å Tuesday, April 4th, 2017

According to Collins, the “outsider within” status of Black women allowed for a unique perspective in society, as they were considered outsiders by the white families they worked for, but had an “insider” perspective as well from working this domestic occupation. This stems from discrimination based on race and gender, with Black women being on the low ends of both, in which these women were not seen as family even though they provided services such as taking care of the children and doing household work. They would even be outright ignored when they were in the room. This allowed them to see oppression on both sides, from the standpoint of the oppressors and as being the victims, revealing the truth about the discrimination.

Collins discussed three aspects concerning the significance of the “outsiders” within perspective that contributed to Black feminist thought. The first theme was that Black women had to create their own definition and validate themselves to strengthen their standing in society. This approach is a response to societal stereotypes that control, dehumanize and exploit the Black woman. By creating a self-definition and self-validation of themselves, it will create a sense of unity and help them reject the internalized oppression from society. The second theme Collins discussed was the understanding and acknowledgement of the oppression stemmed from race, gender and class. The unique experience of oppression face from Black women are different than those from Black men and white women because they face simultaneous discrimination from race and gender, as well as class if they are of the low socioeconomic status, which was typical for Black women. This multitude of oppression allowed them to recognize the struggles from all aspects and realize the importance of fighting against it. The final theme Collins discussed was the importance of Black women’s culture. In order to overcome the oppression, Black women have to know the history of their unique experience. By using this as a foundation, they can teach future generations about their experiences and help strengthen the conceptual ideas of black feminism.

In Collins essay, “Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought,”  she speaks about outsiders.  These outsiders can be people who are not apart of white families.  White families seem to be the norm of standard living and everyone out of that is just an outsider.  These outsiders are able to see reality from the outside and in from the inside, which allows them to understand both perspectives.

Outsiders can contribute to the field of sociology and the understanding of society and culture by having a different glass view of the White people.  Black feminist go through various “marginality”.  Because they go through the oppression of being black and a women, they are able to see things in another perspective. Racism and sexism both share the same ideology of domination that does not see black women as an equal status rather than an other. This creates a dynamic between white women and black women.  White women are seen as secondary to a white man, whereas black women are seen as an object.  They see the lives within their own homes while also observing things with a white household.  This contributes to the field of sociology and our understanding of society and culture because we get to open our minds to another perspective outside of the “norms”.

This essay is very important because it gives us an understanding of the differences in white feminism and black feminism.  Intersectional feminists are usually people who understand the barriers amongst people of color.  I think Black feminism is important to many women of color, regardless if you are black or not, because it shows the importance of speaking out of your oppression.  It gives the women a voice who are not familiar with speaking about things.  They use their platforms to open the door of opportunity and familiarity to other women.

In the situation of the reading, “Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significant of Black Feminist Though,” black women were consider as the “Outsider”, they were working for white families, became honorary members in that “families,” and make themselves more likely to being a “Insider”. Even the black women were trying to be more closer to the “Insider”, there still had the wall of race and gender between them. According to Collins reading, She argues that, “Black women’s experiences highlight the tension experienced by any group of less powerful outsiders encountering the paradigmatic thought of a more powerful insider community.” She attempts to explain this point by examining the sociological significance of the Black Feminist thought stimulated by Black women’s outsider within status. She explored the idea of three characteristic themes: The black women’s self-definition and self-valuation, the interlocking nature of oppression, and the importance of Afro-American women’s culture.

The importance of Black women’s self-definition and self-valiation is it involves challenging the political knowledge-validation process has resulted in externally-defined, stereotypical images of Afro-American womanhood. The stereotype usually gave the negative image of black women.

The interlocking nature of oppression for Black women is in two way, they were women, and they also were black. The double oppressive make black women faced more difficult situation. And make their standpoint to create the black feminist theory.

In the study of Afro-American women’s culture, the black feminist found out the unexplored areas of the black female experience, they also identified concrete ares of social relations where Afro-American women create and pass on self-definitions and self-valuations essential to coping with the simultaneity of oppression they experience.

In her article, Patricia Hill Collins discusses this idea of the “outsider within” status. This term relates to the marginalization of black women, as they are discriminated against through both race and gender. Black women that worked for white families were able to see what separated the “insiders” from the “outsiders”. Despite all their hard work cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children, they were still never seen as family. They were not acknowledged for their work and were not exactly accepted with open arms, which, ultimately, labeled them as “outsiders”. However, the fact that they were able to view both sides gives them an advantage as they are able to see the truth behind the discrimination. This just proves that it was not about intelligence, or any other factor besides the color of their skin, that set them apart.

When it comes to black feminist thought, Collins discusses three key themes. According to Collins, black feminist thought consists of ideas that are created by black women and strengthens their standpoints. First, she states that it is not possible to separate the historical and material conditions that shape the lives of individuals. Basically, other individuals will not understand Black feminist thought like black women do. Second, there is an assumption that Black women have a unique perspective of their experiences and that common experiences can be shared by black women as a group. Third, being a black women consists of different perspectives, like with class, region, age, and sexual orientation. Also, it is these distinctions that are experienced differently by specifics groups of Afro-American women. Essentially, one role for Black females is to produce facts that will better portray a Black woman’s standpoint for Black women as a whole. Simply put, black feminist thought describes different common themes by using observations about Afro-American womanhood. This brings Collins to two terms, known as Self-Definition and Self-Valuation. Self-definition has to do with challenging the stereotypical ideals of Black women, such as the ‘crazy black woman’. Self-valuation, however, focuses on Black women’s self-definitions by getting rid of the stereotypical images and incorporating authentic black female ideals. The goal, essentially, is to reverse these stereotypical assumptions of black womanhood.