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The cult of domesticity – a socially constructed phenomenon that portrayed a woman’s sphere of influence in the home, reinforcing gender-based oppression. Although we have come a long way since this 19th century ideology, aspects of this oppressive mindset are still prevalent in our contemporary world.
Audre Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic demonstrates how our society bases itself on accepting mediocrity: “We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings” (Lorde, 1984). Eroticism is sensation with feeling, an internal enlightenment that allows individuals to realize and continuously demand their utmost sense of fulfillment. Without this sense of fulfillment, humankind grows complacent, accepting modes of oppression as the unchangeable norm because we know nothing better, we don’t know our individualistic and genuine capacity for joy. The cult of domesticity today has manifested itself in reinforced mindsets. These mindsets are passed down generationally – through gendered family dynamics or cultural/religious teachings – and reinforced through our Euro-male centered institutions. From biased educational curriculum that omit female contributions to history (ex: teaching of the Revolutionary War without acknowledging the efforts of the daughters of Liberty, the female spies and medics, and socialites that influenced constitutional framing) (Chapman, 2005) to workplace hierarchies that continue to be male dominated, the perseverance of a patriarchal society is deeply cemented and bound – the everlasting dichotomy of easily settling for the status quo versus challenging oneself into “what feels right to me.”
Additionally, Lorde’s perspective on the commodification of work and how that lends towards female oppression is one I found especially interesting. Drawing from Feminism Marxism (Armstrong, 2020), the cost of reproductive labor – child rearing, housework, and childcare – is relatively ignored and devalued in our society, with this unpaid labor falling primarily on women. The systems that govern our world – legal, economic, social – continue to normalize this not commonly known injustice, separating the personal home life sphere from the public one despite the clear interconnection. Even today, there are no federal laws providing for the guarantee of paid maternity leave. On a state level, paid medical (including maternity/paternity leave) leave for the private sector is determined by insurance and buying into the benefit – once again, demonstrating that reproductive labor and childcare is something to be profited off, instead of a fundamental right, alongside the socioeconomic class stratification (upper class and the privileged would be able to afford childcare options, insurance policies etc.). and intersectional dynamics at play (Williamson, 2024).
Lorde’s prose was greatly intriguing to me and her incorporation of socialist-feminist theory strengthened her call to action of channeling the erotic as a form of educated empowerment.
References:
Armstrong, Elisabeth. “Marxist and Socialist Feminism” Northhampton, MA: Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality: Faculty, Publications, Smith College, 2020
Chapman, Amanda. “Gender Bias in Education” (thesis, Equity Literacy Institute , 2005).
Lorde, Audre. Essay. In Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power. Tucson, AZ: Kore Press, 1984.
Williamson, Molly Weston. “The State of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the U.S. in 2023.” Center for American Progress, February 7, 2024.
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The universal suffering of black feminists and misrepresentation of colored women has long been a severe problem with no sustained solutions. Throughout history, this group of individuals has been subjugated to the depths of society, devoid of their personal freedoms and liberties. Therefore, reflecting upon the plight of women during the 20th century, I found that the arguments presented in the Combahee River Collective: “A Black Feminist Statement” as well as Christina Sharpe’s, Blackness in Being: “The Wake”, not only encapsulate the oppression and struggle that women encountered, but also galvanize them to overcome the pre-existing gender constructs that have restricted them for so long.
Contemporary Black Feminism, an important movement sparked by integrated activism, is best established through the framework of the Combahee River Collective. Through the appeal to emotion, the collective emphasizes the need for solidarity and political unity among the black feminist population which will in turn end the radical agenda upheld by the patriarchal dominated society. In fact, the collective highlighted that “we realize that the only people who care enough about us to work for our liberation are us” (2). For the black feminist movement to advance, the women must work in conjunction alongside other progressive groups and activism organizations, so that they can achieve not only their justice but also the autonomy of other groups of individuals. Thus, I believe that by stating a clear purpose and outlining the steps needed to unlock that goal, the Combahee River Collective masterfully propagates the idea that change is inevitable and must happen together.
