Inclusive scholarly works routinely omit black women critics on claimed ignorance

Evidence

Sojourner Truth was not the only black woman to advocate social equality for women. Her eagerness to speak publicly in favor of women’s rights despite public disapproval and resistance paved the way for other politically-minded black women to express their views. Sexism and racism have so informed the perspective of American historiographers that they have tended to overlook and exclude the effort of black women in discussions of the American women’s rights movement. White female scholars who support feminist ideology have also ignored the contribution of black women. In contemporary works, like The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism by Barbara Berg, Herstory by June Sochen, Hidden from History by Sheila Rowbothan, The Women’s Movement by Barbara Deckard, to name a few, the role black women played as advocates for women’s rights in the 19th century is never mentioned. Eleanor Flexner’s Century of Struggle, which was first published in 1959, remains one of the very few book-length historical works on the women’s rights movement that documents the participation of black women. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 463 (#expands, via linked claim)

In a feminist classroom, especially a Women’s Studies course, the black student, who has had no previous background in feminist studies, usually finds that she or he is in a class that is predominantly white (often attended by a majority of outspoken young, white, radical feminists, many of whom link this politic to issues of gay rights). Unfamiliarity with the issues may lead black students to feel at a disadvantage both academically and culturally (they may not be accustomed to public discussions of sexual practice). If a black student acknowledges that she is not familiar with the work of Audre Lorde and the rest of the class gasps as though this is unthinkable and reprehensible, that gasp evokes the sense that feminism is really a private cult whose members are usually white. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 210 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Historians have systematically omitted black women from accounts of feminist history — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 463; Historians have excluded black women from accounts of the women’s rights movement; Black women’s experiences were ignored and ridiculed as unworthy of study (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Historians have systematically omitted black women from accounts of feminist history #expands (0.93) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 463
• Historians have excluded black women from accounts of the women’s rights movement #expands (0.90)
• Canonical ignorance is policed socially in feminist classrooms, alienating black newcomers #expands (0.88) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 210
• Black women’s experiences were ignored and ridiculed as unworthy of study #expands (0.85)
• Anti-intellectualism and academic exclusion silence Black women from both ends #expands (0.85)
• White feminists excluded black women by analogy rather than overt discrimination #expands (0.84) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 420
• Both academic gatekeeping and anti-intellectualism reinforce black women’s oppression #expands (0.82) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 147
• Feminist scholarship on race often fails to interrogate the writer’s own location #qualifies (0.80) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 161
• White-scholarship findings about women workers were misapplied to Black women #exemplifies (0.78) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 229