Multiracial feminist theory

Multiracial feminist theory refers to scholarship written by women of color (WOC) that became prominent during the second-wave feminist movement. This body of scholarship "does not offer a singular or unified feminism but a body of knowledge situating women and men in multiple systems of domination."

Overview

Multiracial feminist theory is rooted in critiques of "normative accounts" of the second-wave feminist movement; criticising them as predominately focused on white and middle-class women, without accounting for women of color's contributions to women's liberation movements. Multiracial feminist theory holds that mainstream accounts of feminist activism do not address the overlap between racism and misogyny in how women of color navigate oppression.

Different scholars and communities of women refer to multiracial feminist theory in different terms. For example, Professor Chela Sandoval uses the term "U.S. Third World Feminisms," which intends to map out how social efforts of U.S. and global political opposition intersect.

History

Having first gained momentum in the 1970s, multiracial feminism grew as a movement that analyzed racism, classism, and sexism singular as interlocking identities that make up both privilege and oppression. Multiracial feminism is described as a “liberation movement spearheaded by women of color” and focused primarily on intersectional analysis and both an international and a multiracial approach to oppression.

Although not considered to be sufficiently acknowledged by "normative accounts" of the second-wave movement, women of color and white women took a stand to combat racism and colonialism. Black feminists believed that "cross-racial struggle made clear the work that white women needed to do in order for cross-racial sisterhood to really be powerful." White women also recognized that sexism was not the root of women's oppression. They collaborated to put forth an anti-racist movement that incorporated inter-related forms of oppression.

Scholarship in this topic, including work by Becky Thompson, considers how second-wave feminism was inspired by other political movements in the 1960s and 1970s, like the Black Power, New Left, and Civil Rights movements.

Multiple groups of feminist organizations focus on their differing identities. for example, Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, which is a Chicana-based group. Another group, the Asian Sisters, focused on the drug abuse that was happening in Los Angeles around the 1970s.

Notable proponents

• Maxine Baca Zinn, born in Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 11, 1942, is a sociologist known as being one of the “foremothers of multiracial feminism.” Working alongside other feminist theorists like Bonnie Thornton Dill, Patricia Hill Collins, and Lynn Weber, Baca Zinn's hypotheses suggest a need for intersectional analysis regarding identities such as race and gender in contemporary feminism.
• Bonnie Thornton Dill is a dean of the College of Arts and a professor at the University of Maryland. She has won numerous awards for mentoring, including the Jessie Bernard Award from the American Sociological Association.
• Becky Thompson is a human rights activist as well as an activist in feminism surrounding multiple issues of antiracism, gender and class issues. She has a Ph.D. and has written around 100 or more articles.
• Patricia Hill Collins born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948, is known for her article "Learning from the Outsider Within" which was published in 1986. She is a professor at the University of Maryland in race studies as well as feminist studies.
• bell hooks (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021) was an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. The focus of hooks' writing was to explore the intersectionality of race, capitalism, gender and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination.
• Audre Lorde (February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" who "dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia."

Application

A fundamental belief of multiracial feminist theory is the requirement of intersectionality to broaden contemporary feminist discourse. Despite this, however, multiracial feminism struggles to gain momentum as an intersectional approach to combating oppression and is a fairly new concept in the world of quantitative research. Though it may be new, Catherine Harnois writes in her book, Feminist Measure in Survey Research, that multiracial feminism may be more beneficial to feminist discourse than once thought.

Family study, formation and power relations have been extensively examined using a multiracial feminist approach, the results of which reveal a hidden power dynamic between “advantaged families and disadvantaged families.” Advantaged families have been shown to rely on the labor and disadvantage of poorer families, women, women of color, minorities and immigrants.

Women of color provide an "outsider within" perspective as they are active participants in dominance while also continuing to be oppressed by it. In understanding multiracial feminism, it is important to note how interlocking forms of oppression persist to marginalize groups of people. Although people continue to be oppressed, others are privileged at the sacrifice of those who don't obtain the benefits of the system. Patricia Hill Collins defines the term, Matrix of Domination, to refer to how various forms of oppression work differently depending on what social location one obtains. In reference to this term, people will have varying experiences with gender, class, race and sexuality depending on what social position one has in relation to structural powers. In terms of interlocking oppressions, this results in different social groups experiencing varying subordination and privilege.

Activism

Though women of color are rarely credited as being prominent in the second-wave feminist movement, multiracial feminism was present in the 1980s, 1990s and even today.

In the 1970s, women of color worked alongside hegemonic, white feminist groups but found them to be mostly centered on the white, middle-class feminist issues of the time. With the help of white, anti-racist women, women of color gave rise to multiracial feminist theory and led to the development of organizations created by and for women of color.

Multiracial feminists of the 1980s challenged white feminism by speaking out about the individual experiences of women of color, immigrants, and “third-world women” who had been largely swept under the rug. This was mostly done through multiracial feminist writings, which have been revealed to date as far back as the 1960s.

Online activism

There has been a noticeable increase in the number of multiracial feminists, journalists, and bloggers using online media to write about and theorize on intersectionality and multiracial experience in contemporary society as it relates to class, gender and race cooperatively.

A journalist for msmagazine.com, Janell Hobson, wrote a critique of white feminist activism, pointing out the fact that women of color are still being left out of the conversation in current feminist discourse. She writes that it is time for feminists to "reclaim solidarity" by acknowledging race and gender as intertwined issues that must be addressed separately.

Similarly, Lara Witt, who writes for rewirenewsgroup.com, calls upon both her privilege and oppression to understand her role as a multiracial feminist with the ability to speak out against racism towards Black, Hispanic and Indian people.

In her 2020 book, Hood Feminism, Mikki Kendall calls attention to white women's valorization of "fierce" women, noting: "The women most likely to be called fierce are also the most likely to be facing the greatest social risks."

Organizations

In April 1996, there was a rally in Middletown, Connecticut led by a multiracial coalition. Taking place at Wesleyan University, the rally was organized in defense of journalist and author Mumia Abu-Jamal who had been placed on death row in Pennsylvania.

The Combahee River Collective was a black feminist group that started in 1974 and influenced multiracial feminism to be included in Second-Wave feminism. They created a Black Feminist Statement to express their political views and the changes they desired.

Women of All Red Nations (WARN) is a feminist group created by Native American women that was formed in 1974 to fight the promotion of sterilization and the act of sterilization in Native communities.

In 1971, a group of Chicanas created one of the earliest feminist organizations of the Second Wave, due to sexual harassment within The Chicano Movement. The revolutionary group was named after the Mexican underground newspaper, Hijas de Cuauhtémoc. Later, some of the founders launched the first national Chicana studies journal, Encuentro Feminil.

Criticism

Some criticisms have been raised challenging whether or not multiracial feminist theory can produce measurable results due to a lack of “existing survey tools” by which to quantify or examine those experiences.

See also

• Feminist theory § History of feminist theory
• Maxine Baca Zinn § Early life and education
• Intersectionality § Historical background
• Feminism and racism