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Black Feminist Epistemology

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This essay will define Black feminist epistemology is the study of how the knowledge that is cultivated by black feminists is or can be proved or shown to be rational. This essay will then state that Black feminists will encounter epistemologies that are either Black feminist or White male and that the process of the verification of knowledge is dominated by homogenous groups and the opinions of minorities such as Black women are often ignored due to this. The essay will show that therefore Black feminist epistemology states that the criteria for the credibility of knowledge should be the use of lived experience, the use of dialogue to evaluate knowledge claims, the use of the ethics of caring and the ethic of personal accountability. Epistemology …show more content…

These differing epistemologies lead to the choice of which one should be believed, which one should be seen as false and which one should be trusted. (Collins, 1990: ) This also leads to the question of which groups of people define what knowledge is seen as and why these groups of people define knowledge more than others. It is often visible that Western or European interests are often the centre point of what is defined as true, good, knowledgeable or important. When knowledge is being verified there are two criteria that affect the process of this verification, the experts that are verifying this knowledge bring with them their own set of experiences and these experts must attempt to preserve their status or standing in the eyes of the group or groups from which they derive their base knowledge. (Collins, 1990: …show more content…

Lived experiences are the day to day life experiences of Black women that allow for subjectivity and for the consideration of things that are experienced directly. The use of dialogue to evaluate knowledge claims is important as Black women develop knowledge through discourse within their communities. The ethics of caring state that emotion is important to knowledge verification and consist of individual uniqueness, emotion within dialogue and the ability to be empathetic. Finally the ethic of personal accountability states that people should be held accountable for their knowledge claims due to the belief within Black feminist epistemology that knowledge claims are intrinsically tied to the beliefs and values of the individual making the knowledge claim. (Collins, 1990:

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