Echoing analogous ideals set forth by the Combahee River Collective, I truly appreciated how Christina Sharpe expressed her opinions, in “The Wake” chapter of Blackness and Being. Through her stylistic techniques, Sharpe brilliantly incorporates the use of the “wake” as an extended metaphor which redefines the black feminist movement. In her statement, she refers to the idea of the wake as “ways that we are constituted through and by continued vulnerability to overwhelming force” (Sharpe 16). By analyzing wake in several different contexts, Sharpe argues that the wake is nothing more than death, destruction, and decay for the black life. The wake has only contributed to the feeling of constant terror and fear for black individuals who have been consistent victims of deceit, exploitation, and servitude. Although Sharpe cites many negative aspects of the wake for the black feminist movement, she injects life into her supporters when she illustrates the concept of “wake work”. She envisions wake work as the outlet for “black expressive culture that do not seek to explain or resolve the question of this exclusion, but rather depict aesthetically the impossibility of such resolutions” (Sharpe 14). Black individuals must continue to remain prideful in their heritage and being while also staying mindful of the violence and trauma that their ancestors had before them. In essence, Sharpe is posing a challenge to her audience by asking them to discover their inner purpose within the wake of the black feminist movement.
Combahee River Collective. “A Black Feminist Statement.” Monthly Review 70, no. 8 (April 9, 2021): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.14452/mr-070-08-2019-01_3.
Sharpe, Christina. “In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe.” JSTOR 8, no. 2 (2018): 99–103. https://doi.org/10.1353/phi.2018.0018.
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The idea of gender feels as if it is pre decided in a sense with a binary, man and woman, determined by biological sex. I’ve found that such a traditional understanding has, however, in recent years been increasingly questioned and complicated-by academics. The importance of discussing how gender is a situated and constructed category deeply tied to historical, social, and racial positions becomes more evident.
In C. Riley Snorton’s “Gender,” my understanding is that gender is articulated as woven and inseparable from race, particularly where Blackness operates within the United States. The experiences of Black people with gender are deeply tied to the history of slavery and continued racial subjugation (Snorton 2018). As I deconstructed this piece I found that Snorton emphasized the ways in which Black genders have been constructed and policed have historically been informed by the racialization of Black bodies. This is seen in the hypersexualization and dehumanization of Black women under slavery-seeking to strip them of femininity as defined by white, European standards. Black men, in turn, were emasculated or denied the norms of white masculinity. Such imposed categories reveal how gender operates differently across racial lines.
In fact, this has been taken into view in today’s society through the hardships of Black transgender people who are too often targeted for excesses of violence and discrimination. The case of CeCe McDonald, a Black trans woman who was sentenced to prison for defending herself from a racist and transphobic attack, further articulates the marginalization of Black trans people at the junction of various tyrannical structures (Johnson 2013). McDonald’s story also speaks to the necessity of intersectionality-a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw that describes how forms of oppression, such as race, gender, and class, intersect and affect people differently.
Jules Gill-Peterson on the other hand complicates the notion of gender, not just highlighting the matter of materiality but also how it is constituted through and by medical, legal, and social processes. Medicalization, for example, of gender demonstrates the ways in which society controls bodies in order to fit into normative conceptions of male and female. The medical profession has denied validity to non-binary and transgender identities for a long time by forcing such identities into rigid binary constructions (Gill-Peterson 2021, 2). These have now been challenged by contemporary movements in the name of trans healthcare and recognition that support fluid conceptions of gender. Gendered identity is not strictly something internally felt but is actually institutionally produced.
These authors challenge us to conceptualize gender less as an experience always fixed or singular and more as one deeply structured by race, by history, and by institutions. Their discussion makes it clear that gender has little to do with identity but, rather, with power, culture, and the relationship of the body with social structures. Even as our broader society remains tied down in struggles for gender and racial justice, these readings remind us that a fully developed understanding of gender requires attention to greater social forces that form it.
References
Gill-Peterson, Jules. 2021. “Gender.” In Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, edited by The Keywords Feminist Editorial Collective, 96–100. New York: NYU Press. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.emory.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2904820&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Johnson, J. R. 2013. “Cisgender Privilege, Intersectionality, and the Criminalization of CeCe McDonald: Why Intercultural Communication Needs Transgender Studies.” Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 6(2), 135–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2013.776094
Snorton, C., Riley. 2018. “Gender.” In Keywords for African American Studies, by Erica R. Edwards, Roderick A. Ferguson, and Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, 1st ed. New York University Press. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6NDc2OTMyOQ==?aid=107790.
