g., JoyceLadner's studyof low-income Black adolescentgirls, Tomorrow's Tomorrow (New York: Doubleday, 1971); and Lena WrightMyers'sworkon Black women's self-concept,Black Women:Do They Cope Better?(Englewood Cliffs,N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980). For discussions of Black women'sresistance,see Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, "Strategiesand Forms of Resistance: Focuson Slave Women in the United States," in In Resistance: Studies in African,Caribbean and Afro-AmericanHistory,ed. GaryY. Okihiro (Amherst,Mass.: Uni-versityof Massachusetts Press, 1986), 143-65; and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, BlackWomen in Resistance: A Cross-CulturalPerspective,"in Okihiro,ed., 188-209. Fora comprehensivediscussion ofeverydayresistance,see JamesC. Scott,Weapons oftheWeak: EverydayFormsofPeasant Resistance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer-sityPress, 1985).3 See Patricia Hill Collins's analysis of the substantive content of Black feministthought n "Learning from he Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance ofBlack FeministThought,"Social Problems 33, no. 6 (1986): 14-32.4Scott describes consciousness as the meaning thatpeople give to their actsthrough he symbols,norms, nd ideological forms heycreate.5This thesis is found in scholarship of varyingtheoretical perspectives. Forexample, Marxist analyses of working-classconsciousness claim that "false con-sciousness" makes the workingclass unable to penetratethe hegemonyofruling-class ideologies. See Scott's critique ofthis literature.746

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Collins /BLACK EMINIST HOUGHTthese experiences stimulatea distinctive Black feminist onscious-ness concerningthatmaterialreality.'0n brief, subordinategroupnotonly experiences a different eality han a groupthatrules,buta subordinate group may interpret hat reality differentlyhan adominantgroup.Many ordinary African-Americanwomen have grasped thisconnection between what one does and how one thinks.HannahNelson, an elderly Black domestic worker,discusses how workshapes the standpoints of African-American nd white women:"Since I have towork, don't reallyhave toworry bout most ofthethings hatmostofthe white women I have worked for reworryingabout. And ifthese women did theirown work,theywould thinkjust like I do-about this,anyway.""RuthShays, a Black innercityresident,points out how variationsin men's and women's experi-ences lead todifferencesn perspective: "The mind of the man andthe mind of the woman is the same. But this business of livingmakes women use theirminds in ways thatmen don't even have tothink about."'2 Finally, elderly domestic worker Rosa Wakefieldassesses how the standpointsof the powerfuland those who servethemdiverge: "If you eats these dinners and don't cook 'em, ifyouwears these clothes and don'tbuyor ronthem, henyou might tartthinking hat hegood fairy rsome spiritdid all that.. .. Blackfolksdon't have no time tobe thinking ike that. .. Butwhen you don'tworkssurveyingAfrican-American omen's experiences, see Paula Giddings,Whenand WhereI Enter: The Impact ofBlack Women on Race and Sex inAmerica (NewYork: William Morrow, 1984); and Jacqueline Jones, Labor of Love, Labor ofSorrow: Black Women, Work,and the Family from Slavery to the Present (NewYork:Basic, 1985).10Forexample, JudithRollins,Between Women: Domestics and TheirEmployers(Philadelphia: Temple UniversityPress, 1985); and Bonnie ThorntonDill, "'TheMeans to Put My Children Through': Child-Rearing Goals and Strategies amongBlack Female Domestic Servants,"in The Black Woman,ed. LaFrances Rodgers-Rose (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1980), 107-23, reportthat Blackdomestic workers do not see themselves as being the devalued workers thattheiremployers perceive and construct heirown interpretations f the meaning of theirwork. For additional discussions of how Black women's consciousness is shaped bythematerial conditionstheyencounter, ee Ladner (n. 2 above); Myers n. 2 above);and CherylTownsend Gilkes, " 'Together and in Harness': Women's Traditions inthe SanctifiedChurch," Signs 10, no. 4 (Summer 1985): 678-99. See also MarciaWestkott's discussion of consciousness as a sphere of freedom for women in"Feminist Criticism of the Social Sciences," Harvard Educational Review 49, no. 4(1979): 422-30." JohnLangston Gwaltney, Drylongso: A Self-Portraitof Black America (NewYork:Vintage, 1980), 4.12Ibid., 33.

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Summer 989/SIGNShaveanythinglse todo,youcan thinkike that. t's bad foryourmind,though."'3While African-Americanomenmayoccupymaterial ositionsthat stimulate unique standpoint, xpressing n independentBlack feminist onsciousnessis problematicpreciselybecausemorepowerful roupshavea vested nterestn suppressing uchthought. sHannahNelsonnotes, I havegrown o womanhoodna worldwhere the saneryou are, the madderyou are made toappear."' Nelson realizesthat hose who control he schools, hemedia, and other cultural nstitutions re generallyskilled inestablishingheir iew ofrealitys superior oalternativenterpre-tations.Whileanoppressedgroup's xperiencesmayputthemnapositionto see thingsdifferently,heir ack of control ver theapparatuses f ociety hat ustaindeologicalhegemonymakes hearticulationf their elf-definedtandpoint ifficult. roupsun-equal inpowerarecorrespondinglynequal intheir ccess totheresourcesnecessary o implementheir erspectives utsidetheirparticularroup.One keyreason that tandpointsfoppressed groups re dis-credited nd suppressedbythe morepowerfuls that elf-definedstandpointsan stimulate ppressedgroups oresist heir omina-tion. For instance,AnnieAdams,a southernBlack woman,de-scribeshow she became involved n civilrightsctivities.

When I firstwentinto the mill we had segregatedwaterfountains... Samethingboutthetoilets. had to cleanthetoilets or he nspection oom ndthen,when gotready ogo to thebathroom, had togo all thewaytothebottom fthe stairs o the cellar.So I askedmybossman, What's hedifference?fI can go in there nd clean them oilets,whycan't I use them?"Finally, started o use that toilet.decided I wasn'tgoing o walk miletogotothebathroom.'5

In this case, Adams found the standpoint f the "boss man"inadequate,developedone ofherown, ndactedupon t. n doingso, her actionsexemplifyhe connections etweenexperiencingoppression, evelopinga self-definedtandpoint n thatexperi-ence,and resistance.13Ibid., 88.14 Ibid., 7.15 VictoriaByerly,Hard Times Cotton Mill Girls: Personal Histories ofWoman-hood and Poverty n the South (New York: ILR Press, 1986), 134.

