Week 16 Flashcards
Patricia Hill Collins
-Wrote Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
-Looks to ideas from Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Bell Hooks, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw & Audre Lorde; First book to incorporate literature of & by African-American women
-Discussion of how oppressions mutually construct systems of power;Matrix of domination
-Black women’s experiences with these intersecting systems provides analysis that can be extended to marginalized others.
Black Feminist Thought-Basics
-Ideas of black women clarifying the situation of black women for everyone & black women
-Black women have a unique standpoint/perspective living through these intersections
-They have commonalities & yet are diverse- class, region, age, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
-Focus on how systems of oppression interlock to form a structure of domination.
-All forms of oppression devalue the subjectivity of the oppressed; Objectification of the dominated
-The need for self-definition, self-valuation & black female-centred- defining & valuing one’s consciousness in the face of images that foster an “objectified other” is a significant way to overcome the “otherness” created by white men & resisting dehumanization that is essential to systems of dominance & oppression
Racialized Definition
Power dynamics in white dominant societies where only non-white people are presumed to have race.
Black Feminism- Collins’ Matrix of Domination
Matrix of Domination- How intersections of injustice & oppression are organized (Sociologically); They shape human action & interaction (privilege)
-The matrix of domination consists of varying combinations of intersecting oppression such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, age, religion & sexuality.
-People experience & resist oppression on 3 levels: personal, cultural/community, & social institutions.
Collin’s Matrix of Domination/ 4 interrelated domains
the way structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, & interpersonal domains of power reappear across quite different forms of oppression.
Black Feminism- 4 Interrelated Domains
Structural domain
Disciplinary domain
Hegemonic domain
Interpersonal domain
Structural domain
has the function of organizing power & oppression
Disciplinary domain
has the function of managing oppression so as to sustain it
Hegemonic domain
has the function of legitimizing oppression by dominant group
Interpersonal domain
has the function of controlling the interactions & consciousness of individuals
Black Feminism- 3 sites of experiencing & resisting oppression
Personal
Cultural/Community
Social Institutions
Personal
personal biography & consciousness; the fundamental area where new knowledge can generate; emphasize power of self-definition & necessity of free mind
Cultural/ Community
experiences & ideas we share with other which give meaning to the personal biographies because it is rooted in a context; group validation; culture of resistance
Social institutions
controlled by dominant groups (e.g., schools, churches, media outlets); represent dominant ideas & interests; need to challenge the information
Black Feminism
-All black women are in this matrix of domination but the differences in the intersections of oppression create unique experiences & perspectives
-Empowerment involves rejecting the dimensions of knowledge that perpetuate objectification & dehumanization
-Notice: there is optimism! She constantly speaks to resistance & empowerment
-gaining truth & knowledge by dialogue & empathy
The Indigenous Famous Five
Mary Two-Axe Early, Jeanette Cornier Lavell, Yvonne Bedard, Sandra Lovelace, and Sharon Donna Mclover
-are overlooked
-Working for decades to eliminate the sex discrimination that Indigenous women & First Nations have had to/ continue to have to endure at the hands of Canada’s racist & sexist colonial laws that determine who is/ who is not an ‘Indian’ as defined by the Indian Act and as such who is/ who is not entitled to their treaty rights as established in 1764 during the Treaty at Niagara where the 1763 Royal Proclamation was ratified
Famous Canadian Women
-Person’s Day is Oct 18
-In 1927, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, & Henrietta Muir Edwards challenged section 24 of the British North American (BNA) Act’s definition of person; They wanted it expanded to include female persons
-They won the case & have been celebrated in Canadian history
Indigenous Famous Five/ 1966
Mary Two-Axe Early began to speak out publicly
Indigenous Famous Five/1971
Jeannette Corbiere-Lavall took the matter of section 12 (1) (b) to court arguing it violated the Canadian Bill of Rights
-Yvonne Bedard joined Corbiere-Lavell’s effort, in 1973 both cases were heard together at the SCC
Indigenous Famous Five/ 1981
now Senator Sandra Lovelace appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Committee
-Sharon Donna Mclover took the denial of her status entitlement to court arguing this violated section 15 of the Charter where once again the so-called legal remedy offered by Canada failed to resolve all of the remaining sex discrimination
-All but Yvonne Bedard have been recognized with Person’s Awards
Sex Discrimination in the Indian Act
-The Indian Act 12(1)(b) discriminates against Indigenous women - they
lose their status if they marry a non-Indigenous person, & their children &
future generations would also lose status; Losing status means you
cannot live, or own property, or be buried on the reserve
-Comparatively, Indigenous men who married non-Indigenous women did
not lose status & their children also did not; but there is the Double-Mother
Rule
-This caused kinship ties to break, a loss of traditions & culture, & left
Indigenous women & children vulnerable (especially when taken along with
other assimilation colonial practices that the Canadian government was
doing)
-Indigenous women face triple oppression as colonized women of colour