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Throughout time in feminist history language has been the fundamental concept for feminine development. This in particular focuses on Black women and throughout time language has been the key to defining and reestablishing women’s identity to fit societal standards. For example in Interstices, it depicts how Spillers emphasizes the importance of language and empowerment. Spillers highlights that words can not only be oppressive but flips the tables and uses words as a tool for empowerment. She highlights that language is not just an idea for communication but rather a way for black women to identify and reclaim their identities that were washed away by white society. Spillers leads us to question the basis of language and the names placed on black women and history and how they have not only combatted and overcome the names placed on them but how they reclaimed their language and redefined them.
This is a recurring motive that Spillers brings to light as her point progresses. Spillers writes, “Words work as a medium of exchange and as a medium of domination, trafficking in particular social orders” (Spillers 2003). Although these words may appear complex and have an underlying meaning, the objective is simple in that this is what a day in the life looks like for a great margin of black women and this injustice is something that must be combatted. The language used is a form of dehumanization and it throws back to concepts of slavery which brings me to the idea of Kitty’s cottage. The terms males would use words such as “breeder” or “wench” to refer to Black women, they were reducing them to tools of reproduction and labor. This language strips black women of their humanity and it is used to maintain some sort of hierarchy and oppress the black women in society. Many negative stereotypes are branched from this idea that still are present in our current society such as “welfare queen”. These are nothing but insults that are rooted in the history of black women inequalities.
Yet, as Spillers emphasizes, women of color have always found ways to resist these words and dehumanizing terms. One of the most famous examples of this type of resistance was during the #SayHerName movement, which brought attention to the stories of black women who were victims of police violence. The movement forced people to confront how women of color’s lives were erased from the public eye, this was an act of reclaiming the humanity that was once taken away from them, and honoring their lives in a way that matters.
Spillers’ concept of Interstices asks us to sit with the tension between how language can harm and how it can heal. This not only depicts the struggles of black women but also the struggle that language encompasses in its essence. The construction of the words and the phrases that have been coined for black women through history have impacted the diction of American literature. Spillers is a pioneer in combating this injustice as she focuses on examining how these words help us understand the broader dynamics of race, gender, and power. The oppressive language and diction used not only fuels the oppression it also fuels the resilience to fight the oppression. These words not only remind black women of their dignity and their identity but it also serves as a function to remind them of their struggle for justice and personify why they fight for their rights.
References:
“Say Her Name.” Archives of Women’s Political Communication, Iowa State University. Accessed September 16, 2024. https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/say-her-name-sayhername/.
Spillers, Hortense J. “Interstices: A Small Drama of Words.” In Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture, edited by Hortense J. Spillers, [153-175]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. -
Contextualizing feminism:
In analyzing feminist movements across different cultures, one key concept that emerges is the importance of understanding cultural and historical contexts when comparing or studying feminist ideologies and attempting to apply Western feminist frameworks to non-Western societies without acknowledging their unique structures risks oversimplifying. Oyewumi’s analysis in her work “The Invention of Women”, emphasizes how Western categories of gender, race, and hierarchy are applied indiscriminately across different cultures in academic research (Oyewumi 1997, 3). Oyewumi critiques Western feminist theory for imposing its biological determinism onto non-Western societies. In her discussion of Yoruba society, for example, she highlights that social roles are not inherently gendered as they are in Western contexts. In Yoruba culture, seniority takes precedence over gender in determining one’s social standing, which is in stark contrast to the Western focus on body-based classifications.
Furthermore, non-Western frameworks are often excluded from or not fully recognized within Western feminist discourse. I found it particularly relevant when analyzing Western ideas of feminism with those from non-Western cultures like China. For instance, sexual liberation is frequently emphasized in Western feminist rhetoric, advocating for autonomy over one’s body and fighting for the rights of sex workers as essential components of liberation. These ideas reflect a broader Western history of battling for individual rights, sexual freedom, and the dismantling of patriarchal structures. However, this framework of liberation is not universal, nor can it be fully applied to non-Western societies without understanding their specific historical and cultural backgrounds.
