Tag Archives: Womanist

Test Your Mama

Posted on by
3

Someone once said something like this: “If your mama says she loves you, check it out.”

your mama

your mama


This is the reason why I posted the Alice Walker quotation on Monday and will post other poets’ thoughts, too. Alice Walker is considered a mother of black feminism. I want you to check out even what your mothers say. You might not consider Walker a mother, but many in our American and Christian cultures do; she is an icon. Often we take the words of icons as pure gospel just because we love the people. Let’s scrutinize and never be hoodwinked from sweet sounding words that move our hearts. Let’s also scrutinize so we can give credit where credit is due. Someone may not be a Christian, but they can speak truth, and all truth comes from God.

The Alice Walker quotation was provocative to me because at first reading it seemed anti-biblical. I agree that animals exist for reasons apart from for humans; they help to balance the world’s ecosystem, but it’s arguable whether or not animals were created for humans. After God created animals he placed humans (Adam and Eve) in charge of them (Genesis 1:28). Walker was right about black people not being created for white people. God created us all in His image for His good pleasure not for one race to demand pleasure from another (Revelation 4:11).

Finally, Walker was right in one sense about women not being created for men. All women weren’t created for all men; in other words, women weren’t created so men could dominate them, but women were created for men to have as wives. So the woman who becomes a wife was created for the man who becomes her husband, and vice versa (see 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 and 11:11-12). Man was created first but men cannot continue to be created without a woman. There is definite interdependence with a man and woman, the husband and wife. So you can see I didn’t totally disagreed with Walker, but I just wanted to get you to think without inserting my opinion. Thanks to the many of you who read the previous post and the brave one who responded. I always want to hear from you so tell me what you think of this post or any other one. Can’t wait to hear from you.

Woman Created for Man?

Posted on by
3
Alice Walker

Alice Walker

    “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men”–Alice Walker (taken from About.com; emphasis mine).

Many of you may know that April is National Poetry Month. This is the reason behind my posting audios of my poems the last two Fridays. I plan to do the same for the next two Fridays. But I also thought it would be interesting to take quotations from some famous (and not so famous) poets to examine their thoughts in light of what I believe God’s Woman (what I am temporarily calling the recreated strong black woman who is a Christian) should be considering. So consider the above quotation from womanist (black feminist) poet, novelist and essayist Alice Walker, particularly the part I’ve emphasized. What are your personal thoughts about it? What are your thoughts about it when considering Genesis 2:18 and 1 Corinthians 11:8-9. I’ll tell you what I think, but you first.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Africana Womanism

Posted on by
3

In my college days in search to self identity as a black woman living in America, I read a lot of literature. One of my favorite authors during my quest was scholar bell hooks. She has a no-holds barred approach to discussing race and black women’s place or misplace in society. She often says black women need to define ourselves and self-actualize, that is become who we defined ourselves to be. That resonated with me as one who always thought there was nothing wrong with my natural hair; I decided that I was okay with a kinky mane so I reverted to natural and was not ashamed.

Professor Clenora Hudson-Weems, Ph.D., author of Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, also believes in self-definition. Though her theory sounds like Alice Walker’s womanism, Dr. Hudson-Weems takes exception to Walker’s term (see previous entry). She believes that the great emphases shouldn’t be on the woman, her sexuality and culture and that the comparison between feminism and womanism are too closely aligned. Her Africana womanist, in contrast, “is significantly different from the mainstream feminist, particularly in her perspective on and approach to issues in society” (24). Dr. Hudson-Weems advances her position with the following 18 characteristics of Africana womanism: self-namer; self-definer; family-centered; in concert with males in struggle; flexible roles; genuine sisterhood; strength; male compatible; respected; recognized; whole; authentic; spirituality; respectful of elders; adaptable; ambitious; mothering; and nurturing.

For the most part, I like her list. But as you already guessed it, I take exception to some of the characteristics, especially the first two. Do you, from your own opinion, name and define who you are or do you claim the name and definition that Christ has given you? As a Christian who is black and a woman, I must accept my God-given blackness and womanhood and never deny these aspects of me. But before I am black and woman I am a Christian and must embrace what Christ says about me.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Feminism vs. Womanism

Posted on by
2

Many black women have rejected the term feminist because of the history of racial exclusion of nonwhites to the feminist movement. Before women received the right to vote (and black men had the right), white feminist and conservative suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt said: “[T]here is but one way to avert the danger. Cut off the vote of the slums and give it to [White] women.” Catt continued that white men should recognize “the usefulness of woman suffrage as a counterbalance to the foreign vote, and as a means of legally preserving White supremacy in the South.” This was during the first wave of feminism (early 1800s-1950s). The second wave of feminism (mid-1960s-present) has had a similar emphasis on race. Because recent feminism has focused greatly on the liberation of middle class white women from white male patriarchy, some black women have not felt that this movement is for them.

This type of emphasis is what led writer Alice Walker to develop the term womanist, and many black women, including some of us who are Christian, have embraced this label. Walker defines womanist as “[a] black feminist or feminist of color. . .who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture. . .[and who] sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or nonsexually. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. . .Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender” (from Walker’s In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens). Do you consider yourself a feminist? If not, do you think womanist is a suitable alternative to feminist? As a Christian, do you think that you should call yourself a feminist or womanist? Why or why not? I am really looking forward to hearing from you.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith