Black Feminist Concerns

By Gail Foster

The concerns of American black feminists are related to, but not identical with, those of their white sisters. Black women, victimized throughout history, must fight not only sexism, but racism as well. Black women are plagued with sexual and racial assumptions, stereotypes, and myths which rob them of positive self-images and equal participation in society. Racism and sexism have many common factors; they reinforce one another and are integral parts of this country's social and political institutions. Many black women, looking upon their experiences and history, choose to direct their energies first to racial equality, and then toward issues concerning sexism, believing that the elimination of racism would contribute greatly to the decline of sexism in the U.S.

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Many black women feel that the women's movement has sorely neglected them and that it has been oblivious to the particular concerns and issues they have to face because of their doubly discriminatory status. To truly work for the rights of all women, the movement needs to be aware of how racism affects the lives of black women and contributes to their oppression. Unless the women's movement is conscious of the black women's dual barriers, it risks reinforcing what white male society has done not only to women, but to other minorities in this country.

Race relations in the United States to the present have been typified by the oppression of blacks by whites, based upon arbitrary definitions of white superiority. A necessary part of this racist system has been the further oppression and victimization of black women: 1) black women share in all aspects of the oppression of blacks in general; 2) they are ob-

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jects of exploitative sex by white men; 3) the rape of black women is employed as a weapon of terror directed against the entire community; 4) when black men are oppressed economically to the extent that they cannot secure steady employment at decent wages, many black women are deprived of the support of male bread winners and must take on added economic burdens (Lerner, Black Women in White America).

Racism has caused black women to lack selfesteem, positive self-images, and economic and social supports. Black women themselves have indirectly perpetuated myths and stereotypes by identifying with and internalizing the values of the oppressors.

Myths and Images of Black Women

Popular images and myths of black women are distinct from sexist images of white women. White women are often described as feminine, small, delicate, passive, and slow. Black women are depicted as tough, hardworking domestics who assume the role of matriarch in the home, but always remain submissive in the white world. Perpetuating these racially-based myths permits the most outrageous exploitation of black females as a cheap labor source. By "de-feminizing" black women, America could subject them to the most harsh and unsafe working conditions without violating the white ethics that sustain the system.

The matriarchy myth holds that the black woman is the dominant figure in the black family and has a better education and steadier employment. On the contrary, Robert Hill states that in 85 percent of poor black families, husbands out-earn wives. This myth

A Clear Yes and No

When I started my career as a field service technician, I looked to the women at work for support, expected hostility from my male co-workers, and feared the response of customers when I walked through the door.

My expectations proved to be too black and white. The reality was shades of grey. Some women at my workplace are very supportive, and some regard me as a little weird. Mostly they are not a very good support base for me because they don't know what my work involves, and because we don't see each other enough. I'm rarely in the office, and they are never in the field.

My customers, both male and female, are, on the other hand, invariably supportive and enthusiastic. I often hear "It's about time they had a woman fixing these things!" or "At last, a woman! Now maybe it will get fixed right this time!” In two and a half years as a field service technician, I have had only one customer respond to me with hostility. "What are you doing in a man's job?" he asked. "Earning a living!" I replied, not looking up from the machine I was working on until a minute or two later, only to find him still red in the face and looking as though he knew he just put his foot in his mouth.

The men I work with range between the two extremes of those who appear to be very uncomfortable. around me and those who regard me as one of the guys. In the center are the ones who regard me as one of the guys but are uncomfortable if I buy them coffee (the tradition at work being that if a fellow technician comes to help you at your account, you buy the coffee).

. Which brings me to the topic at hand: Can a feminist like men while still recognizing they are the enemy? The answer is a clear yes and no. One has to consider the debilitating nature of isolation. If the

people to whom I look for support cannot understand the frustrations or joys of my vocation, and if the people I work with cannot support or relate to me on a personal level, I begin to feel very weird. On my good days I can intellectualize about how dichotomized our society is between the mechanical and the social. On my bad days I begin to feel unnatural, unfeminine, lonely and crazy with anger because I'm feeling that way.

Because of the limited number of women in technical fields, each of us is likely to find herself in this predicament of not quite fitting in anywhere. Therefore survival for me has meant trying to make each arena less limited. I am learning to share my joys and frustrations about work with friends and housemate without relating specific mechanical illustrations and details. And I have learned to seek personal support and affirmation from my male coworkers within the limited confines of technical issues. Which means when I'm having trouble with a machine, it's damn nice to have someone who has worked there ten years longer say, "Oh, that! I spent three hours on that same problem when that machine first came out. Now what you do is...."

An extra factor I have trouble with is the sense that I am always being evaluated as a woman service technician. For example, if I'm having trouble fixing something, the customer may attribute it to my being a woman, rather than to my inexperience or how hard the machine is to work on. Consequently, when I had trouble with a machine, I would lose my perspective quickly, and it would loom in my mind as a major catastrophe. However, when calls to fellow technicians elicited responses such as "Hell, you've only been working on it an hour? That's nothing. I spent all day yesterday on one machine. If you fix them too fast, the customer gets spoiled. Next thing

implies a position of power which black women have never secured in America.

Another "image," if you can call it that, is the invisibility of black women. The mass media exemplifies this invisible orientation. On March 26, 1972, CBS carried a special feature of discrimination against "women" on its "60 Minutes" series. Not one black woman was featured. A white female. reporter ended this segment by concluding that America has placed its women on a pedestal. But there are now indications, she admonished, that a large number of women are no longer satisfied with this position. This statement ignores the black woman's situation; Afro-American women have never been placed on a pedestal.

Black Women's Concerns

During the 1960's, largely through the influence of the Civil Rights Movement, black and white women recognized similarities in their oppression. However, the two groups did not form an alliance against their common enemy, the patriarchal system. Feminisın is a threatening movement to blacks and to minority people, because they must think and examine how they treat each other. Rigid sex roles, sexism and violence are large parts of black culture, but black and other minority women are oppressed racially and economically as well. According to Elizabeth Hood, "quantifiable differences between black and white women exist in all spheres of life-family income, education, employment opportunities, housing, access to leisure time activities, the arts, etc. Racism, in  ́.(continued on page 11)

you know, they'll want it fixed fast every time!" I began to relax.

The result is that I can honestly say that I really like the six or seven guys I work with most often, that I'd miss them if they left the territory, that I'd feel bad if I did something to hurt their feelings. This even though our daily topics of discussion and shared interest are the machines, office rumors, what's the matter with our cars and what we're fixing up on our house this weekend. I know they will be there for me in tough situations, and they know that they can count on me for the same kind of support.

On the other hand, another woman technician in the same company but working under a different manager got virtually no support from her male coworkers. In fact, they talked poorly of her to her manager, were unavailable to assist her when she got in trouble, and generally assisted in her demise as a technician with the company. What were the factors that caused the difference between her experiences and mine? Personality? Different manager? Different co-workers? I don't know. I know there was for me a trial period during which the men were fairly distant until they could see whether I could and would do the work. One long workday spent grubbing on and under the floor of a computer room, restringing cables, moving machines and generally getting filthy alongside a senior technician seemed to be the event that signaled that I had passed the test. After that there was a noticeable warming up to me. My feminism hasn't put them off. They razz ine about it and I razz them about their chauvinism, but all in good spirits.

So I guess the answer to my question is yes, maybe, on a work-related level, if they are basically decent and you're not too defensive and you get off on the right foot with each other and your company has a stated policy of supporting women's rights and the stars are right. Or at least it's possible for me right now in this job.

-J.R.

July-August, 1981/What She Wants/Page 9