Black leaders resist acknowledging black male sexism to avoid complicating anti-racist efforts.

Evidence

Black leaders, male and female, have been unwilling to acknowledge black male sexist oppression of black women because they do not want to acknowledge that racism is not the only oppressive force in our lives. Nor do they wish to complicate efforts to resist racism by acknowledging that black men can be victimized by racism but at the same time act as sexist oppressors of black women. Consequently there is little acknowledgement of sexist oppression in black male/female relationships as a serious problem. Exaggerated emphasis on the impact of racism on black men has evoked an image of the black male as effete, emasculated, crippled. And so intensely does this image dominate American thinking that people are absolutely unwilling to admit that the damaging effects of racism on black men neither prevents them from being sexist oppressors nor excuses or justifies their sexist oppression of black women. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 247

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to hooks’s earlier argument on how the anti-racist struggle and patriarchy interact within the black liberation movement. — connects to: Black leaders sacrificed feminism to appear conservative and gain racial acceptance — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 510; Black male leaders treated gender equality as secondary to racial struggle — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 506; Black liberation requires fighting sexism as much as racism — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 347 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Black women faced pressure from both whites and blacks to separate racism from sexism #corroborates (0.80) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 46
• Black liberation requires fighting sexism as much as racism #complicates (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 347
• Scholars frame black women’s organizing as anti-racist, not feminist #corroborates (0.65) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 466
• Black women’s silence on sexism stemmed from socialization that devalued their femaleness #expands (0.50)