Racist, sexist socialization conditioned black women to devalue femaleness and identify only with race

Evidence

Contemporary black women could not join together to fight for women’s rights because we did not see “womanhood” as an important aspect of our identity. Racist, sexist socialization had conditioned us to devalue our femaleness and to regard race as the only relevant label of identification. In other words, we were asked to deny a part of ourselves—and we did. Consequently, when the women’s movement raised the issue of sexist oppression, we argued that sexism was insignificant in light of the harsher, more brutal reality of racism. We were afraid to acknowledge that sexism could be just as oppressive as racism. We clung to the hope that liberation from racial oppression would be all that was necessary for us to be free. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 24

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism by which black women’s silence on sexism was produced—socialization that denigrates femaleness.
• XREF: connects to: Educated women of color who disavow blackness pass that pathology on to students; A racist and classist feminism merely perpetuates women’s bondage to patriarchy. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 457; Black women named their race in group titles because exclusion forced it — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 470 (+10 more)

Related

• Black women’s silence on sexism stemmed from socialization that devalued their femaleness (similarity 0.92)
• Sexist-racist socialization convinced black women their interests were not worth fighting for. (similarity 0.92)
• Fear of being alone drove black women to accept black male sexism (similarity 0.89)
• Black women experienced sexist oppression distinct from racism (similarity 0.89)
• The women’s movement failed to analyze black women’s sexist oppression (similarity 0.89)
• Awareness of sexist discrimination does not equal eliminating sexist oppression (similarity 0.89)
• Twentieth-century black women learned to accept sexism as natural fact (similarity 0.88)
• Understanding black women’s status requires analyzing race and sex together (similarity 0.87)
• White feminists dismissed black women’s attention to racial difference (similarity 0.86)
• The women-and-blacks analogy erased black women by equating women with whites (similarity 0.86)
• Black liberation requires fighting sexism as much as racism (similarity 0.86)
• A racist and classist feminism merely perpetuates women’s bondage to patriarchy. (similarity 0.85)
• Feminism must combat domination across sex, race, and class, not just male chauvinism (similarity 0.85)
• Black women needed a separate feminist intellectual tradition (similarity 0.85)
• All American women are socialized racist, classist, and sexist regardless of feminist labels. (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Black women’s silence on sexism stemmed from socialization that devalued their femaleness #corroborates (0.90)
• Sexist-racist socialization convinced black women their interests were not worth fighting for. #expands (0.80) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 40
• American women perpetuate the very racism and sexism that oppress them #expands (0.70)
• The 1950s, not the 70s black macho, socialized black women into sexist roles #qualifies (0.70)
• The women-and-blacks analogy erased black women by equating women with whites #expands (0.65)
• Twentieth-century black women learned to accept sexism as natural fact #expands (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 29