Angela Davis Women Race And Class Summary

Third wave feminism has gained a lot of momentum these past couple years, yet despite its progress the movement is still currently lacking the practice of intersectionality. Essentially, practicing intersectionality within the feminist movement means examining how women of different backgrounds experience oppression and then prioritizing the most oppressed groups of people. Due to fact that the mainstream feminist movement fails to exercise intersectionality, black women around the country are continuing to join together to form exclusive black feminist groups as they had in the past because they feel as though they aren't getting the attention they need. A often overlooked issue relating to this can be connected back to how school curriculums

The article begins with Davis recognizing a few of the women who were fighting for black rights as well as women’s rights between 1960’s to 1980’s, such as Julia Wilder, Maggie Bozeman. She shares their stories and then concludes with how their sacrifices to the movement were left unnoticed by our predominantly white patriarchal society. Although her delivery was bold, she clarifies her message by stating “I am mentioning these women not for the purpose of criticizing anyone, but in order to point out the big gaps in the information that is available to us and some of the problems that we have to overcome if we are going to be able to establish the most effective women's movement and the most effective approach to women's studies” (Davis 34). With that statement she wanted to explain her intent was not to judge anyone for not knowing who the black feminists were or their contributions,but that she simply just gives an example of the “gaps in the information” that we have given to us. Although this article was written in 1982, the issues Davis presented are still prominent in our nation today. The achievements and struggles of many black feminists are still lost in history and these women have yet to get the recognition they

In schools all around the country, students are required to take some sort of American history class. There are almost always sections in these classes that teach about the black civil rights movement, as well as the women's rights movement. Textbooks used in the courses commonly speak about public figures such as Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott, or about Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther king Jr, all popularly known as influential black rights and women’s rights activists. While they do include women who are fighting for equality, as well as African Americans protest for the end of slavery, segregation, and racism, black women tend to be left out of the conversation. Often, there is no representation of any of the black women who fought for the feminist movement, rather the texts only include stories of white, middle class women. In general our society rarely mentions the contributions of these black feminists and focuses solely on the white feminists involvement. It is important to include all sides of the story when teaching the younger generation, that way there are no biased opinions and students can get a clear truthful understanding about the history of the women's rights