Chinese feminism, influenced by over 2,000 years of Confucian thought, holds different priorities. Rather than focusing on sexual liberation, Chinese feminist thought has been more concerned with liberation from marriage and familial obligations. Confucianism places a heavy emphasis on family hierarchy, obedience, and gender roles. Therefore, in Chinese feminist movements, liberation is often defined as freedom from the oppressive structures of marriage and family expectations, which could be considered an “anti-marriage” stance. This version of feminism can sometimes adopt an anti-sex work or “anti-sex” position, viewing sex (especially with men) as exploitative rather than empowering. The fight for reproductive rights also takes on a different issue in China, where the legacy of planned parenthood policies in the 80s has created unique challenges related to reproductive autonomy.
It is impossible to apply feminist theory to any culture without considering the social and historical contexts that have shaped it. Oyewumi’s critique of Western feminism emphasizes the risks of using Western ideas of gender, race, and hierarchy in non-Western countries. Ultimately, to truly understand and respect feminist movements globally, it is essential to avoid oversimplifications and instead appreciate the nuances that arise from each culture’s background.References:
Oyewumi, Oyeronke. “Visualizing the Body: Western Theories and African Subjects.” SpringerLink, January 1, 1970. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-137-09009-6_1. -
Often times, reclaiming one’s own identity and subjectivity can act as a form of resistance against oppressive systems. Through the restriction of free thought and ideas, marginalized communities like women of color and queer individuals express their own narratives and voices to challenge structures like patriarchy, racism, and heteronormativity. These structures have historically oppressed and continue to oppress these marginalized communities.
As seen in In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, Christina Sharpe focuses on how Black individuals must face the lingering consequences of slavery even to this day. Sharpe stresses the importance of “wake work” to describe the struggle that Black individuals face to reclaim their identity in the light of stereotypes from the history of slavery. According to Sharpe, “to be in wake is live in those no’s,” which refers to the constant restrictions and exclusions that Black people experience in societies (Sharpe 2016, 16). She argues that “wake work” is necessary to allow Black individuals, even those that fit into other marginalized communities, to embrace and fight for their own power to show their resistance against forms of discrimination.
In Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, Audre Lorde expands on the idea of reclaiming identity by emphasizing her redefined meaning of “erotic,” which includes the “erotic” as collective knowledge: “the sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual… for understanding much of what is not shared… and lessens the threat of their difference” (Lorde 1978, 89). Lorde argues that reconnecting with their desires and passions, women can better understand each other in an accepting environment, where differences are embraced and valued. In turn, this open-minded space allows for the free expression of identity to promote equality and appreciation.
I think the reclaiming of identity can come in many forms, including fighting for social justice and environmental protection. In contemporary society, I have found that young activists like Autumn Peltier have expressed their fight against climate justice by proving her leadership in protecting nature. Peltier, despite only being 19 years old, is an Indigenous woman that focuses on environmental activism. By pushing for the protection of land and water so Indigenous communities have a safe place to live, Peltier reclaiming her culture and her community. As a part of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation in Canada, she believes in the basic right for safe drinking water (Kainz 2022). Peltier is pushing to establish change for her community by echoing broader concerns about the government’s disregard and systemic neglect for Indigenous people. By advocating for the protection of land and water, Peltier uses her identity to resist the systemic violence and exclusion present in Canada, mirroring the act of “wake work” and shared purpose of the “erotic” in the Indigenous community.
References
Kainz, Natalie. “Here’s How a Young First Nations Clean Water Activist Is Captivating Global Audiences.” CNN, August 10, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/09/americas/autumn-peltier-water-protector-first-nations-canada-spc/index.html.
Lorde, Audre. Uses of The Erotic: The Erotic as Power. Tucson, AZ: Kore Press, 2000.
Sharpe, Christina Elizabeth. In The Wake: On Blackness and Being. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.
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Harnessing the Erotic
Audre Lorde’s speech, “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” offers a unique re-interpretation of the concept of the erotic. Traditionally associated with sexuality and sensual pleasure, Audre Lorde offers a deeper interpretation of the word, one which involves a transformative source of power and self-knowledge.
The structure of Audre Lorde’s speech is thoughtful. The speech is replete with lyrical and suggestive language which is intended to express the complex issues and ideas that Audre Lorde is trying to share with her audience.
At the forefront of Audre Lorde’s speech is a call to action. She uses honest and clear language that helps readers to connect to the concepts that she presents on a deeper level. Namely, Audre Lorde tries to re-define the word erotic and separate it from its conventional sexual connotation and/or any preconceived notions of what eroticism is. To Audre Lorde, eroticism has a variety of functions, one of which is in the agency of providing power “which comes from sharing deeply any pursuit with another person.” By explicitly defining her definition of the erotic and its implications Audre Lorde highlights the call to action in the speech. Her tone is both empowering and motivating as she encourages listeners to both recognize and utilize their own erotic for the greater good of women but especially for black women. Through this Audre Lorde creates a sense of agency and empowerment.
