Patricia Hill Collins "Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Power"

Question 1

Why do we need black feminist thought?

Answer 1

• Race, Gender, and Class are interlocking systems of oppression
• Focusses the attention on how they connect

Question 2

What do black feminist offer?

Answer 2

• revealing new ways of knowing that allow subordinate groups to define their own reality
• have first hand been marginalized

Question 3

The Matrix of Domination

Answer 3

Interlocking systems of oppression foster thought processes that create more inclusive thinking (compared to additive models)
Race, class and gender represent the 3 systems of oppression most common
All categories of Others are equated to one another
Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed

Question 4

Black Feminist Thought thinks _____ is key for change.

Answer 4

Knowledge

Question 5

The matrix of domination shows what?

Answer 5

• How power is organized in a society.
  (ex. a white woman is oppressed by men, but she is the oppressor for people of colour)
• replaces the additive models of oppression with interlocking ones