Black women supported feminism more strongly than white women in 1972

Evidence

Yet a Louis Harris Virginia Slims poll conducted in 1972 revealed that sixty-two percent of black women supported efforts to change woman’s status in society as compared to forty-five percent of white women, and that sixty-seven percent of black women were sympathetic to women’s liberation groups compared with only thirty-five percent of white women. The findings of the Harris poll suggest it is not opposition to feminist ideology that has caused black women to reject involvement in the women’s movement. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 439

As a group, black women were not opposed to social equality between the sexes but they were not eager to join with white women to organize a feminist movement. The 1972 Virginia Slims American Women’s Opinion Poll showed that more black women supported changes in the status of women in society than white women. Yet their support of feminist issues did not lead them as a collective group to actively participate in the women’s liberation movement. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 547

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concrete falsifiable data point grounding hooks’ core argument that Black women rejected the movement’s execution, not feminism itself.
• QUESTION: The 1972 Virginia Slims poll is a specific data point worth chasing down for the exact numbers and methodology.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 439; bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 547
• XREF: connects to: White middle-class women are less oppressed than poor or black women — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 427; Racial alliances superseded feminist solidarity between black and white women — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 507; White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference

Related

• Black women rejected the movement’s execution, not feminism’s ideology. (similarity 0.87)
• White middle-class women are less oppressed than poor or black women (similarity 0.86)
• Both white and black patriarchies framed feminism as opposition to black liberation. (similarity 0.86)
• Most black women chose the black patriarchy over the feminist movement. (similarity 0.85)
• Standard reasons for black women’s nonparticipation fail historical scrutiny. (similarity 0.84)
• The women’s movement failed to analyze black women’s sexist oppression (similarity 0.84)
• White dominance in feminism reflects racial imperialism, not black disinterest (similarity 0.84)
• The women’s rights movement exposed white women’s refusal to surrender white supremacy. (similarity 0.83)
• In the 1930s black and white women pursued divergent political priorities (similarity 0.83)
• Racial alliances superseded feminist solidarity between black and white women (similarity 0.83)
• Early black feminists were isolated from both black communities and the white feminist movement (similarity 0.83)
• White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference (similarity 0.83)
• Historians have excluded black women from accounts of the women’s rights movement (similarity 0.82)
• The mainstream women’s movement was deliberately structured around white middle-class interests. (similarity 0.82)
• Black women faced pressure from both whites and blacks to separate racism from sexism (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Racial alliances superseded feminist solidarity between black and white women #complicates (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 507
• White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference #corroborates (0.50)