During the color feminist movements from the late 1970s into the early 1980s many individuals like Jo Carrillo and Combahee River Collective along with organizations like the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) strived to promote their beliefs and bring light to their projects. Carrillo wrote a poem: “And When You Leave Take Your Pictures With You: Racism in the Women’s Movement” speaking about how “white sisters radical friends” (Carrillo) like to portray colored individuals in a brighter light instead of seeing the reality of how their lives are actually pictured. Keeanga- Yamahtta Taylor on the other hand writes about how a Black feminist lesbian socialist group played a role in informing individuals on their goals while also promoting their movements, beliefs and goals. Although these two authors/poets tackle African American oppressions differently, both of them were able to provide a deeper understanding of how the 1970s played out for women of color.
Carrillo starts off her poem with this line: “Our white sisters radical friends” and continues to reuse it over and over again throughout the whole poem. I believe this is so because she wants to emphasize how white women fantasies colored women as “sisters and/or friends” as if they are not seen as beneath them. The point of the poem is to show the reality of how colored women exist from a day to day basis as well as how they are treated. If white women saw colored women “in the flesh not as a picture they own, they are not quite as sure if they like us as much. We’re not as happy as we look on their wall” (Carrillo). The point of the poem is to put in the perspective of colored women to show that the reality of their lives is not all sunshine and rainbows.
Similarly in “The Combahee River Collective Statement”, Taylor speaks on how and why feminist individuals cultivated a group that was dedicated to bringing in change towards the women’s movement. The National Black Feminist Organization discusses four major topics regarding Black feminism: “1. the genesis of contemporary Black feminism 2. what we believe, the specific province of our politics 3. the problems in organizing Black feminists, including a brief history of our collective 4. Black feminist issues and practice” (Taylor). By doing this, the group provides knowledge about their organization and the underlying problem within society that they are aiming to fix and fight for.
These two individual women touch on the topics and issues of racism and inequality of colored women in different ways. Although both took a unique approach, Carrillo and Taylor were able to address the bitterness that Black feminist felt during the ate 1970s into the early 1980s.
Hello Tracy,
It’s interesting and ignorant of the fact how women of color is viewed by white women being that all women are oppressed and should understand twice the oppression women of color face everyday. I can understand why black women referred them as our white sisters or radical friends. I believe at that time white women were inferior to black women and did not know how to respond as others ethnic groups. i believe they could not relate even if the one thing they ignored which is female oppression. Ignorance of this matter is a crisis and must be beginning of educating equality not division.