Black Women Politics of Care

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Across the Black diaspora, Black women organizing for social transformation and against interlocking structures of power within non-Black feminist and Black social movements have historically had to contend with the anti-Black racism, patriarchy, and cis-hetero-sexist politics prevalent in these movement spaces. Black feminist writers, artists, and activists have long reflected on how participating in these ostensibly “broader” social movements has not only required the compartmentalization of their intersecting identities, but has also curtailed more robust and expansive conceptions of liberation. Focusing on the Americas, this course will explore the contours, challenges, and violences of the historical expectation for Black women (cis and trans) to sacrifice their unique racialized and gendered interests in the name of “collective care.” In conversation with multi-media Black feminist texts and ethnographic writing on Black women’s social organizing, we will critically interrogate the racialized and gendered concept of care, its political utility, and the uneven distribution of this form of social labor. The course will also investigate alternative spheres beyond traditional social movement spaces, such as art and literature, through which Black women have been able to articulate and center their specific needs and experiences.