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Bell Hook's Summary: The Impact Of Sexism On Black Women

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Bell Hooks makes arguments on the following topics in the introduction of her book, “the impact of sexism on the black woman during slavery, the devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism within the recent feminist movement, and the black woman’s involvement with feminism” (p.29). Hooks makes a point to address how race and sex are inseparable. Many women of color were too scared to acknowledge that sexism is just as much of an issue as racism. Hooks states, “Consequently, when the women’s movement raised the issue of sexist oppression, we argued that sexism was insignificant in light of the harsher, more brutal reality of racism. We were afraid to acknowledge that sexism could be just as oppressive as racism” (p.14). The negative …show more content…

Even though Black women and men were the same race, their oppression and suffrage was always viewed as less than Black men’s. Black men also wanted Black women to take on a subservient role to them. Hooks states, “Black women were placed in a double bind; to support women’s suffrage would imply that they were allying themselves with white women activists who had publicly revealed their racism, but to support only black male suffrage was to endorse a patriarchal social order that would grant them no political voice” …show more content…

I think it is unfair that the white women activists did not support Black women in the feminist movement. They did not treat Black women with the same respect as white women and continued to support racist and sexist attitudes and actions. Their rights as women should not have been disregarded because of their race. Also, I think it is unfair that Black men wanted Black women to be submissive and essentially voiceless to support their efforts. Instead, I feel as though Black women’s oppression and suffrage should have been viewed as equal to Black men’s. Black women should have been treated as less than Black men and forced to be silent or subservient. Sexism should have been fought just as much as racism within the black community because any form of oppression is still

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