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ROUlLEDGE ....I
44 B. Bryan, S. Dadzie and S. Scafe
l Chapter 4
has been a barrier which relatively few Black women have been prepared
to cross:
White woman listen!
I think if you're a Black woman, you've got to begin with racism. It's Black feminism and the boundaries of sisterhood*
not a choice, it's a necessity. There are few Black women around now,
who don't want to deal with that reality and prefer sitting around
talking about their sexual preferences or concentrating on strictly
Hazel V. Carby
women's issues like male violence. But the majority of Black women
would see those kinds of things as 'luxury' issues. What's the point of
taking on male violence if you haven't dealt with state violence? Or rape,
when you can see Black people's bodies and lands being raped everyday
by the system?
Despite such scepticism, not all Black women have chosen to reject The black women's critique of history has not only involved us in coming
feminism as a basis upon which to organize. Recognizing how sexism and to terms with 'absences'; we have also been outraged by the ways in which
reactionary male attitudes towards women have worked to keep us down, it has made us visible, when it has chosen to see us. History has constructed
we have set about the task of redefining the term and claiming it for our sexuality and our femininity as deviating from those qualities with
ourselves. This has meant developing a way of organizing which not only which white women, as the prize objects of the Western world, have been
takes account of our race and our class, but also makes our struggles endowed. We have also been defined in less than human terms. 1 We
against women's oppression central to our practice. cannot hope to constitute ourselves in all our absences, or to rectify the ill-
conceived presences that invade herstory from history, but we do wish to
bear witness to our own herstories. The connections between these and
the herstories of white women will be made and remade in struggle. Black
women have come from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and we cannot do
justice to all their herstories in a single chapter. Neither can we represent
the voices of all black women in Britain, our herstories are too numerous
and too varied. What we will do is to offer ways in which the 'triple'
oppression of gender, race and class can be understood, in their specificity,
and also as they determine the lives of black women.
Much contemporary debate has posed the question of the relation
between race and gender, in terms which attempt to parallel race and
gender divisions. It can be argued that as processes, racism and sexism are
similar. Ideologically for example, they both construct common sense
through reference to 'natural' and 'biological' differences. It has also been
argued that the categories of race and gender are both socially constructed
and that, therefore, they have little internal coherence as concepts. Further-
more, it is possible to parallel racialized and gendered divisions in the
sense that the possibilities of amelioration through legislation appear to
be equally ineffectual in both cases. Michele Barrett, however, has pointed
out that it is not possible to argue for parallels because as soon as historical
analysis is made, it becomes obvious that the institutions which have to
be analysed are different, as are the forms of analysis needed. 2 We would

l&
1.· ~
.
•This chapter is a series of excerpts from The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (eds)
(1982) The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain, Hutchinson, London, pp. 212-35.
I
'
 ~·

