Responding to Allison Williams
I agree with Allison’s snapshot because black women have been suffering for a long time. Whether it’s from jobs, low pay, racism, colorism and more. According to an author from the 1977 Combahee river collective statement “There is also undeniably a personal genesis for Black Feminism, that is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal experiences of individual Black women’s lives. Black feminists and many more Black women who do not define themselves as feminists have all experienced sexual oppression as a constant factor in our day-to-day existence. As children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated differently. For example, we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being “ladylike” and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. As we grew older we became aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse by men. However, we had no way of conceptualizing what was so apparent to us, what we knew was really happening”. This quote means that women have been under malicious treatment for a while. They were treated as if their beliefs and their experiences were not important. In addition women were different because we were not allowed to express ourselves because we have to be polite or act like a lady. This is still going on in 2021 because women would be called names for speaking their opinion or for having a voice. While the men were being praised or they would call them bosses whenever they had a different outlook on things. Finally women get physically and sexually abused by men and nothing is being done about it or women are told to be silent about it or even get threatened.
One of the worst things black women experience is colorism especially in the black community. In the black community we are often being bashed for the color of our skin not by white people but by our own race. Dark skin women are often being called ugly by black males and lighter skin women would get praised for their lighter complexion. Something that many black women have experienced is getting backhanded compliments like “ you’re pretty for a dark skin, or i only like pretty black girls with loose curls or nicer hair textures. Black women are always in a competition with each other. This has caused a division between us because many times the dark skin women would be jealous of the light skin women or vice versa. Finally society has taught us that the lighter you are the more privileged you are. This happens a lot in the entertainment industry. Especially in the music industry. Women are often rejected ( dark skins in particular) because they have to look a certain way ( Light skin with nice hair) so that their music becomes popular.
Work Cited
BlackPast, B. (2012, November 16). (1977) The Combahee River Collective Statement. BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-collective-statement-1977/
