The Combahee River Collective Statement, written by the members of the collective, is made up of powerful and bold statements in regards to the inequality, sexism, and racism they face daily. They call our attention to the many indecencies that continue to recur over and over again throughout history. To me, the quote “We might use our position at the bottom to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. If black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression”, expresses the fearlessness and eagerness that these women have to acquire the basic human rights that have been owed to them for a long time. Not only would we have to eliminate one form of oppression in hopes to liberate black women, but ALL systems of oppression. These systems include racism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, and even capitalism.
Race and gender have a big influence on capitalism. Capitalism is defined as, “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.” As many of us know, these private owners, or private property owners, pass down their inheritances from one generation to another, and they are mostly made up of white males. Although it is said that capitalism “reduces oppression of societies that imposes hierarchies of gender”, that is simply not true. As the Combahee River Collective stated, “Our economic position is still at the very bottom of the American capitalistic economy”. Unfortunately, this does not come as a surprise to any of us who are aware of the inequality that has taken place in this country for decades.

The Combahee River Collective defines identity politics as focusing on their oppressions as those seen and suffered throughout history and rejecting any form of inequality and racist/sexist behavior. In their statement they state, We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black women’s lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual.” When you are constantly beaten down and preyed upon due to your race and gender, it is hard to pinpoint which oppression is which. In their statement, they also state, “We are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women. We are dispossessed psychologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to struggle to change the condition of all Black women.” These struggles are oppressions that no single person should ever have to endure. We can also see this operation in Paris is Burning by the bond that the drag queens create after coming together to battle against the many oppressions and racist/sexist actions that they all experience. Similar to the Combahee River Collective, the houses in the film experience exclusion and rejection, not only from their families but also from society for their gender expression and sexual orientations.