White woman listen! 47

agree that the construction of such parallels is fruitless and often proves opportunities as white girls. This is because they believe that Asian girls
to be little more than a mere acadell\ic exercise; but there are other reasons will be forced into marriage immediately after leaving school.
for our dismissal of these kinds of debate. The experience of black women The use of the concept of 'dependency' is also a problem for black
does not enter the parameters of parallelism. The fact that black women feminists. It has been argued that this concept provides the link between
are subject to the simultaneous oppression of patriarchy, class and 'race' is the 'material organization of the household, and the ideology of feminin-
the prime reason for not employing parallels that render their position and ity'. How then can we account for situations in which black women may
experience not only marginal but also invisible. be heads of households, or where, because of an economic system which
We can point to no single source for our oppression. When white structures high black male unemployment, they are not financially de-
feminists emphasize patriarchy alone, we want to redefine the term and pendent upon a black man? This condition exists in both colonial and
metropolitan situations. Ideologies of black female domesticity and
make it a more complex concept. Racism ensures that black men do not
motherhood have been constructed, through their employment (or chattel
have the same relations to patriarchal/ capitalist hierarchies as white men.
position) as domestics and surrogate mothers to white families rather than
It is only in the writings by black feminists that we can find attempts to
in relation to their own families. West Indian women still migrate to the
theorize the interconnection of class, gender and race as it occurs in our
United States and Canada as domestics and in Britain are seen to be
lives and it has only been in the autonomous organizations of black women suitable as office cleaners, National Health Service domestics, etc. In
that we have been able to express and act upon the experiences consequent colonial situations Asian women have frequently been forced into prostitu-
upon these determinants .... Black feminists have been, and are still, tion to sexually service the white male invaders, whether in the form of
demanding that the existence of racism must be acknowledged as a armies of occupation or employees and guests of multinational cor-
structuring feature of our relationships with white women. Both white porations. How then, in view of all this, can it be argued that black male
feminist theory and practice have to recognize that white women stand in dominance exists in the same forms as white male dominance? Systems of
a power relation as oppressors of black women. This compromises any slavery, colonialism, imperialism, have systematically denied positions in
feminist theory and practice founded on the notion of simple equality. the white male hierarchy to black men and have used specific forms of
Three concepts which are central to feminist theory become problematic terror to oppress them.
in their application to black women's lives: 'the family', 'patriarchy' and Black family structures have been seen as pathological by the state and
'reproduction'. When used they are placed in a context of the hers tory of are in the process of being constructed as pathological within white
white (frequently middle-class) women and become contradictory when feminist theory. Here, ironically, the Western nuclear family structure and
applied to the lives and experiences of black women. In a recent compre- related ideologies of 'romantic love' formed under capitalism, are seen as
hensive survey of contemporary feminist theory, Women's Oppression more 'progressive' than black family structures. An unquestioned
Today, Michele Barrett sees the contemporary family (effectively the family common-sense racism constructs Asian girls and women as having
under capitalism) as the source of oppression of women. absolutely no freedom, whereas English girls are thought to be in a more
We would not wish to deny that the family can be a source of oppression 'liberated' society and culture.
for us but we also wish to examine how the black family has functioned The media's 'horror stories' about Asian girls and arranged marriages
as a prime source of resistance to oppression. We need to recognize that i bear very little relation to their experience. The 'feminist' version of this
' ~.

during slavery, periods of colonialism and under the present authoritarian ideology presents Asian women as being in need of liberation, not in terms
state, the black family has been a site of political and cultural resistance to of their own herstory and needs, but into the 'progressive' social mores
racism. Furthermore, we cannot easily separate the two forms of op- and customs of the metropolitan West.
pression because racist theory and practice is frequently gender-specific. Too often concepts of historical progress are invoked by the left and
Ideologies of black female sexuality do not stem primarily from the black feminists alike, to create a sliding scale of 'civilized liberties'. When
family. The way the gender of black women is constructed differs from barbarous sexual practices are to be described the 'Third World' is placed
constructions of white femininity because it is also subject to racism. on display and compared to the 'First World' which is seen as more
Black women are constantly challenging these ideologies in their day-to- 'enlightened' or 'progressive'.
day struggles. Asian girls in schools, for example, are fighting back to For example, in an article comparing socialist societies, Maxine
destroy the racist myth of their femininity. As Pratibha Parmar has pointed Molyneux falls straight into this trap of 'Third Worldism' as 'backward-
out, careers officers do not offer them the same interviews and job ness'.3 Molyneux implies that since 'Third World' women are outside of
 ~
48 Hazel V. Carby White woman listen! 49