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Collins /BLACK EMINISTHOUGHTThesignificancefBlackfeminist houghtThe existence of a distinctive Black women's standpointdoes notmean that it has been adequately articulated in Black feministthought. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann provide a usefulapproach to clarifying he relationshipbetween a Black women'sstandpoint and Black feministthoughtwith the contention thatknowledge exists on two levels.'6 The first evel includes theeveryday,taken-for-granted nowledge shared by members of agiven group,such as the ideas expressed byRuthShays and AnnieAdams. Black feminist hought,by extension,representsa secondlevel ofknowledge, the more specialized knowledge furnishedbyexperts who are part of a group and who express the group'sstandpoint.The twolevels ofknowledge are interdependent;whileBlack feminist hought rticulates the taken-for-grantednowledgeof African-American omen, it also encourages all Black women tocreate new self-definitions hat validate a Black women's stand-point.Black feminist hought's potential significancegoes farbeyonddemonstrating hat Black women can produce independent, spe-cialized knowledge. Such thoughtcan encourage collective iden-tityby offeringBlack women a different iew of themselves andtheir world than that offeredby the established social order. Thisdifferent iew encourages African-American omen to value theirown subjective knowledge base.17By takingelements and themesof Black women's culture and traditions and infusingthem withnew meaning,Black feminist houghtrearticulates consciousnessthatalready exists.'8More important, his rearticulatedconscious-ness givesAfrican-American omen anothertool ofresistanceto allforms ftheirsubordination.19Black feministthought,then, specializes in formulating ndrearticulatingthe distinctive, self-definedstandpoint of African-American women. One approach to learning more about a Blackwomen's standpoint s to consult standardscholarlysources for he

16 See Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction ofReality (New York:Doubleday, 1966), for discussion ofeverydaythought nd therole ofexperts n articulating pecialized thought.17 See Michael Omi and Howard Winant,Racial Formation in the United States(New York:Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), esp. 93.18In discussing standpoint epistemologies, Hartsock, n Money,Sex, and Power,notes that a standpointis "achieved rather than obvious, a mediated rather thanimmediate understanding" 132).'9See Scott n. 2 above); and Hartsock,Money,Sex, and Power (n. 8 above).750



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Summer 989/ IGNSideas ofspecialists on Black women's experiences.2"But investigat-ing a Black women's standpoint and Black feministthoughtre-quires more ingenuitythan thatrequired in examiningthe stand-pointsand thoughtof whitemales. Rearticulating he standpointofAfrican-Americanwomen throughBlack feminist hought s muchmore difficult ince one cannot use the same techniques to studythe knowledge of the dominated as one uses to studythe knowl-edge of thepowerful.This is preciselybecause subordinategroupshave long had to use alternativeways to create an independentconsciousness and torearticulate tthrough pecialists validated bythe oppressed themselves.

The Eurocentricmasculinistknowledge-validationprocess2All social thought, ncludingwhite masculinistand Black feminist,reflects he interests and standpointof its creators.As Karl Mann-heim notes, "If one were to trace in detail ... the originand ...diffusionof a certain thought-model, ne would discover the ...affinitythas to the social positionofgiven groupsand theirmannerof nterpretingheworld."22 cholars,publishers,and otherexpertsrepresentspecific interestsand credentialingprocesses, and theirknowledge claims must satisfythe epistemological and politicalcriteriaofthe contexts n which theyreside.23

20Some readers may question how one determines whether the ideas of anygiven African-American oman are "feminist"and "Afrocentric." offer he follow-ing workingdefinitions. agree with the general definitionof feminist onscious-ness provided by Black feminist ociologistDeborah K. King: "Any purposes, goals,and activities which seek to enhance thepotentialofwomen,toensure their iberty,afford hemequal opportunity,nd topermit nd encourage their elf-determinationrepresenta feminist onsciousness, even iftheyoccur within a racial community"(in "Race, Class and Gender Salience in Black Women's WomanistConsciousness"[DartmouthCollege, Department of Sociology, Hanover, N.H., 1987, typescript],22). To be Black orAfrocentric,uch thoughtmustnotonlyreflect similar concernfor he self-determination fAfrican-Americaneople, butmust in some way drawupon key elements ofan Afrocentric radition s well.21The Eurocentric masculinist process is defined here as the institutions,paradigms,and any elements of the knowledge-validationprocedure controlledbywhite males and whose purpose is to representa whitemale standpoint.While thisprocess representsthe interestsofpowerfulwhitemales, various dimensions of theprocess are notnecessarilymanaged by white males themselves.22Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology ofKnowledge (New York:Harcourt,Brace, 1936, 1954), 276.23The knowledge-validation model used in this essay is taken from MichaelMulkay,Science and the Sociology of Knowledge (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1979).For a general discussion of the structureof knowledge, see Thomas Kuhn, TheStructureof ScientificRevolutions (Chicago: UniversityofChicago Press, 1962).

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Collins /BLACK EMINISTHOUGHTTwo political criteria nfluence the knowledge-validationpro-cess. First,knowledge claims must be evaluated bya community fexpertswhose members represent the standpointsof the groupsfromwhich they originate. Second, each communityof expertsmust maintain its credibility as defined by the larger group inwhich it is situated and fromwhich it draws its basic, taken-for-granted nowledge.When white males control the knowledge-validation process,bothpolitical criteria an work to suppress Black feminist hought.Since thegeneral cultureshapingthetaken-for-grantednowledgeof the communityof experts is one permeated by widespreadnotions of Black and female inferiority,24ew knowledge claimsthat eem to violate these fundamental ssumptionsare likelytobeviewed as anomalies.25Moreover,specialized thoughtchallengingnotionsofBlack and female inferioritys unlikelyto be generatedfromwithin a white-male-controlled cademic community ecauseboth the kinds of questions that could be asked and the explana-tions thatwould be found satisfyingwould necessarily reflectabasic lack offamiliaritywith Black women's reality.26The experiences ofAfrican-American omen scholars illustratehow individuals who wish to rearticulate a Black women'sstandpointthroughBlack feminist hought an be suppressed by awhite-male-controlledknowledge-validation process. Exclusionfrom basic literacy,quality educational experiences, and facultyand administrativepositions has limited Black women's access toinfluential academic positions.27Thus, while Black women canproduce knowledge claims that contest those advanced by thewhite male community, his communitydoes not grantthat Blackwomen scholars have competing knowledge claims based inanother knowledge-validation process. As a consequence, any

24 For analyses of the content nd functions f mages of Black female inferiority,see Mae King, "The Politics of Sexual Stereotypes,"Black Scholar 4, nos. 6-7(1973): 12-23; CherylTownsend Gilkes, "From Slaveryto Social Welfare:Racismand the Control of Black Women," in Class, Race, and Sex: The Dynamics ofControl, ed. Amy Smerdlow and Helen Lessinger (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981),288-300; and Elizabeth Higginbotham,"Two RepresentativeIssues in Contempo-rary ociological Workon Black Women," n But Some ofUs Are Brave, ed. Gloria T.Hull, PatriciaBell Scott,and Barbara Smith (Old Westbury,N.Y.: Feminist Press,1982).25Kuhn.26Evelyn Fox Keller, Reflectionson Gender and Science (New Haven, Conn.:Yale UniversityPress, 1985), 167.27Maxine Baca Zinn, LynnWeberCannon, Elizabeth Higginbotham, nd BonnieThorntonDill, "The Cost ofExclusionaryPractices in Women's Studies," Signs 11,no. 2 (Winter1986): 290-303.

