Week 16

Question 1

Patricia Hill Collins

Answer 1

-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.

Question 2

Black Feminist Thought-Basics

Answer 2

-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

Question 3

Racialized Definition

Answer 3

Power dynamics in white dominant societies where only non-white people are presumed to have race.

Question 4

Black Feminism- Collins’ Matrix of Domination

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Collin’s Matrix of Domination/ 4 interrelated domains

Answer 5

the way structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, & interpersonal domains of power reappear across quite different forms of oppression.

Question 6

Black Feminism- 4 Interrelated Domains

Answer 6

Structural domain
Disciplinary domain
Hegemonic domain
Interpersonal domain

Question 7

Structural domain

Answer 7

has the function of organizing power & oppression

Question 8

Disciplinary domain

Answer 8

has the function of managing oppression so as to sustain it

Question 9

Hegemonic domain

Answer 9

has the function of legitimizing oppression by dominant group

Question 10

Interpersonal domain

Answer 10

has the function of controlling the interactions & consciousness of individuals

Question 11

Black Feminism- 3 sites of experiencing & resisting oppression

Answer 11

Personal
Cultural/Community
Social Institutions

Question 12

Personal

Answer 12

personal biography & consciousness; the fundamental area where new knowledge can generate; emphasize power of self-definition & necessity of free mind

Question 13

Cultural/ Community

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Social institutions

Answer 14

controlled by dominant groups (e.g., schools, churches, media outlets); represent dominant ideas & interests; need to challenge the information

Question 15

Black Feminism

Answer 15

-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

Question 16

The Indigenous Famous Five

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Famous Canadian Women

Answer 17

-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

Question 18

Indigenous Famous Five/ 1966

Answer 18

Mary Two-Axe Early began to speak out publicly

Question 19

Indigenous Famous Five/1971

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Indigenous Famous Five/ 1981

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Sex Discrimination in the Indian Act

Answer 21

-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