By using a blend of personal anecdotes, lyrical and suggestive language and historical context, Audrey Lorde is able to redefine eroticism and convey its transformative power in both personal and societal contexts. She encourages all viewers to tap into this deep and transformative source of power and be the change that we want to see. It does nobody any good to be complacent. Instead we must evoke our own eroticism as we fight for what it is that we believe in and those that haven’t yet found that agency for themselves. -
In a postcolonial society, the legacy of slavery still persists especially in the ways we perceive and treat Black women in the healthcare space. According to the CDC, Black mothers are “3 times more likely to die during and after childbirth” than their white counterparts (Welteroth and Williams 2024). The discrepancy between the maternal mortality rates of Black and White women can be explained through a number of reasons including the decline of midwifery, the lack of medical research performed on Black women and most importantly the historic racist and discriminatory practices and beliefs that have been pervasive since the times of slavery.
During slavery, midwifery was the only way in which Black women gave birth. However as new medical technological advancements were developed, the medical specialty of child delivery became dominated by white male physicians who called into question the practice of midwifery. Ultimately, the decline of midwifery was caused by popularization of anti-midwife sentiments in medical journals that led to the outlawing of midwives practicing in many states (Nayak 2024). The condemnation of midwives has only led to worse outcomes for Black mothers today as many Black women’s concerns are continuously swept under the rug by their own healthcare providers like in the case of celebrities like Serena Williams and Elaine Welteroth. While Weleneroth and Williams hone in on the question of accessibility to midwife care and the solutions to the broken maternal healthcare system, their experiences also reveal societal perceptions of Black women.
As recently as 2016, studies have shown that physicians believe that Black patients have “thicker skin” than White patients and that Black patients generally have higher tolerances of pain (Hoffman 2016). The idea of biological differences in race date back to colonialism and slavery in which white supremacists justified the practice of slavery by denoting the majority of Africans to be “subhuman” and “barbaric.” In Black feminism, many scholars reference this idea through the concept of animality which is defined as being “animal in nature or character.” Throughout history, Black women have been continuously viewed as being “savages” and “animalistic.” In the “Interstices: A Small Drama of Words,” Spillers clearly articulates the comparison of the Black women and animality through her analogy of “the beached whale” (1984, 74). “The beached whale” is used to represent the spectacle which is “unvoiced” and “misseen” (74). Similarly, in the healthcare space, Black women are just as helpless as the “beached whale” because as patients, but even broadly in society, they are continuously ignored and left to fend for themselves. The legacy of slavery and colonial beliefs continue to shape society and the ways we regard race and gender.References
Hoffman KM, Trawalter S, Axt JR, Oliver MN. Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Apr 19;113(16):4296-301. doi:10.1073/pnas.1516047113. Epub 2016 Apr 4. PMID: 27044069; PMCID: PMC4843483. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843483/
Nayak, Anika. “The History That Explains Today’s Shortage of Black Midwives.” TIME, Feb 29 2024. time.com/6727306/black-midwife-shortage-history/.
Spillers, Hortense J. “Interstices: A Small Drama of Words.” The University of Chicago Press. 1984.
Welteroth, Elaine, Williams, Serena. “We Shouldn’t Have to Be Willing to Die to Give Birth in the U.S.” TIME, Apr 11 2024. -
Today’s society requires us citizens to place value on different objects based on our selfish desires. The average person deals with this daily, delegating their monetary usage and time. While seeing value in goods is not inherently wrong, the real problem arises when we apply this thinking to other individuals. In history, world powers saw themselves as greater than other civilizations based on money, religion, and technological advancements. Their conquests lessened cultural diversity under the guise of “saving them” and have dramatically altered the current culture. While we learn about ideas such as these in our history classes, the issue is far from history; it is contemporary. In the famous 1977 “Combahee River Collective Statement,” the writers introduce the idea that Black women are “inherently valuable” to express the disparity in basic human respect and rights given to them (Combahee River Collective 1977).
