{"title":"The Combahee River Collective Statement and Black Feminist Universalism","authors":"J. Shorter-Bourhanou","doi":"10.5325/critphilrace.12.2.0347","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Black feminist philosophers deserve to be included in philosophical discussions about universalism. In contrast to other approaches to universalism that seek to diminish the importance of identities such as race and gender, black feminist philosophers focus on them. This article argues that black feminist philosophers offer a universalist viewpoint, that is, a “black feminist universalism,” which asserts that a more inclusive world starts with a theory and praxis focused on those who are the most oppressed. The article shows that the Combahee River Collective writers in their manifesto, “A Black Feminist Statement” (1995) demonstrate black feminist universalism. It argues that the Combahee River Collective writers’ emphasis on their own identity as black women is the foundation for their theory and praxis, which aims to include others.","PeriodicalId":43337,"journal":{"name":"Critical Philosophy of Race","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Philosophy of Race","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5325/critphilrace.12.2.0347","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ETHNIC STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Black feminist philosophers deserve to be included in philosophical discussions about universalism. In contrast to other approaches to universalism that seek to diminish the importance of identities such as race and gender, black feminist philosophers focus on them. This article argues that black feminist philosophers offer a universalist viewpoint, that is, a “black feminist universalism,” which asserts that a more inclusive world starts with a theory and praxis focused on those who are the most oppressed. The article shows that the Combahee River Collective writers in their manifesto, “A Black Feminist Statement” (1995) demonstrate black feminist universalism. It argues that the Combahee River Collective writers’ emphasis on their own identity as black women is the foundation for their theory and praxis, which aims to include others.
期刊介绍:
The critical philosophy of race consists in the philosophical examination of issues raised by the concept of race, the practices and mechanisms of racialization, and the persistence of various forms of racism across the world. Critical philosophy of race is a critical enterprise in three respects: it opposes racism in all its forms; it rejects the pseudosciences of old-fashioned biological racialism; and it denies that anti-racism and anti-racialism summarily eliminate race as a meaningful category of analysis. Critical philosophy of race is a philosophical enterprise because of its engagement with traditional philosophical questions and in its readiness to engage critically some of the traditional answers.