#barbara smith

[decolonize-the-left]

Time to learn about more people and things that influenced my politics~

The Combahee River Collective.

They were a Black feminist lesbian socialist organization active in Boston, Massachusetts from 1974 to 1980.

"The Collective argued that both the white feminist movement and the Civil Rights Movement were not addressing their particular needs as Black women and more specifically as Black lesbians.

Racism was present in the mainstream feminist movement, while Delaney and Manditch-Prottas argue that much of the Civil Rights Movement had a sexist and homophobic reputation."

The Collective is perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, a key document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity politics as used among political organizers and social theorists, and for introducing the concept of interlocking systems of oppression, including but not limited to gender, race, and homophobia, a fundamental concept of intersectionality. Gerald Izenberg credits the 1977 Combahee statement with the first usage of the phrase "identity politics".

Source

Demita Frazier, Beverly Smith, and Barbara Smith were the primary authors of the Combahee River Collective Statement in 1977. [...]They sought to destroy what they felt were the related evils of capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy while rejecting the belief in lesbian separatism. Finally their statement acknowledged the difficulties black women faced in their grassroots organizing efforts due to their multiple oppressions.

In “A Black Feminist’s Search for Sisterhood,” Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion: We exists as women who are Black who are feminists, each stranded for the moment, working independently because there is not yet an environment in this society remotely congenial to our struggle—because, being on the bottom, we would have to do what no one else has done: we would have to fight the world. [2] Wallace is pessimistic but realistic in her assessment of Black feminists’ position, particularly in her allusion to the nearly classic isolation most of us face. We might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.

#i think of that line at least twice a month #and this is why you will NEVER catch me not having solidarity with black women #combahee river collective #black feminism #black feminists #demita Frasier #Beverly smith #Barbara smith #black lesbians #queer history #lgbt History #black history #queer rights #lesbian rights #solidarity #identity politics #lgbt #capitalism #i should start recommending this as a starter too tbfh #queer #lesbian history #black women #black revolutionaries #lesbian revolutionaries #intersectionality #feminism #lesbian #patriarchy #white feminism #feminists

[forever70s]

Good Housekeeping magazine - January 1974

model B. Smith (at right)

#good housekeeping #1974 #70s fashion #1970s fashion #b. smith #model #good housekeeping magazine #barbara smith

[garadinervi]

June Jordan, From Sea to Shining Sea [«Feminist Studies», Vol. 8, No. 3, Autumn, 1982; then in Living Room. New Poems, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, NY, and Chicago, IL, 1985], in Home Girls. A Black Feminist Anthology, Edited by Barbara Smith, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 2000, pp. 215-221 [first edition Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983]

#graphic design #poetry #journal #book #june jordan #barbara smith #kitchen table women of color press #rutgers university press #feminist studies #1980s #2000s

[slowtides]

when Barbara Smith said "an ability to cope under the worst conditions is not liberation, although our spiritual capacities have often made it look like a life" and when Nina Simone said "what kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did"

#web weaving #Barbara Smith #Nina Simone #black feminism #resilience #survival pending liberation #reminded of these today. resilience is so fake but also so necessary

[gatheringbones]

["This is what I love about women, what I love about femmes, what I love about myself. I danced my blatant butch's dance for such a femme once, who thought I was powerful in that angular way, but who could take me in the palm of one hand like a precious talisman and excite me to power simply by touching me. She could hold me like that in a doorway, in midsentence, neither in or out, neither touching nor untouching. She could suspend my movement and move me to the core of my being. She could stop my breath, my heart, and in that instant of timelessness I would die a thousand deaths, held in suspended animation, in the thrall of her femme's powerful contradiction, and my cunt would ooze its admiration.

And on occasion, I have danced the femme's dance too, for myself and for another. I have danced it on the street and in the privacy of my home. I have danced it in the real world out there, and in the context of my imagination. In my fantasy, I can do anything and everything. I danced the femme's dance and I danced it well. Took off my butch's mask, maneuvered myself to the edge of the cliff, and drove myself to distraction. I stood in front of the mirror that usually reflected my cock, and dressed myself in a lacy camisole, garter belt, and nylons. I put makeup on my face, where normally I dreamed of shaving straight lines. I put femmy earrings in my ears. I put on the femme's mask and danced the femme's dance and watched myself in the mirror. And when I danced this femme's dance, I danced the butch's dance too, somewhere in my head. I became a whore for myself and wanted to straddle my own thighs, lower myself onto my own cock, and fall in love with myself."]

barbara smith, the dance of masks, from the persistent desire, edited by joan nestle, alyson publications, 1992

#barbara smith #lesbian literature #gender stuff #transcribed #femme

[the-final-sentence]

I am even more thankful that my family made that encounter possible because of how much they loved me and how much they loved the world.