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Summer 989/SIGNScredentials ontrolled ywhitemaleacademicians an be deniedtoBlackwomenproducing lackfeministhoughtn thegroundsthat t is notcredibleresearch.Those Black womenwithacademic credentialswho seek toexertthe authorityhattheir tatusgrants hemto proposenewknowledge laims boutAfrican-Americanomen acepressures ouse their uthorityohelp legitimate system hatdevalues andexcludes themajorityfBlack women.28 ne wayofexcluding hemajorityfBlack womenfrom heknowledge-validationrocess stopermit fewBlackwomen toacquirepositions fauthorityninstitutionshat egitimate nowledge nd to encourage hemtowork withinthe taken-for-grantedssumptions f Black femaleinferiorityharedbythescholarly ommunitynd the culture tlarge.Those Black womenwhoaccept hese ssumptionsre ikelyto be rewardedbytheir nstitutions,ften t significantersonalcost. Those challenging he assumptions unthe riskof beingostracized.African-Americanomen cademicianswhopersistntryingorearticulate Black women'sstandpointlso facepotential ejec-tionoftheirknowledge laimsonepistemological rounds. ust sthematerial ealitiesof thepowerful nd thedominated roduceseparate tandpoints,ach groupmay lso have distinctivepiste-mologiesor theories fknowledge.t is mycontentionhatBlackfemale cholarsmayknow hat omethings truebutbe unwillingorunableto legitimateheir laimsusingEurocentricmasculinistcriteria or onsistency ith ubstantiatednowledge ndEurocen-tricmasculinist riteria ormethodologicaldequacy.Foranyparticularnterpretiveontext, ewknowledge laimsmustbe consistentwithan existing odyofknowledge hat hegroupcontrollinghe interpretiveontext ccepts as true. Themethodsused tovalidateknowledge laims must lso be accept-able to thegroup ontrollingheknowledge-validationrocess.The criteriafor the methodological dequacy of positivismillustrateheepistemologicaltandards hatBlackwomen cholars

28Bergerand Luckmann (n. 16 above) note that fan outsidergroup, n thiscaseAfrican-Americanwomen, recognizes that the insider group,namely,white men,requires special privileges fromthe larger society, a special problem arises ofkeeping the outsiders out and at the same time having them acknowledge thelegitimacy of this procedure. Accepting a few "safe" outsiders is one way ofaddressing this legitimation problem. Collins's discussion (n. 3 above) of Blackwomen as "outsiders within" addresses this issue. Other relevant works includeFranz Fanon's analysis of the role of the national middle class in maintainingcolonial systems,The Wretchedof the Earth (New York:Grove, 1963); and WilliamTabb's discussion of the use of "brightnatives" in controllingAfrican-Americancommunities,The Political Economy ofthe Black Ghetto New York:Norton,1970).

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Summer 989/ SIGNSandprofessional owerthan hey.tseemsunlikely,herefore,hatBlack women would use a positivist pistemological tance inrearticulatingBlackwomen's tandpoint. lack women remorelikelyto choose an alternativepistemology or ssessingknowl-edge claims,one using standards hatare consistentwithBlackwomen's criteriaforsubstantiated nowledge and with Blackwomen'scriteria ormethodological dequacy. f such an episte-mology xists,what re itscontours?Moreover,what s itsrole intheproduction fBlack feministhought?

The contours f anAfrocentriceministpistemologyAfricanistnalysesof theBlackexperiencegenerally greeon thefundamental lementsof an Afrocentrictandpoint.n spite ofvarying istories, lacksocietiesreflectlements fa core Africanvalue system hatexistedpriorto and independently f racialoppression.35 oreover, s a result of colonialism, mperialism,slavery, partheid,nd other ystems f racialdomination, lacksshare a common xperienceofoppression.These similaritiesnmaterial onditionshave fostered haredAfrocentricalues thatpermeate hefamily tructure,eligious nstitutions,ulture, ndcommunityifeofBlacks nvarying arts fAfrica,heCaribbean,SouthAmerica, nd NorthAmerica.36his Afrocentriconscious-ness permeates he sharedhistory fpeople of African escentthroughheframeworkfa distinctive frocentricpistemology.37

35 For detailed discussions of the Afrocentricworldview, see JohnS. Mbiti,AfricanReligions and Philosophy (London: Heinemann, 1969); Dominique Zahan,The Religion, Spirituality, nd Thoughtof Traditional Africa (Chicago: UniversityofChicago Press, 1979); and Mechal Sobel, Trabelin' On: The Slave Journeyto anAfro-BaptistFaith (Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), 1-76.36 For representativeworksapplyingthese concepts toAfrican-Americanulture,see Niara Sudarkasa, "Interpretingthe AfricanHeritage in Afro-American amilyOrganization," n Black Families, ed. HarriettePipes McAdoo (BeverlyHills, Calif.:Sage, 1981); Henry H. Mitchell and Nicholas Cooper Lewter,Soul Theology: TheHeart ofAmericanBlack Culture (San Francisco: Harper& Row, 1986); Robert Far-risThompson, Flash of the Spirit: Africanand Afro-AmericanArt and Philosophy(New York: Vintage, 1983); and Ortiz M. Walton, "Comparative Analysis of theAfrican and the WesternAesthetics," in The Black Aesthetic, ed. Addison Gayle(Garden City,N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971), 154-64.3' One of the best discussions of an Afrocentric pistemology is offeredbyJamesE. Turner, Foreword: Africana tudies and Epistemology; a Discourse in theSociology ofKnowledge," in The NextDecade: Theoretical and Research Issues inAfricana Studies, ed. James E. Turner (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell UniversityAfricanaStudies and Research Center, 1984), v-xxv.See also VernonDixon, "World Viewsand Research Methodology,"summarized in Harding (n. 8 above), 170.

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Collins / BLACKFEMINISTHOUGHTFeminist scholars advance a similarargument.They assert thatwomen share a history fpatriarchaloppression through he polit-ical economy of the material conditions of sexuality andreproduction.38 hese shared material conditions are thoughttotranscend divisions among women created by race, social class,religion,sexual orientation, nd ethnicity nd to form he basis of awomen's standpointwithitscorrespondingfeminist onsciousnessand epistemology.39Since Black women have access to both the Afrocentric nd thefeminist tandpoints, n alternativeepistemologyused to rearticu-late a Black women's standpoint reflects elements of bothtraditions.4'The search forthe distinguishingfeaturesof an alter-native epistemologyused byAfrican-American omen reveals thatvalues and ideas thatAfricanist cholars identify s being charac-teristically"Black" often bear remarkable resemblance to similarideas claimed by feminist scholars as being characteristically"female."4'This similarity uggests that the material conditions ofoppression can varydramatically nd yet generatesome uniformity

