The Dilemma of Socialist Feminism: A Case for Black Feminism

Abstract

The purpose of this letter is not to go through the article 'Ethnocentrism and Socialist-Feminist Theory' with a fine tooth-comb, analysing the shortcomings of its content. I have closed the journal and put it away, so that what I have to say comes from the heart as a black woman a 'gut' reaction if you like. The paper's sole purpose seemed to be a self-indulgent exercise, exorcizing the guilt socialist-feminists feel about the myopia of their past analyses. The 'we-know-we've-been-wrong-in-the-past' tone of this article has been an attitude viewed with much scepticism among black people: and not without just cause. It has been a powerful ideological scapegoat, used to avoid real change. The acknowledgement of racism as 'wrong' has led in the past to patronizing liberal policies, which locked any formative radical movement for black liberation into a nightmare of dead-end channels. Unwittingly, Michele Barrett and Mary McIntosh are guilty of perpetuating this tradition of inhibiting black women's progress by trying to accommodate an understanding of our differences within the rigid theoretical framework of socialist-feminism. We do not need to be reassured that white feminists are recognizing that their own and others' analyses have rendered black women invisible. Quantifying and calculating the extent of this 'oversight' is meaningless (I felt that if I had to digest another PSI statistic, I would choke). Are we expected to feel gratitude toward the benevolence shown toward us by socialist-feminists? No. To allow ourselves to be patronized would lead us deeper into our sociologically acceptable ghetto, qualifying as a subject of interest only by virtue of blatant omission. What we as black women need to do is to move beyond the levels of analysis that have tolerated us so far, such as socialist-feminism, liberal 'race-relations' sociology and radical black male-dominated socialogy, where our only notable contribution seems to be that we are to be found continuously 'out of line with theoretical expectations' (Fuller, 1982). Our experience as black women has led us to develop a new and radical theoretical perspective with as much academic credibility as any other theoretical school. The theoretisal framework of black feminism combines the reality of our personal experience within the context of a definite economic and political overview. A black feminist analysis does not have to be about black women only, and (in time) we hope that it does not have to be written only by black women. In its theoretical capacity, there should be no reason why it