The Combahee River Collective sought to address the hardship that Black women face by advocating for intersectionality when battling the systemic issues of today’s society. Moreover, they did this by opening the Beliefs section and affirming that Black women have inherent value. “Inherent value” refers to the intrinsic worth of Black women in society, for they have been marginalized due to class disparities, sexism, and racism. They pushed for people’s liberation to begin by recognizing that there is inherent value in everyone, starting with Black women. At the time of writing this, they reinforced this idea with “pejorative stereotypes,” “murderous treatment,” and “history of rape by white men,” showing that Black women were not given inherent value (Combahee River Collective 1977). This inequality of value is even seen today regarding health care with expecting mothers. In 2021, mortality rates of Black women in America were higher than any other race, with 70 deaths out of 100,000 live births (Sainato 2023). Systemic racism in health care because of professionals’ racial bias against Black women is the cause of the increased mortality rate. The women’s pain, discomfort, and concerns are taken lightly, resulting in death. When comparing this to how white women are treated in healthcare facilities, the true gap between inherent values is highlighted.
One of the big misconceptions in the argument for inherent value is that it gives extra benefits to those on the receiving end. However, the Combahee River Collective puts it best: it is “to be recognized as human, levelly human” (Combahee River Collective 1977). I believe the ideas brought forth in the statement are imperative to reconstructing today’s society to be equal for all. The first step in doing so is to recognize the inherent value in all people, starting especially with Black women.References
The Combahee River Collective Statement. United States, 1977. Web Archive. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0028151/.
Sainato, Michael. “‘A Critical Emergency’: America’s Black Maternal Mortality Crisis.” The Guardian, July 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/23/america-black-maternal-mortality-crisis. -
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—a famous phrase from the United States Declaration of Independence (1776), outlining the three unalienable rights to which all Americans are supposedly entitled. However, for many Black women in America, these rights are often compromised, especially when it comes to medical and maternal care. Although Thomas Jefferson wrote about the ideal of equality, Black women across the nation continue to face disparities in access to reproductive healthcare, particularly during pregnancy and childbirth.
In their op-ed, “We Shouldn’t Have to Be Willing to Die to Give Birth in the US,” Elaine Welteroth and Serena Williams expose the harsh reality of Black maternal mortality in the United States. They emphasize how racial and socioeconomic factors exacerbate existing disparities in access to reproductive healthcare, and they label the Black maternal health crisis as a human rights issue. Serena Williams’ near-death experience during her first childbirth—despite her fame, wealth, and access to healthcare—highlights the vulnerability of all Black women, showing that neither status nor resources can guarantee them protection from the systemic bias found within American healthcare.
The Black maternal health crisis has deep roots in the historical abuse and belittling of Black women and their bodies, mirroring themes found in the Combahee River Collective’s “A Black Feminist Statement” (1977), which argues that Black women face a mix of racial, sexual, and economic oppression. Black maternal mortality is a prime example of Black women being unfairly marginalized within both the women’s and civil rights movements, reflecting a healthcare system ignorant of their pain and suffering. Welteroth and Williams’ call to action aligns with the Collective’s insistence that true and meaningful reform must prioritize the needs of the most marginalized and affected group—Black women. Their advocacy efforts shift the focus from superficial reforms to transformative change that actually addresses the root causes of systemic racism. Welteroth and Williams emphasize that Black maternal health is about more than survival—it’s about reclaiming their dignity and demanding healthcare that recognizes the full humanity of Black women.
Overall, Welteroth and Williams’ op-ed places the issue of Black maternal mortality within the framework of Black feminist thought, powerfully advocating for change that addresses the root causes of systemic racism in healthcare. By building on the work of movements like the Combahee River Collective, they emphasize that Black women must be at the forefront of any meaningful reform. Black maternal health is not just a medical issue but a matter of social justice, and as both the op-ed and the Combahee River Collective state, addressing it as such is crucial for the survival and dignity of Black women.
References:
The Combahee River Collective Statement. United States, 2015. Web Archive. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0028151/.
Thomas Jefferson, et al, July 4, Copy of Declaration of Independence. -07-04, 1776. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib000159/.
Williams, Serena, and Elaine Welteroth. “We Shouldn’t Have to Be Willing to Die to Give Birth in the U.S.” Time, April 11, 2024. https://time.com/collection/time100-voices/6965534/serena-williams-elaine-welteroth-black-maternal-health-birthfund/.
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