38See Hester Eisenstein, ContemporaryFeminist Thought (Boston: G. K. Hall,1983). Nancy Hartsock's Money, Sex, and Power (n. 8 above), 145-209, offersparticularly nsightful nalysis of women's oppression.39 For discussions of feminist onsciousness, see DorothySmith, A Sociology forWomen," in The Prism of Sex: Essays in the Sociology ofKnowledge, ed. JuliaA.Sherman and Evelyn T. Beck (Madison: Universityof Wisconsin Press, 1979); andMichelle Z. Rosaldo, "Women, Culture, and Society: A Theoretical Overview," inWoman, Culture, and Society, ed. Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere(Stanford,Calif.: StanfordUniversityPress, 1974), 17-42. Feministepistemologiesare surveyed by Jaggar n. 8 above).40One significant ifference etween Afrocentricnd feminist tandpoints s thatmuch of what is termed women's culture is, unlike African-American ulture,created in the context of and produced by oppression. Those who argue for awomen's culture are electing to value, rather handenigrate,those traits ssociated

withfemales in white patriarchal ocieties. While thischoice is important,t is notthe same as identifyingn independent,historic ultureassociated with a society.am indebted to Deborah K. King for his point.41Critiques of the Eurocentric masculinistknowledge-validationprocess bybothAfricanist nd feminist cholars illustrate hispoint.What one grouplabels "white"and "Eurocentric," the other describes as "male-dominated" and "masculinist."Althoughhe does notemphasize itspatriarchal nd racistfeatures,Morris Berman'sThe Reenchantmentof the World (New York: Bantam, 1981) provides a historicaldiscussion of Western thought.Afrocentric nalyses of this same process can befoundin Molefi Kete Asante, "International/Interculturalelations,"in Contempo-raryBlack Thought, ed. Molefi Kete Asante and Abdulai S. Vandi (Beverly Hills,

Calif.: Sage, 1980), 43-58; and Dona Richards, "European Mythology: TheIdeology of Progress,'" in Asante and Vandi, eds., 59-79. For feminist nalyses,see Hartsock,Money, Sex, and Power. Harding also discusses this similarity seechap. 7, "Other 'Others' and Fractured Identities: Issues for Epistemologists,"163-96).756



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Summer 989/ SIGNSintheepistemologies f ubordinate roups. hus,thesignificanceof nAfrocentriceministpistemologymay ie in tsenrichmentfour understandingf how subordinate roupscreateknowledgethat nables them oresist ppression.The parallels between the two conceptualschemes raise aquestion: Is the worldviewof womenofAfrican escent moreintenselynfusedwith heoverlapping eminine/Afrocentrictand-points han s the case for itherAfrican-Americanen or whitewomen?42 hile an Afrocentriceministpistemologyeflectsle-ments fepistemologies sedbyBlacks s a group nd women s agroup, t also paradoxically emonstrates eatures hatmay beuniquetoBlackwomen.On certain imensions, lackwomenmaymore loselyresembleBlackmen, nothers,whitewomen, ndonstillothers, lack womenmay tand partfrom othgroups.BlackfeministociologistDeborahK. Kingdescribesthisphenomenonas a "both/or" rientation,he act of being simultaneouslymember f group ndyet tandingpart romt.She suggestshatmultiple ealities mongBlackwomenyield "multiple onscious-nessinBlack women'spolitics" nd that his tate fbelongingyetnotbelonging orms n integral art fBlackwomen'soppositionalconsciousness.43 onnie ThorntonDill's analysis of how Blackwomen live withcontradictions, situation he labels the "dia-lectics of Blackwomanhood," arallelsKing'sassertions hat his"both/or" orientation s central to an Afrocentric eministconsciousness.44ather hanemphasizinghow a Black women'sstandpointnd itsaccompanying pistemologyre differenthanthose n Afrocentricnd feministnalyses, use Black women'sexperiences s a pointof contact etweenthetwo.Viewing n Afrocentriceministpistemologynthiswaychal-lenges analysesclaiming hatBlack women have a moreaccurateview ofoppression hando other roups. uchapproaches uggestthatoppression an be quantifiednd compared nd that ddinglayersof oppressionproduces a potentially learer standpoint.While t stemptingoclaimthatBlackwomen re more ppressedthaneveryone lse and therefore ave the best standpoint romwhich to understand he mechanisms, rocesses,and effects foppression, hissimplymaynotbe thecase.45

42 Harding, 166.43 D. King (n. 20 above).44 Bonnie ThorntonDill, "The Dialectics of Black Womanhood," Signs 4, no. 3(Spring 1979): 543-55.45One implication of standpoint approaches is that the more subordinate thegroup,thepurerthe vision oftheoppressed group.This is an outcome oftheoriginsofstandpointapproaches in Marxist social theory,tself dualistic analysis of social

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Summer 989/ IGNSknowtheyain'tfree."49eneva Smitherman, college professorspecializing nAfrican-Americaninguistics,uggests hat fromblackperspective,written ocumentsrelimited nwhat hey anteach about life and survival n the world.Blacks are quick toridicule educated fools,' .. theyhave 'book learning'but no'motherwit,'knowledge,but not wisdom."5Mabel Lincoln elo-quently ummarizes hedistinction etweenknowledge ndwis-dom:"To blackpeople likeme,a fool s funny-youknow, eoplewho love tobreakbad,people youcan'ttellanythingo,folks hatwould takea shotgun o a roach."51Black women need wisdomto know how to deal withthe"educated fools" who would "take a shotgunto a roach." Asmembers f subordinate roup,Black women annot ffordo befools of any type,for theirdevalued status denies them theprotections hatwhite skin, maleness,and wealth confer.Thisdistinctionetweenknowledge ndwisdom, nd theuse ofexpe-rience as thecutting dge dividing hem,has been keyto Blackwomen's urvival.n the context frace,gender,nd classoppres-sion,the distinctions essential inceknowledgewithoutwisdomisadequatefor hepowerful,utwisdom sessential othe urvivalofthesubordinate.Forordinary frican-Americanomen, hose ndividualswhohave livedthroughheexperiences boutwhichthey laim to beexperts re more believable and credible than thosewho havemerelyread or thought bout such experiences.Thus, concreteexperience s a criterion or redibility requentlys invokedbyBlack womenwhenmaking nowledge laims. For nstance,Han-nah Nelson describes he mportancehat ersonal xperiencehasforher: "Our speech is mostdirectly ersonal, nd everyblackpersonassumes thateveryother black personhas a right o apersonal opinion. In speakingof gravematters, ourpersonalexperience s consideredvery good evidence.Withus, distantstatisticsrecertainlyot s importants theactualexperience fsoberperson."52imilarly, uthShaysuses herconcrete xperi-ences tochallenge he dea that ormal ducation s theonlyroutetoknowledge: I am thekind ofpersonwho doesn'thave a lot ofeducation,butbothmymother nd myfather ad good commonsense.Now, thinkhat's llyouneed.I might otknowhowto usethirty-fourordswhere hreewoulddo,but hat oes notmeanthat

49Gwaltney,147.50Geneva Smitherman,Talkin and Testifyin:The Language of Black America(Detroit: Wayne State UniversityPress, 1986), 76.51 Gwaltney,68.52Ibid., 7.