capitalist relations of production, entering capitalist relations is, neces- single career woman'. 5 Yet black women bridged this division. They were
sarily, an emancipating move. This view of imperialism will be addressed viewed simultaneously as workers and as wives and mothers. Elizabeth
in more detail later in the chapter. At this point we wish to indicate that Wilson stresses that the post-war debate over the entry of women into the
the use of such theories reinforces the view that when black women enter labour force occurred within the parameters of the question of possible
Britain they are moving into a more liberated or enlightened or eman- effects on family life. She argues that 'wives and mothers were granted
cipated society than the one from which they have come. entry into paid work only so long as this did not harm the family'. Yet
If we take patriarchy and apply it to various colonial situations it is women from Britain's reserve army of labour in the colonies were
equally unsatisfactory because it is unable to explain why black males have recruited into the labour force far beyond any such considerations. Rather
not enjoyed the benefits of white patriarchy. There are very obvious power than a concern to protect or preserve the black family in Britain, the state
structures in both colonial and slave social formations and they are reproduced common-sense notions of its inherent pathology: black women
predominantly patriarchal. However, the historically specific forms of were seen to fail as mothers precisely because of their position as workers.
racism force us to modify or alter the application of the term 'patriarchy' to One important struggle, rooted in these different ideological mechan-
black men. Black women have been dominated 'patriarchally' in different isms, which determine racially differentiated representations of gender,
ways by men of different 'colours'. has been the black woman's battle to gain control over her own sexuality
In questioning the application of the concepts of 'the family' and in the face of racist experimentation with the contraceptive Depo-Provera
'patriarchy' we also need to problematize the use of the concept of and enforced sterilizations. 6
'reproduction'. In using this concept in relation to the domestic labour of It is not just our hers tory before we came to Britain that has been ignored
black women we find that in spite of its apparent simplicity it must be by white feminists, our experiences and struggles here have also been
dismantled. What does the concept of reproduction mean in a situation ignored. These struggles and experiences, because they have been struc-
where black women have done domestic labour outside of their own tured by racism, have been different to those of white women. Black
homes in the servicing of white families? In this example they lie outside feminists decry the non-recognition of the specificities of black women's
of the industrial wage relation but in a situation where they are providing sexuality and femininity, both in the ways these are constructed and also
for the reproduction of black labour in their own domestic sphere, as they are addressed through practices which oppress black women in a
simultaneously ensuring the reproduction of white labour power in the gender-specific but none the less racist way.
'white' household. The concept, in fact, is unable to explain exactly what Black feminists in the US have complained of the ignorance, in the white
the relations are that need to be revealed. What needs to be understood is, women's movement, of black women's lives. In Britain too it is as if we
first, precisely how the black woman's role in a rural, industrial or domestic don't exist. The accusation that racism in the women's movement acted so
labour force affects the construction of ideologies of black female sexuality; as to exclude the participation of black women, has led to an explosion of
and second, how this role relates to the black woman's struggle for control debate in the USA.
over her own sexuality. US black feminist criticism has been no more listened to than indigenous
If we examine the recent herstory of women in post-war Britain we can black feminist criticism. Yet, bell hooks's 7 powerful critique has con-
see the ways in which the inclusion of black women creates problems for siderable relevance to British feminists. White women in the British WLM
hasty generalization. In pointing to the contradiction between 'home- are extraordinarily reluctant to see themselves in the situation of being
making as a career' and the campaign to recruit women into the labour oppressors, as they feel that this will be at the expense of concentrating
force during post-war reconstruction, Elizabeth Wilson4 fails to perceive upon being oppressed. Consequently the involvement of British women
migration of black women to Britain as the solution to these contradictory in imperialism and colonialism is repressed and the benefits that they- as
needs. whites - gained from the oppression of black people ignored. Forms of
Black women were recruited more heavily into some of these areas than imperialism are simply identified as aspects of an all embracing patriarchy

