Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowermen
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Perspectives on Gender) Hardcover – 9 Dec. 1999 by Patricia Hill Collins
In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. The result is a superbly crafted book that provides the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought.
Review
"With the publication of Black Feminist Thought, black feminism has moved to a new level. Her work sets a standard for the discussion of black women's lives, experiences, and thought that demands rigorous attention to the complexity of these experiences and an exploration of a multiplicity of responses." -- Women's Review ofBooks
"A superbly crafted book that provides the first synthetic review of black feminst thought." -- Feminist BookstoreNews
"The book argues convincingly that black feminists be given, in the words immortalized by Aretha Franklin, a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T...Those with an appetite for scholarese will find Hill's book delicious." -- BlackEnterprise
"The author discusses how knowledge can foster African-American women's empowerment. In line with her own deepened understanding of the issues since the first edition, she emphasizes Black feminist thought's purpose in fostering both empowerment and conditions of social justice, provides a more complex analysis of oppression, and places greater stress on the connections between knowledge and power relations. New themes include the nation as a form of oppression, as well as a transnational, global dimension. Topics are organized under the headings of the social construction of Black feminist thought, core themes, and Black Feminism, knowledge, and power." -- Book News, Inc.
About the Author
Patricia Hill Collins is Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Professor in the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She had published many articles in professional journals and edited volumes. Since the publication of Black Feminist Thought in 1990, she has published Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology, (co-edited with Margaret Andersen), She is also the author of Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search forJustice (1998).