BlkWom Org Pol ofCare AfDias

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 had to contend with racism, patriarchy, and cisheterosexist politics within these movement spaces. Black feminist writers, artists, and activists have reflected on how participating in white feminist movements and Black social movements has often required the compartmentalization of their intersecting identities. This course will explore the contours and challenges of the historical expectation for Black women to sacrifice their unique racialized and gendered interests for the ostensibly “broader” causes of feminist and Black liberation and collective care. Students will read key texts in Black feminist theory and ethnographic studies on Black women’s social organizing to identify the advances and roadblocks they have experienced within feminist and Black social movements. 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.