BLACK FEMINISM: BLACK WOMEN PAVING THEIR OWN WAY TO EQUALITY

Abstract

This portfolio is a collection of three essays written throughout graduate coursework within a concentration entitled "Identity, Oppressive Systems, and the Fight for Social Change." The essays examine black feminists' voices within social equality discourses from the 1970s through the 1990s, and set out to show how these voices stretched the boundaries of racial and gender equality discourses. By incorporating subjective methodologies and epistemologies, black feminists asserted their emotive experiences as proof of the uniqueness of intersectional oppression, forcing black men and white women and to confront black women's reality living under a racist patriarchal society. Furthermore, the papers show a comprehensive history of black feminist theory, crafted by black women such as Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins, Joan Morgan. The portfolio, composed in chronological order, is meant to show how black feminist theory changed over time and how black feminist voices expanded social equality discourses to become more inclusive.