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Collins / BLACK EMINISTHOUGHTI don't know what I'm talkingabout ... I know what I'm talkingabout because I'm talkingabout myself. 'm talkingabout what Ihave lived."53mplicit in Shays's self-assessment s a critique of thetypeofknowledge that obscures the truth, he "thirty-fourords"thatcover up a truth hat can be expressed in three.Even after ubstantialmasteryofwhite masculinist epistemol-ogies, many Black women scholars invoke their own concreteexperiences and those of other Black women in selecting topics forinvestigationand methodologies used. For example, Elsa BarkleyBrown subtitles her essay on Black women's history, how mymother taught me to be an historian in spite of my academictraining."54imilarly,JoyceLadner maintains thatgrowing up as aBlack woman in the South gave her special insights n conductingher studyofBlack adolescent women.55HenryMitchell and Nicholas Lewter claim thatexperience as acriterion fmeaningwithpractical images as its symbolicvehiclesis a fundamental epistemological tenet in African-Americanthought-systems.56tories, narratives, and Bible principles areselected for heirapplicability to the lived experiences of African-Americansand become symbolicrepresentations fa whole wealthof experience. For example, Bible tales are told fortheir value tocommonlife,so their nterpretationnvolves no need for cientifichistoricalverification. he narrativemethodrequires thatthe storybe "told, not tornapart in analysis, and trusted as core belief, notadmired as science."57Anybiblical story ontainsmore than char-acters and a plot-it presentskey ethical issues salient in African-American life.June Jordan'sessay about her mother's suicide exemplifiesthemultiple levels ofmeaning that can occur when concrete experi-ences are used as a criterionof meaning. Jordandescribes hermother, woman who literallydied trying o stand up, and theeffect hat her mother'sdeath had on her own work:

I think ll of this is reallyabout women and work.Certainlythis s all aboutme as a woman andmy ifework. mean I am53 Ibid., 27, 33.5 Elsa Barkley Brown, "Hearing Our Mothers' Lives" (paper presented at theFifteenthAnniversaryFaculty Lecture Series, African-Americannd AfricanStud-ies, EmoryUniversity,Atlanta, 1986).55Ladner (n. 2 above).56Mitchell and Lewter (n. 36 above). The use of the narrative approach inAfrican-American heology exemplifies an inductive system of logic alternatelycalled "folk wisdom" or a survival-based, need-oriented method of assessingknowledge claims.57Ibid., 8.

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Summer 989/SIGNSnot suremymother's uicide was somethingxtraordinary.Perhapsmostwomenmustdeal with similar nheritance,the legacyof a woman whose death you cannotpossiblypinpoint ecause she died somany,many imes ndbecause,evenbefore he becameyourmother,he ifeofthatwomanwas taken. ... I came too atetohelp mymother oherfeet.By wayofeverlastinghanks oall of the womenwho havehelpedme tostay liveI amworking ever obe lateagain.58

WhileJordan asknowledge boutthe concrete ct ofhermother'sdeath, he also strives orwisdomconcerninghemeaning fthatdeath.Some feminist cholarsoffer similar laim thatwomen, s agroup, re morelikelythanmen to use concreteknowledge nassessing knowledge claims. For example, a substantialnumberofthe 135 women in a studyofwomen's cognitive development were"connected knowers" and were drawn to the sortofknowledge thatemerges fromfirst-hand bservation. Such women felt that sinceknowledge comes from xperience, the best way ofunderstandinganotherperson's ideas was to try o share the experiences that edthe person to form hose ideas. Atthe heart of theprocedures usedby connected knowers is the capacity forempathy.59

In valuing the concrete, African-Americanwomen may beinvokingnotonly an Afrocentricradition, ut a women's traditionas well. Some feminist heorists uggestthat women are socializedin complex relational nexuses where contextual rules take priorityover abstractprinciples in governingbehavior. This socializationprocess is thought o stimulatecharacteristicways ofknowing.60orexample, Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith maintains that twomodes ofknowing exist,one located in the body and the space itoccupies and the otherpassing beyond it. She assertsthatwomen,through heirchild-rearing nd nurturing ctivities,mediate thesetwo modes and use the concrete experiences of theirdaily lives toassess more abstractknowledge claims.61Amanda King, a young Black mother,describes how she usedthe concrete to assess the abstract and points out how difficultmediatingthese two modes ofknowingcan be:58 JuneJordan,On Call: Political Essays (Boston: South End Press, 1985), 26.59 Mary Belenky, Blythe Clinchy, Nancy Goldberger, and Jill Tarule, Women'sWaysofKnowing (New York:Basic, 1986), 113.60Hartsock,Money,Sex and Power (n. 8 above), 237; and Nancy Chodorow, TheReproduction of Mothering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1978).61 Dorothy Smith, The Everyday World as Problematic (Boston: NortheasternUniversityPress, 1987).

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Collins / BLACK EMINIST HOUGHTThe leaders of the ROC [a laborunion] lost theirobs too,butit ust seemed like theywere used to losing their obs....This was like a lifelongthingfor hem,to get out thereandprotest. They were like, what do you call them-intellectuals.... You got the ones thatgo to the universitythat are supposed tomake all the speeches, they'rethe onesthat re supposed to lead, you know,putthis ittlerevolutiontogether, nd then you got the little ones ... thatgo to thefactory veryday, heybe the ones thathave to fight. had achild and I thought I don't have the time to be runningaround withthese people. ... I mean I understand some ofthat stuff heywere talkingabout, like the bourgeoisie, therichand thepoorand all that,but I had surviving n mymindforme and mykid.62

For King, abstract deals of class solidaritywere mediated by theconcrete experience of motherhoodand the connectedness it in-volved.In traditionalAfrican-Americanommunities,Black women findconsiderable institutional upportforvaluing concreteexperience.Black extended families and Black churches are two key institu-tionswhere Black women expertswithconcreteknowledge of whatittakesto be self-definedBlack women share theirknowledge withtheiryounger, ess experienced sisters. This relationshipof sister-hood amongBlack women can be seen as a model for whole seriesof relationships that African-Americanwomen have with eachother,whetherit is networksamong women in extended families,among women in the Black church, or among women in theAfrican-Americanommunity t large.63Since the Black church and the Black family re both woman-centered and Afrocentric nstitutions,African-Americanwomentraditionallyhave foundconsiderable institutional upportforthisdimension ofan Afrocentric eminist pistemologyin ways that reunique to them.While white women mayvalue the concrete,it is62Byerly n. 15 above), 198.63For Black women's centralityn the family, ee Steady (n. 1 above); Ladner (n.2 above); Brown (n. 54 above); and McAdoo, ed. (n. 36 above). See Gilkes,"'Together and in Harness' " (n. 10 above), for Black women in the church; andchap. 4 ofDeborah GrayWhite,Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the PlantationSouth (New York: Norton, 1985). See also Gloria Joseph, "Black Mothers and

Daughters: Their Roles and Functions in American Society,"in Common Differ-ences: Conflicts n Black and White FeministPerspectives, d. GloriaJosephand JillLewis (Garden City,N.Y: Anchor,1981), 75-126. Even thoughBlack women playessential roles in Black families and Black churches,these institutions re not freefrom exism.762



