Intersectionality and Bell Hooks

When I was introduced to the Civil Rights Movement, I was completely impressed by it. I thought the several variants of it were promising in their own ways: Martin Luther King Jr.’s charisma and dedication to non-violence, the fearless tenacity of Malcolm X, the racial pride of the Black Power movement. While I was aware of the fact that no movement is perfect, I never stopped to think of the glaring absence in these movements of women. Yes, women did participate. We have examples of women like Rosa Parks and Ella Baker who deserve our acknowledgment and gratitude. However, I am embarrassed to admit that I did not see that the extremely important need to address the issues of black women specifically was not on the agenda of the movement. I have tried to understand my ignorance of this fact using Bell Hooks who says that women were always made to feel like their concerns were something of an afterthought to more pressing issues of the wider Black community at large; that the success of the movement was enough. Maybe that is why this came as an afterthought to me too.

Bell Hooks “Aint I a Woman” resonated with me this week as it made me realize that in saying the struggle of the black people is the same, we ignore the unique experience of women in the experience of slavery and racial segregation. In the Civil Rights Movement, black male activists according to Hooks expected black women involved to conform to a sexist role pattern. When Bell Hooks talks about political gains for black men such as the vote, she laments over how they had a collective struggle out of slavery but continued to hold their patriarchal values that excluded women.

 My point in this blog is not just to summarize the writings of Bell Hooks but to try and understand the kind of inner conflicts black women were confronted with at a time when ideas of intersectionality were inconceivable and try to show that this ambivalence about intersectionality can be seen in Pakistan today too. The women had to pick their battle- to fight against the evil of sexism or racism and the understanding that both had to be eliminated for a true holistic freedom was not imaginable. Bell Hooks points out that women thought an end to racism was all that was needed for a freedom from oppression. This struck me as interesting because it goes to show that women somehow see their status as something that cannot be negotiated or challenged and accept it as a given of their life. 

This is something that is unfortunately relatable to date when women in our society (especially older women) still believe that to fight for women’s rights seems like ‘pushing it.’ Women are asked to punch below their weight just because they are women and we see this thinking around us in our Pakistani society everyday where women feel that to ask for more would be a stretch too far. I also think that this idea that you have to pick your battle is very prevalent in Pakistan. I know so many women who are content with not being paid the same as their male counterparts because it is enough of a victory for them to be going out to work. This is why intersectionality is so important. To assert that it need not stop there and these multiple interlocking oppression's can be tackled with feminism itself.