Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism

In Chapter 4, hooks describes how white feminism has historically been structured to exclude Black women. She asserts that American women are socialized to understand racism in a limited way; they view it as an expression of hatred but fail to understand or examine the historical and political structures that shape and advance racism. hooks asserts that women’s limited knowledge of racism is a result of their own victimization because history curricula in American schools are specifically designed to elevate white male experiences and voices. She draws on her own experience in an educational system that championed racial imperialism and recalls a sixth-grade teacher who encouraged her Black students to adopt a nationalist view of American history.

Evidence of women’s socialization into sexist and racist ideologies is an ironic aspect of women’s movements, as many lack inclusivity or intersectionality. From hooks’s perspective, women’s movements have not acknowledged how women’s experiences differ across racial and economic lines. Rather than uniting women under a collective goal of dismantling white male patriarchy, white middle-class women saw a focus on racial equality as a threat to their individual advancement.