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Black Feminist Theoretical Analysis

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According to Patricia Hill Collins, one distinguishing feature of Black feminist thought is that there is a dialectical relationship between oppression and activism, and there is a dialogical relationship between black women's collective experiences of oppression and their group knowledge. Because of their unique position within the matrix of domination, defined as the social organization in which intersecting oppressions are developed, maintained, and maneuvered, African American women have a special knowledge about the interlocking nature of race, gender, and class oppression. Therefore they must be a part of any effective effort to critique and overcome oppression. As Collins explains, this insight was known and practiced well before contemporary …show more content…
She emerges as a Black woman intellectual whose work transformed consciousness and cultivated resistance. Garvin wrote a Master’s thesis that problematized labor unions as institutional contexts that privileged the liberal pro-capitalist perspectives of white males over the needs and views of the diverse labor force. While serving as national staff of a labor union organization, she used her position and the platform it provided to give voice to the experiences and needs of African American laborers, who had been silenced within or excluded from labor union decision making processes. In furthering this effort, she similarly used her position as a writer at the Freedom newspaper to bring attention to the specific circumstance of African American women workers. Finally, as a founding member and leader of the National Negro Labor Council, Garvin developed a philosophy and institutional structure for a labor organization that would put the experiences and needs of African American women at its

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