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Summer 989/SIGNSquestionablewhether white families,particularlymiddle-classnuclearones,andwhitecommunitynstitutionsrovide ompara-ble typesofsupport. imilarly, hile Black men are supported yAfrocentricnstitutions,hey annotparticipaten Blackwomen'ssisterhood. n terms of Black women's relationshipswithoneanother hen,African-Americanomenmay ndeed find teasierthanothers orecognize onnectednesss a primary ayofknow-ing, imply ecausethey reencouraged odo sobyBlackwomen'straditionf sisterhood.The use ofdialogue nassessingknowledge laimsFor Blackwomen,newknowledge laims rerarelyworked ut nisolation rom ther ndividuals ndareusuallydeveloped throughdialogueswithothermembers fa community. primary piste-mological ssumption nderlyinghe use ofdialogue n assessingknowledge laims sthat onnectednessather han eparationsanessential omponent ftheknowledge-validationrocess.64The use ofdialoguehas deep roots n an African-based raltradition nd inAfrican-Americanulture.65uthShaysdescribesthe mportancefdialogue ntheknowledge-validationrocessofenslavedAfrican-Americans:Theywouldfind lie if ttook hema year .. theforeparentsound hetruthecausetheyistened ndtheymadepeople tell theirpartmany imes.Mostoftenyoucanhear lie.. .. Those oldpeoplewaseverywherend knew hetruthofmany isputes.Theybelieved that liar hould ufferhepainofhis lies, and theyhad all kinds of ways of bringing iars tojudgement."66The widespreaduse ofthe call and responsediscoursemodeamongAfrican-Americansxemplifies he importance laced ondialogue. Composedofspontaneous erbal nd nonverbal nterac-tion between speakerand listener n whichall of the speaker'sstatementsr "calls" arepunctuated y expressions r"responses"from he listener, his Black discourse mode pervadesAfrican-American ulture. he fundamentalequirementf his nteractivenetworks activeparticipationf all individuals.67or ideas to betestedand validated, veryone n thegroupmustparticipate. o

64As Belenky et al. note, "Unlike the eye, the ear requires closeness betweensubject and object. Unlike seeing, speaking and listening suggest dialogue andinteraction" 18).65 Thomas Kochman,Black and White: Styles in Conflict Chicago: University fChicago Press, 1981); and Smitherman n. 50 above).66 Gwaltney (n. 11 above), 32.67Smitherman,108.

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Collins / BLACK EMINISTHOUGHTrefuseto join in, especially if one really disagrees with what hasbeen said is seen as "cheating."68June Jordan's analysis of Black English points to the signifi-cance of this dimension of an alternativeepistemology.

Our language is a systemconstructedby people constantlyneeding to insist that we exist. . . . Our language devolvesfrom culture that bhorsall abstraction, ranything endingto obscure or delete the factof the humanbeing who is hereand now/the ruth f thepersonwho is speaking orlistening.Consequently, there is no passive voice constructionpossi-ble in Black English. For example, you cannot say, "BlackEnglish is being eliminated." You mustsay, nstead, "Whitepeople eliminating Black English." The assumption of thepresence of life governs all of Black English ... everysentence assumes the living and active participationof atleast two human beings, the speaker and the listener.69Many Black women intellectuals invoke the relationships andconnectedness provided by use ofdialogue. When asked why shechose the themes she did, novelistGayle Jones replied: "I was ...interested .. in oral traditions fstorytelling-Afro-Americanndothers, n which thereis always the consciousness and importanceof the hearer."70n describing the difference n the way male andfemale writersselect significantevents and relationships,Jonespoints out that "with many women writers,relationships withinfamily,ommunity, etween menand women,and amongwomen-fromslave narrativesby black women writerson-are treated ascomplex and significant elationships,whereas withmanymen thesignificant relationships are those that involve confrontations-relationshipsoutside the familyand community."7' lice Walker'sreactionto Zora Neale Hurston's book, Mules and Men, is anotherexample of the use of dialogue in assessing knowlege claims. InMules and Men, Hurston chose not to become a detached observerof the stories and folktales she collected but instead, throughextensive dialogues with the people in the communities shestudied,placed herself tthe centerofheranalysis. Using a similarprocess, Walker tests the truth of Hurston's knowledge claims:"When I read Mules and Men I was delighted. Here was thisperfectbook The 'perfection'of which I immediatelytested on my

68 Kochman,28.69 Jordan n. 58 above), 129.70 Claudia Tate,Black WomenWriters t Work New York:Continuum, 1983), 91.1 Ibid., 92.764



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Summer 989/ SIGNSrelatives,who are such typicalBlack Americanstheyare useful forevery sort of political, cultural, or economic survey.Very regularpeople fromthe South, rapidly forgetting heir Southern culturalinheritance in the suburbs and ghettosof Boston and New York,theysat around reading the book themselves, listeningto me readthe book, listening to each other read the book, and a kind ofparadise was regained."72Their centrality n Black churches and Black extended familiesprovides Black women with a high degree of supportfromBlackinstitutions or nvoking dialogue as a dimension ofan Afrocentricfeministepistemology.However, when African-Americanwomenuse dialogues in assessing knowledge claims,they mightbe invok-inga particularly emaleway ofknowingas well. Feminist scholarscontendthatmales and females are socialized withintheir familiesto seek differentypesofautonomy, heformer ased on separation,the latter eeking connectedness, and thatthis variation n typesofautonomyparallels the characteristic ifferences etween male andfemale ways of knowing.73 or instance, in contrast to the visualmetaphors (such as equating knowledge with illumination,know-ing with seeing, and truthwith light) that scientists and philoso-phers typicallyuse, women tend to ground theirepistemologicalpremises in metaphorssuggesting speaking and listening.74While there are significant ifferencesbetween the roles Blackwomen play in their families and those played by middle-classwhitewomen,Black women clearlyare affected y general culturalnormsprescribingcertain familialroles forwomen. Thus, in termsof the role of dialogue in an Afrocentric eministepistemology,Black women mayagain experience a convergence ofthe values ofthe African-Americanommunity nd woman-centeredvalues.The ethic of caring"Ole white preachers used to talk wid dey tongues widdout sayin'nothin', but Jesus told us slaves to talk wid our hearts."75 hesewords ofan ex-slave suggestthat deas cannot be divorced from heindividuals who create and share them.This theme of"talkingwiththe heart" taps anotherdimension of an alternativeepistemologyused by African-Americanwomen, the ethic of caring.Justas theex-slave used the wisdom in his heart to reject the ideas of the

72Alice Walker, n Search ofOur Mothers' Gardens (New York: Harcourt BraceJovanovich,1974), 84.73Keller (n. 26 above); Chodorow (n. 60 above).74Belenky et al. (n. 59 above), 16.75Thomas Webber,Deep Like the Rivers (New York:Norton,1978), 127.765



