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Alice Walker Womanism Analysis

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Throughout this journal article, black women remain the focal point. In the first half, the term womanism is discussed and defined. It had originated from the expression “You acting womanish.” Which before Alice Walker interpreted it as acting with courage and willful behavior, was used as an insult. After Walker, the term developed into a brand of feminism in which people of color adopted. The oppression put on black women is quite distinctive. They were not only being put down for being women, but also for their race. Even black men were oppressing black women when they knew exactly how it felt to be oppressed by white people, and white women were oppressing them for being black when they knew how it felt to be oppressed for being a woman. …show more content…

I was previously aware that within the feminist movement, women claim different values in which they create their own brand. Womanism, I learned from the article, is specific to women of color. Now, I have come to the realization that a feminist theology is hard to come across. It can be difficult to decipher what beliefs and values remain consistent with both feminism and religion. This is why, I believe, black women created a theology just for them. The fluidity of Christianity becomes apparent in this case. Women belonging to other cultures and countries may choose to interpret the bible in accordance to their preconceived morals and values, just as most people tend to do anyways. Because of this, their interpretations of the text could be different than ours, but that does not mean they are incorrect. In my opinion, every person, specifically every woman in this case, wants to discover where they belong, and a part of that is discerning their “brand” of both feminism and theology. Wanting to find a purpose in life is no different for women in the United States than it is in the women of Africa or Puerto Rico. That is just human nature. Therefore, in regards to the journal article as a whole, I thought it was very interesting and I appreciate the idea that there is a piece of God for everyone and I admire these women for recognizing their need to claim

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Women in this time were expected to be pure and pias. Women also did not plage a huge role in how history was being written. Black women specifically were double oppressed due to the fact that they were a woman and black. Distinctions that Zinn cited between white and black female oppression were obviously the racial bias, and the class condition and class bias. Women have always been held behind men in society but as a black women you were extra behind.

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While these topics were just as important to black women, they felt as though they were being excluded within the movement. Black woman felt as though white women were racially discriminative of them, therefore The National Black Feminist Organization was formed. The NBFO focused on the biases of society concerning racism, sexism, and classism as it related to black women, but one aspect had been missing: lesbianism. Many of the women involved considered themselves to be lesbians and they felt as though the NBFO didn’t incorporate issues relating to black lesbian feminism.

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In the article The Politics of Black Women’s Studies by Akasha Hull and Barbara Smith, Hull and Smith studiously literate the politics and controversy around the fundamentals of black women’s studies in the past and modern day. Furthermore, the ideology of the article falls under the premise that racism and prejudice are still current and prominent factors that affect the development of black women’s studies in the way it is taught in universities, and the role it takes upon the lives of black women. To begin, it is evident that the premise of the article is solely based on the pros and cons that derive from black women attempting to exist in a white man’s world by making a name for themselves in society. Hull and Smith state that “the necessity

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Alice Walker, a poet and activist once said that “a womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” Womanism is just another shade of feminism. It helps give awareness to the experience of black women and other women of color who have always been at the forefront of the feminist movement, but made invisible in historical texts and the media. Although feminism addresses and fights for gender equality, it rarely addressed equality and justice for black women in the civil rights movement. On the other hand, womanism not only fights for the gender equality but for justice against racial oppression against African American men and women.

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