_,
others. Afro-Caribbean women, for example, were encouraged and chose rather than as sets of social relations in which white women hold positions
to come to Britain precisely to work. Ideologically they were seen as of power by virtue of their 'race'.
'naturally' suitable for the lowest paid, most menial jobs. Elizabeth Wilson The benefits of a white skin did not just apply to a handful of cotton,
goes on to explain that 'work and marriage were still understood as tea or sugar plantation mistresses; all women in Britain benefited -
alternatives . . . two kinds of women . . . a wife and a mother or a . in varying degrees - from the economic exploitation of the colonies. The
'
 -
50 Hazel V. Carby White woman listen! 51

pro-imperialist attitudes of many nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century of women but ignore our lives and deny their relation to us, that is the
feminists and suffragists have yet to be acknowledged for their racist moment in which they are acting within the relations of racism and writing
implications. However, apart from this herstorical work, the exploration history.
of contemporary racism within the white feminist movement in Britain
has yet to begin.
Feminist theory in Britain is almost wholly Eurocentric and, when it is CONSTRUCTING ALTERNATIVES
not ignoring the experience of black women 'at home', it is trundling Concepts which allow for specificity, whilst at the same time providing
'Third World women' onto the stage only to perform as victims of cross-cultural reference points - not based in assumptions of inferiority -
'barbarous', 'primitive' practices in 'barbarous', 'primitive' societies. are urgently needed in feminist work. The work of Gayle Rubin 9 and her
It should be noted that much feminist work suffers from the assumption use of discrete 'sex/ gender systems' appears to provide such a potential,
that it is only through the development of a Western-style industrial particularly in the possibility of applying the concept within as well as
capitalism and the resultant entry of women into waged labour that the
between societies.
potential for the liberation of women can increase. For example, foot-
This concept of sex/ gender systems offers the opportunity to be
binding, clitoridectomy, female 'circumcision' and other forms of mutila-
historically and culturally specific but also points to the position of relative
tion of the female body have been described as 'feudal residues', existing
autonomy of the sexual realm. It enables the subordination of women to
in economically 'backward' or 'underdeveloped' nations (i.e. not the
be seen as a 'product of the relationships by which sex and gender are
industrialized West). Arranged marriages, polygamy and these forms of
organized and produced'. Thus, in order to account for the development
mutilation are linked in reductionist ways to a lack of technological
of specific forms of sex/ gender systems, reference must be made not only
development.
to the mode of production but also to the complex totality of specific social
However, theories of 'feudal residues' or of 'traditionalism' cannot
explain the appearance of female 'circumcision' and clitoridectomy in the formations within which each system develops.
What are commonly referred to as 'arranged marriages' can, then, be
United States at the same moment as the growth and expansion of
industrial capital. Between the establishment of industrial capitalism and viewed as the way in which a particular sex/ gender system organizes the
'exchange of women'. Similarly, transformations of sex/gender systems
the transformation to monopoly capitalism, the United States, under the
brought about by colonial oppression, and the changes in kinship patterns
influence of English biological science, saw the control of medical practice
which result from migration, must be assessed on their own terms, not just
shift from the hands of women into the hands of men. This is normally
regarded as a 'progressive' technological advance, though this newly in comparative relation to other sex/ gender systems. In this way patterns
of subordination of women can be understood historically, rather than
established medical science was founded on the control and manipulation
being dismissed as the inevitable product of pathological family struc-
of the female body. This was the period in which links were formed
between hysteria and hysterectomy in the rationalization of the 'psycho- tures.
logy of the ovary'. B At this point we can begin to make concrete the black feminist plea to
These operations are hardly rituals left over from a pre-capitalist mode white feminists to begin with our different herstories. Contact with white
societies has not generally led to a more 'progressive' change in African
of production. On the contrary, they have to be seen as part of the
'technological' advance in what is now commonly regarded as the most and Asian sex/ gender systems. Colonialism attempted to destroy kinship
'advanced' capitalist economy in the world. Both in the USA and in Britain, patterns that were not modelled on nuclear family structures, disrupting,
black women still have a 'role'- as in the use of Depo-Provera on them- in the process, female organizations that were based upon kinship systems
in medical experimentation. Outside of the metropoles, black women are which allowed more power and autonomy to women than those of the
at the mercy of the multinational drug companies, whose quest for profit colonizing nation.
is second only to the cause of 'advancing' Western science and medical In concentrating solely upon the isolated position of white women in
knowledge. Y· the Western nuclear family structure, feminist theory has necessarily
neglected the very strong female support networks that exist in many