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Collins /BLACK EMINIST HOUGHTpreachers who talked "wid dey tongues widdout sayin' nothin',"theethic ofcaring suggeststhatpersonal expressiveness,emotions,and empathyare central to the knowledge-validationprocess.One of three interrelatedcomponents making up the ethic ofcaring s the emphasis placed on individual uniqueness. Rooted ina tradition f Africanhumanism,each individual is thought o be aunique expression ofa common spirit,power,or energy expressedby all life.76 his belief in individual uniqueness is illustratedbythe value placed on personal expressiveness in African-Americancommunities.77 ohnettaRay,an inner cityresident,describes thisAfrocentric mphasis on individual uniqueness: "No matter howhard we try, don't thinkblack people will ever develop much ofaherd instinct.We are profound individualists with a passion forself-expression."78A second component ofthe ethic ofcaringconcerns the appro-priateness of emotions in dialogues. Emotion indicates that aspeakerbelieves in thevalidityof an argument.79onsider NtozakeShange's descriptionofone ofthe goals of her work: "Our [West-ern] societyallows people to be absolutely neurotic and totallyoutof touchwiththeirfeelingsand everyoneelse's feelings, nd yetbevery respectable. This, tome, is a travesty.... I'm trying o changethe idea of seeing emotions and intellect as distinctfaculties."80Shange's words echo those oftheex-slave. Both see thedenigrationof emotion as problematic, and both suggest that expressivenessshould be reclaimed and valued.A third omponentof theethicofcaring nvolves developing thecapacity for empathy. Harriet Jones, a sixteen-year-oldBlackwoman, explains why she chose to open up to her interviewer:"Some things n my ife are so hardforme tobear,and itmakes me

76 n her discussion of the West AfricanSacred Cosmos, Mechal Sobel (n. 35above) notes thatNyam,a root word in manyWestAfrican anguages, connotes anenduringspirit,power,orenergypossessed by all life. In spite of the pervasivenessofthiskey concept in Africanhumanism, tsdefinitionremains elusive. She pointsout, "Every individual analyzing the various Sacred Cosmos of West Africa hasrecognized the realityof this force,but no one has yet adequately translatedthisconcept into Western terms" (13).77For discussions of personal expressiveness in African-American ulture, seeSmitherman n. 50 above); Kochman (n. 65 above), esp. chap. 9; and Mitchell andLewter (n. 36 above).78Gwaltney (n. 11 above), 228.79For feminist nalyses of the subordinationofemotion in Westernculture,seeHochschild (n. 32 above); and Chodorow.80Tate (n. 70 above), 156.766



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Summer 989/SIGNSfeelbettero know hatyoufeelsorryboutthose hingsndwouldchangethem fyoucould."8lThese three omponentsf heethicof aring-thevalueplacedonindividual xpressiveness,heappropriatenessf motions,ndthecapacity or mpathy-pervadeAfrican-Americanulture.Oneofthe bestexamplesofthe nteractive ature fthe mportancefdialogue and the ethic of caring n assessingknowledgeclaimsoccurs in the use of the call and response discoursemode intraditional lackchurch ervices. n suchservices, oth heminis-ter and the congregation outinely se voice rhythmnd vocalinflectionoconveymeaning.The soundof what s being said isjust as important s the words themselves in what is, in a sense, adialogue between reason and emotions. As a result, it is nearlyimpossible to filter out the strictly inguistic-cognitiveabstractmeaning fromthe sociocultural psycho-emotivemeaning.82Whilethe ideas presented by a speaker must have validity, hat s, agreewith the general body ofknowledge shared by the Black congre-gation, the group also appraises the way knowledge claims arepresented.There is growingevidence that the ethic ofcaring maybe partof women's experience as well. Certain dimensions of women'sways ofknowingbear striking esemblance to Afrocentric xpres-sions of the ethic of caring. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, andTarule point out that two contrasting pistemological orientationscharacterize knowing-one, an epistemology of separation basedon impersonal procedures forestablishing truth, nd the other, nepistemology ofconnection in which truth merges throughcare.While these ways of knowing are not gender specific,dispropor-tionatenumbers of women relyon connected knowing.83The parallels between Afrocentric xpressions of the ethic ofcaringand those advanced byfeminist cholarsare noteworthy. heemphasis placed on expressiveness and emotion in African-American communities bears marked resemblance to feministperspectives on the importanceofpersonality n connected know-ing. Separate knowerstry o subtract he personalityof an individ-ual fromhis or her ideas because they see personalityas biasingthose ideas. In contrast,connected knowers see personality asadding to an individual's ideas, and theyfeel thatthepersonalityofeach groupmember enriches a group's understanding.84imilarly,the significanceof ndividual uniqueness, personal expressiveness,81Gwaltney,11.

82 Smitherman,135 and 137.83 Belenky et al. (n. 59 above), 100-130.84 Ibid.,119.767



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Collins / BLACK EMINIST HOUGHTand empathy in African-Americancommunities resembles theimportancethatsome feminist nalyses place on women's "innervoice."85The convergenceof Afrocentric nd feminist alues in theethic-of-caredimensionofan alternative pistemologyseems particularlyacute. While whitewomen mayhave access to a women's traditionvaluing emotion and expressiveness, few white social institutionsexcept the familyvalidate thisway ofknowing. In contrast,Blackwomen have long had the supportof the Black church,an institu-tion with deep roots in the Africanpast and a philosophy thataccepts and encourages expressiveness and an ethic of caring.While Black men share in this Afrocentric radition,they mustresolve the contradictions that distinguish abstract,unemotionalWestern masculinity from an Afrocentric ethic of caring. Thedifferences mong race/gendergroupsthushinge on differences ntheir access to institutional upports valuing one type ofknowingover another.Although Black women may be denigrated withinwhite-male-controlled academic institutions,other institutions,such as Black families and churches,which encourage the expres-sion of Black female power, seem to do so by way of theirsupportfor n Afrocentric eminist pistemology.The ethic ofpersonal accountabilityAn ethic of personal accountability is the final dimension of analternativeepistemology.Not onlymust individuals develop theirknowledge claims throughdialogue and present those knowledgeclaims in a style provingtheir concern fortheirideas, people areexpected to be accountable for their knowledge claims. ZilphaElaw's descriptionofslaveryreflects hisnotionthatevery dea hasan owner and that the owner's identitymatters: Oh, the abomina-tions of slavery ... every case of slavery,however lenient itsinflictions nd mitigatedits atrocities, ndicates an oppressor,theoppressed, and oppression."86For Elaw, abstract definitions ofslaverymesh with the concrete identitiesof tsperpetrators nd itsvictims. Blacks "consider it essential for ndividuals to have per-sonal positions on issues and assume fullresponsibilityfor rguingtheirvalidity."87

85 See ibid., 52-75, for a discussion of inner voice and its role in women'scognitive styles. Regarding empathy,Belenky et al. note: "Connected knowersbegin with an interest nthefactsof otherpeople's lives,buttheygraduallyshift hefocus to otherpeople's ways ofthinking. ... It is the form ather han the content ofknowingthat s central.... Connected learners learn through mpathy" (115).86 Andrews (n. 48 above), 98.87Kochman (n. 65 above), 20 and 25.768