Barbara Smith, from "Go Tell It"

#Barbara Smith #go tell it

[whenitsafterhours]

#Barbara Smith

[icedsodapop]

White leftists who criticize Bell Hooks, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X Kendi really grate my nerves. Because these white leftists dont even read with Black radical leftist politics, and would rather spend their time going after Black liberals or pointing fingers at other people (BIPoC most of the time) for not doing socialism/leftism right, how other people are sell-outs, except for them of course!! ✌🏼✌🏼 And then you see these white leftists also criticizing prominent Black leftist academics and thinkers like Barbara Smith and Robin DG Kelley in bad faith for being "bougeoise" even tho so many prominent Black thinkers and academics have been fighting and advocating way before these white leftists were in fucking diapers.

#im talking of course about ben burgis and glenn greenwald and finkelstein #anti white leftists #white leftists #bell hooks #robin dg kelley #ta nehisi coates #ibram x. kendi #barbara smith #racism #antiblackness

[eeillustrations]

🥵 🔥 

#eastenders #eastenders edit #bbc eastenders #eastendersedit #bbc #peter beale #dana munroe #Dayle Hudson #Barbara Joan Smith #Barbara Smith #gif #kiss #cute #couple

[inthemarginalized]

There is virtually no Black person in this country who is surprised about oppression. Virtually not one. Because the thing is we have had it meted out to us from infancy on. 

 - Barbara Smith (b. 1946)

She is a lesbian, feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in building and sustaining Black Feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970's she has been active as a critic, teacher, lecturer, author, scholar, and publisher of Black Feminist Thought.

#barbara smith #black excellence #oppression #racism #trauma

[garadinervi]

Pamphlets by the Combahee River Collective as a campaign to bring awareness to the murders of Black women in Boston, MA, around 1979 [Black Women Radicals]

#graphic design #pamphlet #cover #combahee river collective #barbara smith #beverly smith #audre lorde #demita frazier #cheryl clarke #margo okazawa rey #gloria akasha hull #black women radicals #1970s #1980s

[barbarasmith413]

#Barbara Smith #sexyphoto

[gridbug]

It’s really too bad that more people don’t know about the history of socialist feminism, because socialist feminism is poles apart from girlboss feminism and white feminism, as it has more recently been defined and written about. (I’m thinking about Koa Beck’s book.) If more people knew about the history, I think they would see more hope in feminism, and they would also have more respect for feminism because they would say, Damn, they really fought for something important, you know?

A new interview with Barbara Smith in the always amazing Drift magazine.

#Barbara Smith #feminism #feminist history #the drift #black feminist thought #queer feminism #identity politics #the actual identity politics as thought of by black feminist scholars #not the right wing boogeyman #or the idpol of cornball leftists

[tampire]

This gifset slaps!

#Gotham #gothamedit #Nygmobblepot #nygmobblepotedit #Cobblebutch #Riddlergordon #Oswald Cobblepot #Edward Nygma #The Penguin #The Riddler #Barbara Kean #Butch Gilzean #James Gordon #Jim Gordon #My Gif #Robin Lord Taylor #Cory Michael Smith #Erin Richards #Drew Powell #Ben McKenze #LGBT #lgbtedit #otpsource #parallels #This does slap lmao

[giddyaunt425]

#first doctor #ian chesterton #barbara wright #susan foreman #second doctor #jamie mccrimmon #victoria waterfield #zoe heriot #third doctor #brigadier alistair gordon lethbridge stewart #jo grant #john benton #mike yates #fourth doctor #sarah jane smith #harry sullivan #fifth doctor #tegan jovanka #nyssa of traken #vislor turlough #adric doctor who #sixth doctor #peri brown #seventh doctor #mel bush #ace mcshane #doctor who #classic who

[springw6ter]

shell poems by barbara t. smith

#barbara t smith