!
The herstory of black women is interwoven with that of white women
but this does not mean that they are the same story. Nor do we need white ;~( black sex/ gender systems. These have often been transformed by the
feminists to write our herstory for us, we can and are doing that for . march of technological 'progress' intended to relieve black women from
'

ourselves. However, when they write their herstory and call it the story .
aspects of their labour.
'
 ___..........--

White woman listen! 53

In contrast to feminist work that focuses upon the lack of technology NOTES
and household mechanical aids in the lives of these women, Leghorn and 1 W. Jordan, White Over Black, London, Penguin, 1969, pp. 238,495,500.
Parker 10 concentrate upon the aspects of labour that bring women to- 2 My thanks to Michele Barrett who, in a talk given at the Social Science Research
gether. It is important not to romanticize the existence of such female Council's Unit on Ethnic Relations, helped to clarify many of these attempted
support networks but they do provide a startling contrast to the isolated parallels.
3 M. Molyneux 'Socialist Societies Old and New: Progress Towards Women's
position of women in the Euro-American nuclear family structure. Emancipation?' in Feminist Review, no. 8, Summer, p. 3.
In Britain, strong female support networks continue in both West Indian 4 E. Wilson, Only Halfway to Paradise: Women in Postwar Britain 1945-1968,
and Asian sex/ gender systems, though these are ignored by sociological London, Tavistock, 1980.
studies of migrant black women. This is not to say that these systems 5 Ibid., pp. 43-4.
6 OWAAD, Fowaad, no. 2, 1979.
remain unchanged with migration. New circumstances require adaptation 7 b. hooks, Ain't I a Woman, Boston, Mass., South End Press, 1981, p.138.
and new survival strategies have to be found. However, the transforma- 8 B. Erenreich and D. English, For Her Own Good, New York, Doubleday Anchor,
tions that occur are not merely adaptive, neither is the black family 1979.
destroyed in the process of change. Female networks mean that black 9 G. Rubin, 'The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex' in
R.R. Reiter (ed.) Towards an Anthropology of Women, New York, Monthly Review
women are key figures in the development of survival strategies, both in
Press, p. 167.
the past, through periods of slavery and colonialism, and now, facing a 10 L. Leghorn and K. Parker, Women's Worth, Sexual Economics and the World of
racist and authoritarian state. Women, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981, p. 44.
Families do not simply accept the isolation, loss of status, and cultural 11 M. Davis Caufield, 'Cultures of Resistance' in Socialist Revolution, vol. 4, no. 2,
devaluation involved in the migration. Networks are re-formed, if need October 1974, pp. 81, 84.
be with non-kin or on the basis of an extended definition of kinship, by
strong, active, and resourceful women. Cultures of resistance are not
simple adaptive mechanisms; they embody important alternative ways of
organizing production and reproduction and value systems critical of the
oppressor. Recognition of the special position of families in these cultures
and social structures can lead to new forms of struggle, new goals. 11
In arguing that feminism must take account of the lives, herstories and
experiences of black women we are not advocating that teams of white
feminists should descend upon Brixton, Southall, Bristol or Liverpool to
take black women as objects of study in modes of resistance. We don't
need that kind of intrusion on top of all the other information-gathering
forces that the state has mobilized in the interest of 'race relations'. White
women have been used against black women in this way before and
feminists must learn from history. The WLM, however, does need to listen
to the work of black feminists and to take account of autonomous
organizations like OWAAD (Organization of Women of Asian and African
Descent) who are helping to articulate the ways in which we are oppressed
as black women.
Black women do not want to be grafted onto 'feminism' in a tokenistic
manner as colourful diversions to 'real' problems. Feminism has to be
transformed if it is to address us. Neither do we wish our words to be
misused in generalities as if what each one of us utters represents the total
experience of all black women ...

~
;;.k
In other words, of white feminists we must ask, what exactly do you ..
mean when you say 'WE'??