Black women named their race in group titles because exclusion forced it

Evidence

Because of white racial imperialism, white women could organize groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Young Women’s Christian Association, General Federation of Women’s Clubs, without explicitly stating in their heading that these organizations were exclusively white. Black women identified themselves racially calling their groups Colored Women’s League, National Federation of Afro-American Women, National Association for Colored Women, and because they identified themselves by race scholars assume that their interest in the elevation of blacks as a group overshadowed their involvement with woman’s effort to effect social reform. In fact, black female reform organizations were solidly rooted in the women’s movement. It was in reaction to the racism of white women and to the fact that the U.S. remained a society with an apartheid social structure that compelled black women to focus on themselves rather than all women. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 470

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why black women’s organizations identified by race while white groups needed no such label.
• XREF: Connects to chapter 2’s treatment of how white women’s privilege let them ignore race. — connects to: White women’s clubs excluded black women even from token recognition — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 379; Black women organized separately after white women’s racism barred them; Generic terms in suffrage histories suppress the exclusion of black women. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 36 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Black women organized separately after white women’s racism barred them #expands (0.85)
• Black women needed a separate feminist intellectual tradition #expands (0.75)
• Early second-wave feminism was dominated by white women who excluded black women #corroborates (0.75) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 405
• Generic terms in suffrage histories suppress the exclusion of black women. #expands (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 36
• White women’s linguistic erasure of black women served their own political interests #corroborates (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 416
• Scholars frame black women’s organizing as anti-racist, not feminist #expands (0.65) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 466
• White feminists excluded black women by analogy rather than overt discrimination #contradicts (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 420
• Racist, sexist socialization conditioned black women to devalue femaleness and identify only with race #qualifies (0.55) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 24