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Summer 989/SIGNSAssessments of an individual's knowledge claims simulta-neously evaluate an individual's character, values, and ethics.African-AmericansejectEurocentricmasculinist beliefs thatprob-ing nto an individual's personalviewpoint s outside the boundariesof discussion. Rather,all views expressed and actions taken arethoughtto derive from central set of core beliefs that cannot beother than personal.88From this perspective, knowledge claimsmade by ndividuals respectedfor heirmoraland ethical values willcarrymoreweight than those offeredby less respected figures.89An example drawn from an undergraduate course composedentirelyof Black women, which I taught, mighthelp clarifytheuniqueness of this portion of the knowledge-validation process.During one class discussion, I assigned the students the task ofcritiquingan analysis of Black feminism dvanced by a prominentBlack male scholar. Instead of dissecting the rationalityof theauthor's thesis, my students demanded facts about the author'spersonal biography.They were especially interested in concretedetails ofhis life such as his relationshipswithBlack women, hismaritalstatus,and his social class background.By requesting dataon dimensions ofhis personal life routinelyexcluded in positivistapproaches to knowledge validation, theywere invokingconcreteexperience as a criterion fmeaning. They used thisinformation oassess whether he really cared about his topic and invoked thisethic ofcaring n advancing theirknowledge claims about his work.Furthermore, heyrefusedto evaluate the rationality fhis writtenideas without some indication of his personal credibility as anethical human being. The entire exchange could only have oc-curred as a dialogue amongmembersof a class thathad establisheda solid enough community o invoke an alternativeepistemologyinassessing knowledge claims.90The ethic of personal accountability is clearly an Afrocentricvalue, but is it feminist s well? While limited by its attention tomiddle-class, white women, Carol Gilligan's work suggests thatthere is a female model formoral development where women aremore inclined to link morality o responsibility, elationships,andthe abilityto maintain social ties.9' f this is the case, then African-88Ibid, 23.89The sizable proportion f ministers mongBlack political leaders illustrates heimportanceofethics in African-American ommunities.90Belenky et al. discuss a similar situation.They note, "People could critiqueeach other's work in this class and accept each other's criticismsbecause membersof the group shared a similarexperience .... Authorityn connected knowingrestsnot on power or status orcertification ut on commonalityofexperience" (118).91Carol Gilligan, In a DifferentVoice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1982). Carol Stack critiques Gilligan's model by arguing that African-Americans nvoke a similarmodel of moraldevelopmentto thatused bywomen (see

769



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Summer 989/ SIGNSherownroad,believed inher owngods,pursuedherowndreams,andrefused oseparateherself romcommon'people."93Zora Neale Hurstons anexception or, rior o1950,fewBlackwomen earned advanced degrees,and most of those who didcomplied with Eurocentricmasculinistepistemologies.Whilethesewomenworked n behalf fBlackwomen, hey id so withintheconfines fpervasive aceandgender ppression. lackwomenscholarswere in a position o see the exclusionof Black womenfrom cholarly iscourse, nd the thematic ontent f theirworkoften eflected heir nterestn examining Black women'sstand-point.However, heir enuousstatus n academic nstitutionsedthem o adhere to Eurocentricmasculinist pistemologies o thattheirworkwould be acceptedas scholarly. s a result,whiletheyproducedBlackfeministhought,hoseBlackwomenmost ikely ogainacademiccredentialswere often east ikely oproduceBlackfeministhoughthatused an Afrocentriceministpistemology.As more Black women earn advanced degrees,the rangeofBlack feminist cholarships expanding. ncreasingnumbersofAfrican-Americanomen cholars reexplicitly hoosing ogroundtheirwork nBlackwomen'sexperiences,nd,by doingso,manyimplicitlydhere to an Afrocentriceministpistemology. atherthanbeing restrained y their "both/and" tatusofmarginality,these womenmakecreative se oftheir utsider-withintatus ndproduce nnovative lackfeministhought. he difficultieshesewomenface ie less indemonstratinghe technical omponents fwhitemaleepistemologies han nresistinghehegemonicnatureofthesepatternsfthoughtnorder osee, value,anduse existingalternative frocentriceminist aysofknowing.In establishinghe egitimacyftheirknowledge laims,BlackwomenscholarswhowanttodevelopBlack feministhoughtmayencounter heoftenonflictingtandards f hreekeygroups. irst,Black feminist houghtmustbe validatedby ordinaryAfrican-Americanwomenwhogrow owomanhood in a worldwherethesaneryouare, hemadderyouare made toappear."94obe crediblein theeyes of thisgroup, cholarsmustbe personal dvocatesfortheirmaterial, e accountablefor heconsequencesof theirwork,have lived orexperienced heirmaterial n somefashion,nd bewilling oengagein dialoguesabouttheir indings ithordinary,everyday eople. Second, f t is to establish ts egitimacy,lackfeministhoughtlso mustbe acceptedbythecommunityfBlackwomen scholars.These scholarsplace varyingmounts f mpor-tance on rearticulatingBlack women'sstandpointsinganAfro-

93Walker n. 72 above), 91.94Gwaltney (n. 11 above), 7.771



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Collins /BLACKFEMINISTHOUGHTcentric feminist pistemology.Third,Black feminist houghtwithinacademia must be prepared to confrontEurocentric masculinistpolitical and epistemological requirements.The dilemma facingBlack women scholars engaged in creatingBlack feministthought s that a knowledge claim that meets thecriteria of adequacy forone group and thus is judged to be anacceptable knowledge claim maynotbe translatable ntothe termsof a differentgroup. Using the example of Black English, JuneJordanillustratesthe difficultyfmoving among epistemologies:"You cannot 'translate' instances of StandardEnglish preoccupiedwith abstractionor withnothing/nobody videntlyalive into BlackEnglish. That would warpthe language into uses antithetical o theguidingperspective of tscommunity f users. Ratheryoumustfirstchange those Standard English sentences, themselves, into ideasconsistent with the person-centered assumptions of BlackEnglish."93While bothworldviews share a commonvocabulary, heideas themselves defydirect translation.Once Black feminist scholars face the notion that,on certaindimensionsofa Black women's standpoint,tmaybe fruitless o tryto translate deas from n Afrocentric eminist pistemology nto aEurocentric masculinist epistemology,then the choices becomeclearer.Rather hantryingo uncoveruniversalknowledgeclaimsthatcan withstand he translation rom ne epistemology oanother, imemightbe betterspent rearticulating Black women's standpoint norderto give African-Americanomen the tools to resisttheir ownsubordination.The goal here is not one ofintegrating lack female"folk ulture" ntothesubstantiated odyof cademic knowledge,forthat ubstantiated nowledge s, nmanyways, ntithetical othebestinterests f Black women. Rather, heprocess is one ofrearticulatinga preexistingBlackwomen's standpoint nd recenteringhe anguageof existing academic discourse to accommodate these knowledgeclaims.Forthose Blackwomen scholars ngaged inthisrearticulationprocess,the social constructionfBlackfeministhought equirestheskill and sophistication o decide which knowledge claims can bevalidated using the epistemologicalassumptionsofone but notbothframeworks, hich claims can be generatedin one frameworkndonly partially ccommodatedby the other, nd which claims can bemade in both frameworkswithoutviolatingthe basic political andepistemologicalassumptionsof either.Black feminist cholarsoffering nowledge claims that annot beaccommodated by both frameworks ace the choice between ac-cepting the taken-for-grantedssumptions that permeate white-male-controlledacademic institutions r leaving academia. Those

95Jordan n. 58 above), 130.772



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Documents

The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought