Words of Fire (86 page)

If there is much in the objective condition of black women that warrants the development of a black feminist consciousness, why have so many black women failed to recognize the patterns of sexism that directly impinge on their everyday lives? Why have they failed to address a social force that unremittingly thwarts their ability to compete on an equal basis in the society?

Five factors have contributed to this situation. The most formidable is that many black intellectuals and spokespeople have ignored the issue of sexism, largely because it has been viewed as a racially divisive issue. That is, a feminist consciousness has been regarded as a force that could generate internal conflict between black males and black females. It is this writer's firm conviction that, far from being a source of internecine conflict, a feminist consciousness would contribute to the welfare of the race in a variety of ways:

A second factor that helps to explain the absence of feminist consciousness among black women is the ideology of racism. Racism is so ingrained in American culture, and so entrenched among many white women, that black females have been reluctant to admit that anything affecting the white female could also affect them. Indeed, many black women have tended to see all whites, regardless of sex, as sharing the same objective interest, and clearly the behavior of many white women vis-à-vis blacks has helped to validate this reaction.

A third factor is the message that emerged in the black social movement of the sixties. In one sense, this movement worked to the detriment of black women, because they were told in many different ways that the liberation of the black man was more important than was their own liberation. In fact, they were often given to believe that any attempt on their part to take an equal place with the black man in the movement would contribute to his emasculation.
¹⁹

The idea of black matriarchy, another ideological ploy commonly introduced to academicians and policymakers, is a fourth factor that has suppressed the development of a feminist consciousness among black women. In a nutshell, this view holds that in their conjugal and parental relationships black women are more dominant than black men, and so black and white women relate to their mates in altogether different ways.
²⁰
It is easy to see how this view of black women could be used by some to negate the fact of black female oppression: If the black woman were indeed found to be more dominant than is the black man, this could be construed as meaning that she is not dependent on him and thus not in need of liberation. In fact, scholarly exploration of the issue has revealed the idea of black matriarchy to be mythical and has shown that the relationship of black and white women to their mates is fundamentally similar. And even if a black matriarchy did exist, it would be fallacious to infer from this that the black woman is not sexually oppressed, for her subordination is a derivative of both her family-related role and her position in the productive sphere of the economy. Thus, single and married black women are both placed in positions of subservience whenever they seek employment. Both are subjected
to the manipulative tactics that are used to keep all female laborers —white and black, married and unmarried—in a low economic state compared to male laborers.

What the participants in the debate on black matriarchy fail to recognize is the white bias of their viewpoints. Implicit in their arguments is the idea that any matriarchy is unnatural and deviant. To attach such a pejorative label to matriarchy, and to view the patriarchal form as a positive good or an index of normality, is to accept the normative standard of the larger white society. Given the role that the family plays in supporting and perpetuating existing unequal economic arrangements, it may be fitting for us to question whether it would not be in the best interests of blacks to work out familial relationships that deviate from the conventional patriarchal norm and approximate a more egalitarian pattern, thereby challenging the racial and sexual status quo.

A final factor that has inhibited the development of a feminist consciousness among women in American society in general, and black females in particular, has been the church. Biblical support for sexual inequality is as strong today as it ever was, and the Christian church has played a preeminent role in validating the patriarchal nature of Western culture.
²¹
This is as true in black churches as it is in white ones, although the role of black religion in enchaining black women has been little subject to discussion .
²²
The persistence of patriarchal views in black churches is undoubtedly due in some measure to the fact that most of our noted black theologians are men. But a more important point is that it persists because of the deep religiosity of black people today and the fact that most black religions are basically Christian despite some deviations and modifications. For whatever reason, it is significant that the church is the most important social institution in the black community and the one in which black women (in contrast to black men) spend most of their time and energy. This dedication undoubtedly has contributed in no small part to the black female's passive acceptance of her subservient societal role. Even so-called black nationalist religions, which proffer a different view of the world and a substitute for the teachings of Christianity, have failed to come to terms with the subordination of black women in our society. Indeed, some have even adopted theological preachments designed to stultify the development of female talents and to push women yet further into the traditional servile roles of mother and wife.
²³

In sum, black women in America have been placed in a dependent position vis-à-vis men. The source of their dependence is dual: It originates in the role they have been socialized to play in the family and the discrimination they face when they seek remunerative employment outside the home. Because sexual dependence works to the detriment of the entire race —both male and female—all blacks, regardless of sex, need to recognize
the way in which their behavior, be it familial, marital, occupational, or otherwise, is subject to social control. From this realization they need to develop alternative behavioral norms for themselves and socialization patterns for their offspring that will challenge the distribution of power in America.

The view that racism is the sole cause of black female subordination in America today exhibits a very simplistic view of the black female condition. The economic processes of the society subordinate different groups of workers in different ways, but always for the same end. Because white supremacy and male chauvinism are merely symptoms of the same economic imperatives, it is facile to argue that white pigmentation is the sine qua non for the attainment of power in America, that white women share the same objective interests as white men, and that white women thus have nothing in common with black women. Although whiteness may be a contributory condition for the attainment of social privilege, sex and socio-economic status are contingent conditions. Because color, gender, and wealth are at the present time collective determinants of power and privilege in America, it is almost impossible to disentangle their individual effects. Thus, those who would assert that the elimination of one type of social discrimination should have priority over all others display a naive conceptualization of the nature of power in American society and the multifaceted character of social oppression.

ENDNOTES

1
Examples of literature supporting this perspective are Mae King, “Oppression and Power: The Unique Status of the Black Woman in the American Political System,”
Social Science Quarterly
56 (1975): 116—28; Linda La Rue, “The Black Movement and Women's Liberation,”
Black Scholar
1 (May 1970): 36—42; and Julia Mayo, “The New Black Feminism: A Minority Report,” in
Contemporary Sexual Behavior: Critical Issues in the 1970s,
ed. Joseph Zubin and John Money (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973), 175—86.

2
Notable exceptions are Barbara Sizemore, “Sexism and the Black Male,” B
lack Scholar
4 (March/April 1973): 2—11; Aileen Hernandez, “Small Change for Black Women,”
Ms
. 3 (August 1974): 16—18; Elizabeth Almquist, “Untangling the Effects of Race and Sex: The Disadvantaged Status of Black Women,”
Social Science Quarterly
56 (1975): 129—42; Charmeyne D. Nelson, “Myths about Black Women Workers in Modern America,”
Black Scholar
6 (March 1975): 11—15; and William A. Blakey, “Everybody Makes the Revolution: Some Thoughts on Racism and Sexism,”
Civil Rights Digest
6 (Spring 1974): 11—19.

3
Margaret Bentsen, “The Political Economy of Women's Liberation,”
Monthly Review
21 (September 1970); Juliet Mitchell,
Women's Estate
(New York: Random House, 1971), 99—158; Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy,
Monopoly Capital
(New York: Monthly Review Press, 1966); Gayle Rubin, “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy' of Sex,” in
Toward an Anthropology of Women,
ed. Rayna Reiter (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975), 3; Jean Gardiner, “Women's Domestic Labor,”
New Left Review
89 (January/February 1975): 47—59; and Sheila Rowbotham,
Woman's Consciousness, Man's World
(Baltimore: Penguin, 1974).

4
See, among others, Harold Baron, “The Demand for Black Labor: Historical Notes on the Political Economy of Racism,”
Radical America
5 (March/April 1971): 1—46.

5
For further discussion of black sex-role socialization see, among others, Diane K. Lewis, “The Black Family: Socialization and Sex Roles,”
Phylon
34 (Fall 1975): 221—37; Carlfred Broderick, “Social Heterosexual Development among Urban Negroes and Whites,”
Journal of Marriage and the Family
27 (May 1965): 200—3; Alice R. Gold and M. Carol St. Ange, “Development of Sex-Role Stereotypes in Black and White Elementary Girls,”
Developmental Psychology
10 (May 1974): 461; and Boone E. Hammond and Joyce Ladner, “Socialization into Sexual Behavior in a Negro Slum Ghetto,”in
The Individual, Sex, and Society,
ed. Carlfred B. Broderick and Jesse Bernard (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1969), 41—52.

6
See Almquist's article for more data on this point.

7
See Blau and Winkler.

8
Ibid.

9
Edward A. Nicholson and Roger D. Roderick,
Correlates of Job Attitudes among Young Women
(Columbus: Ohio State University Research Foundation, 1973), 10.

10
Employment and Earnings,
January 1988, 180.

11
Stuart H. Garfinkle, “Occupation of Women and Black Workers, 1962—74,”
Monthly Labor Review
98 (November 1975): 25—35.

12
Almquist, “Untangling the Effects of Race and Sex;” Marion Kilson, “Black Women in the Professions, 1890—1970.”
Monthly Labor Review
100 (May 1977): 38—41: and Diane Nilsen Westcott, “Blacks in the 1970s: Did They Scale the Job Ladder?”
Monthly Labor Review
105 (June 1982): 29—38.

13
Women are 54.7 percent of all black college graduates. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished data from the March 1987 Current Population Survey. Part of the reason for this is that until recently blacks were basically a rural people, and it is generally the case for farmer families to withdraw males from school to work the farm, but not females, since farming is considered to be a male occupation. For further discussion of how this has contributed to present-day disparities in black male and female occupational status, see E. Wilbur Bock, “Farmer's Daughter Effect: The Case of the Negro Female Professionals,”
Phylon
(Spring 1969): 17—26.

14
Andrew Billingsley,
Black Families in White America
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968), 79—82.

15
Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished data from the March 1987 Current Population Survey.

16
Patricia Gurin and Carolyn Gaylord, “Educational and Occupational Goals of Men and Women at Black Colleges,”
Monthly Labor Review
99 (June 1976): 13—14.

17
Patricia Cayo Sexton,
Women and Work,
Employment and Training Administration, R. & D. Monograph no. 46 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Labor, 1977). 15; and Joyce O. Beckett, “Working Wives: A Racial Comparison,”
Social Work
21 (November 1976): 463—71.

18
Janice Porter Gump and L. Wendell Rivers,
The Consideration of Race in Efforts to End Sex Bias
(Washington, D.C.: Department of Health, Education and Welfare, National Institute of Education 1973), 24—25.