6
Black Ink
Tuesday, April 15, 1986
Poverty for women
Feminist fight
has low Black
by Kenneth Harris
Special Projects Editor
Amid the applause and the
laughter, a Yale University professor
preached on how sexism and racism
affected the black woman’s involve
ment in the feminist movement.
“Feminism in the United States
has not been a revolutionary
movemient,” Bell Hooks said to an au
dience of 250 March 26. “Most of the
black women are not engaged in the
feminist struggle,” she continued.
Hook’s lecture was part of the
Black Women’s Leadership Sympos
ium which was a joint project of the
Women’s Studies Program and the
Curriculum in African and Afro-
American Studies at the University.
According to Hooks, the feminist
movement is “a political movement to
end sexism and sexual oppression.”
Sexism and racism has slowed
involvement among black women in
the movement, she said.
“The systems of racism and sex
ism are interlocking systems,” Hooks
said, adding that both are indistin
guishable as with links in a chain.
“How can we tell which link in
that chain is strongest?” she asked.
“These systems of domination. . . are
interlocked.”
The impact of racism is felt in
women studies departments across
the nation, according to Hooks.
“There are very few women studies
departments in the United States
headed by black women,” she said.
“Racism within the feminist move
ment blocks black women studies.”
“We work in isolation,” Hooks
said of the black women in the coun
try, adding that there are few support
Norton
families as white families are headed
by women, Norton said. In 1980, she
said, 50 percent of black births were
by single women. Today, that figure is
57 percent, she added.
Norton said that although there
is nothing inferior about a female
headed household, the greatest
danger is poverty.
In 1979, the medium income for
these households was $6,600 com
pared with $20,000 in most families,
she said.
Norton said that though families
began to change, black women kept
the tradition of work that began when
they picked cotton beside their
husbands.
“In this country, black women are
not allowed the luxury of not
working,” she said.
“We have swept away the most
audacious brands of sexism,” she said.
“Nottiing we have done has been as
called unjust,
participation
groups open to black women. She said
black women in college are suscepti
ble to isolation.
“As black women scholars we
tend to be isolated from one another,”
she said.
Continuing, Hooks said:
“Another major difficulty with black
women studies is internatlized racism.
There is a failure of black women to
extend their love to one another. We
have a strong tradition of black
female bonding.”
“It is not the same thing as affir
ming one another when we are doing
our best,” she said, adding that black
women seem to support each other
only during a time of emotional crisis.
“When we see another women
doing well we can’t tell her she is do
ing well,” according to Hooks. Women,
especially black women, are not loved,
she said. The most love a woman
receives is from her mother. Hooks
added.
“We need to show black women
how to have these types of relation
ships within one another,” she con
tinued. She suggested that black
women communicate through letters
or use the church as a means of educa
tion.
During the question and answer
period. Hooks was asked to explain
the inadequacies of the black male.
She . blamed society for the
behavior of the black male.
If women want the image of the
black male to change, then “we
(women) should work to make sexuali
ty in the whole culture change,” she
said.
“The feminist struggle has mean
ingful and positive implications for
black lives,” Hooks ^b'ntinued.
important as the spread of support
among women of all backgrounds and
color.”
She said through the deep
changes in family life, the work force
and education have been settling and
unsettling, and they have taken place
with the most remarkable acceptance
by the American people.
However, she said, “What
remains to be accomplished is the
hardest part. The barriers that have
fallen were the least stirred.”
One of the problems to be faced,
she said, is finding ways to relieve
pressure of dual responsibility
between motherhood and careers.
“I realize that ^uch challenges
can be seen as awesome,” she said.
“But they need not be if we keep in
reach of our own possibilities.”
by Shirley Hunter
Managing Editor
By the year 2,000 a majority of
the poor adults will be women, accord
ing to the 1983 film, “Poverty has a
Woman’s Face.” The film was part of a
program of the Black Women’s
Leadership Symposium which was
held on campus March 25-27. WTVD
Channel 11 anchorwoman Miriam
Thomas was the commentator of the
film and host of the discussion session
afterwards.
According to the presentation,
poverty is becoming more of a
problem for women, especially those
in several categories. The divorced
mother is often in financial trouble
Giddings said black businesses
thrived in every community. “Ours is a
history of having things taken away.”
Many of the gains blacks made
were turned back at the turn of the
century, however, black women were
not deterred.
Giddings said in 1896, the
National Organization of Colored
Women was established to meet the
need of blacks. In its height, there
were fewer births out of wedlock than
any time in history for black women.
Institutions were created to help
children. Black women lobbied to get
funds to establish kindergartens as
part of schools, she said.
The importance of political
power was also realized by black
women. “A black woman threatened
to leave her husband if he sold his
vote,” Giddings said.
“Black women suffragists fought
just as intensely as the white womenk
suffragists you read about in your
history books,” she said.
In a question and answer session
that followed her speech, Giddings
was asked to respond about blacks
who don’t seem to know their racial
identity.
“No matter what experience one
dard of living, many women without
any skill to obtain good jobs, find
themselves in financial ruin. The
situation for the widowed is not
better, according to the presenta
tion. Those women who married at a
young age without any thought
about a career, who suddenly find
themselves without a husband to
support them, are caught between a
rock and a hard place.
While they were still married,
all credit remained in their
husbands’ name. So, when the
husband dies, she has not power to
purchase and means to earn money
to gain that power.
For the homemaker, poverty
was something that was almost
has had, he knows deep inside that his
roots are black. Maybe he doesn’t
appreciate it. A lot of people can’t deal
with the emotional impact of race,”
she said. “I would advise them to take
it one step at a time and think of the
positive side of being black. Some
folks have had bad experiences and
think being black is a problem.”
Giddings was asked, “Where
have black women gone wrong?” She
responded that, “We (black women)
don’t know our history.”
“We internalize and begin to
think something is wrong with
us. . .it is not all our fault.” She said
the Moynihan Report of the 1960’s
blamed the problems of the black
family on the black woman. The
report attributed the break down to
black women being too strong. Black
men were so discouraged because
black women’s earnings were closer to
theirs than white women’s were to
white men. So black men felt they had
to leave their families. “It’s a
psychological thing,” she said.
The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
held a reception for Giddings in Toy
Lounge of Dey Hall immediately
following the speech.
continued from page 4
because ex-husbands will not pay
court-ordered child support.
According to the program, 60
percent of all court-ordered child
support is not paid. This makes it
especially hard on families which are
headed by women.
In the program, Thomas said,
“For women, divorce is a financial
catastrophe.” Statistics support this
statement. On a recent Phil Donahue
show, it was said that after divorce,
the standard of living for men tends
to increase by 41 percent, while for
women, it decreases 79 percent.
With decreases in their stan-
alien, the filni stated. Many women,
who spent most of their adult lives
at home with children while their
husbands worked to pay bills
discover that they have no way to
support themselves after a divorce
or the husband’s death. The
homemaker previously let her
husband take care of all the financial
aspects of the household, and finds
that she cannot manage without his
help.
Some of these women turn to
public assistance when all else fails.
“In North Carolina, women and
continued on page 8
Giddings
continued from page 4