Battle Cries. Hillary Potter
status into any examination. Kathleen Daly argues that considering how gender, race, and class distinctions intersect is absolutely necessary in criminology.7 Because traditional feminist criminology is built on mainstream feminism, which historically has seen issues of race as secondary to those of gender,8 Black feminist theory and critical race feminist theory are also necessary to explain fully the source of and reactions to crime among Blacks and, especially, Black women’s positions in society, in their communities, and in their familial and intimate relationships. This proposition does not serve to devalue the remarkable work that has resulted from the establishment of feminist criminology or the concepts put forth and examined under this rubric. Instead, Black feminist criminology extends beyond traditional feminist criminology to view Black women (and, conceivably, other women of color) from their multiple marginalized and dominated positions in society, culture, community, and families. Although the example provided in this book to tender a Black feminist criminological theory focuses on one form of victimization of Black women, it has been well documented in feminist criminology analyses that there is often a clear correlation between women’s victimization and any ultimate criminal behavior by the women.9 As such, using intimate partner abuse perpetrated against Black women as an illustration provides us with an example that may be applied beyond Black women’s experiences with victimization into other encounters with crime and the criminal justice system.
Black feminist criminology addresses concerns in the lives of Black women that I categorize into four themes: (1) social structural oppression, (2) the Black community and culture, (3) intimate and familial relations, and (4) the Black woman as an individual. As outlined earlier, the first three themes are components of interconnected social forces, whereas the fourth theme considers the interconnected identities of the Black woman as affected by the societal influences. The tenets of Black feminist criminology are an outgrowth of Black feminist theory and critical race feminist theory. In general, Black feminist theory is the theoretical perspective that places the lived experiences of Black women, including any forms of resistance to their situations, at the focal point of the analysis. This theory considers Black women as individuals encompassing numerous and interwoven identities. The crux of this theory is that Black women are frequently oppressed within both the Black community (by Black men) and society at large because of their subordinated statuses within each of these spheres. Although the sexist oppression in the Black community presents itself in a different form from that in the larger society and may not appear as obvious, it undeniably exists. Critical race feminist theory is similar to Black feminist theory in that it also considers women of color as individuals with multiple intersecting identities that do not eclipse each other. Specifically, however, critical race feminist theory has been used to consider the devalued position of women of color in greater society as their status relates to questions of the law.
Unlike many White women who enjoyed the “feminist lifestyle” because it provided them the opportunity to meet and bond with other women, Black women have always had a sense of sisterhood.10 Although it is often assumed that Black women did not participate in the development of feminist ideology and the practice of gender equality, it is evident that Black women have indeed been involved in liberation efforts. By reading the works of women who considered themselves to be Black feminists or were identified as such by others, one becomes aware that Black women have a lengthy and valiant history in the liberation movement.11 Their struggles can be traced back to the 1600s, when African women who were captured and enslaved in the so-called New World endured multiple forms of oppression by their slave masters.12 Many of these women made attempts to defend themselves against the inhumane treatment. Recent survey research demonstrates that Black women, even more than White women, are discontented with women’s situation in society and want to see changes in the social world that benefit women. In a Gallup poll conducted in June 2002, 48 percent of Black women affirmed that they were dissatisfied with the treatment of women within society; only 26 percent of White women responded similarly.13
Mainstream feminist theory places gender as the primary consideration in women’s liberation efforts.14 Black women have expressed difficulty in identifying with mainstream feminist theory because of its focus on this single aspect of womanhood and because historically the lives and concerns of White middle-class women were placed at the forefront of the liberation efforts.15 Black women regularly convey that they deal not only with issues of gender inequality but also with racial inequality. It is in this regard that Kimberlé W. Crenshaw argues that women of color are relegated to an invisible class in which they are pulled in two conflicting directions: the need to choose between being loyal to feminist ideas or being loyal to their racial or ethnic community.16 Patricia Hill Collins, author of Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, distinguished Black women’s experiences from those of other groups of women and also considered Black women’s lives as individuals:
On the one hand, all African-American women face similar challenges that result from living in a society that historically and routinely derogates women of African descent. Despite the fact that U.S. Black women face common challenges, this neither means that individual African-American women have all had the same experiences nor that we agree on the significance of our varying experiences. Thus, on the other hand, despite the common challenges confronting U.S. Black women as a group, diverse responses to these core themes characterize U.S. Black women’s group knowledge or standpoint.17
This collective yet individualized aspect of Black women’s lives is an important aspect in Black feminism and must be taken into account when considering the lives of Black women.
Used in conjunction with Black feminist theory, critical race feminist theory is a valuable approach for studies of crime and Black women because it provides a specific application to issues of women of color involved in the criminal justice system as victims, offenders, or both. Like many Black feminists, most critical race feminists have not involved themselves in the mainstream feminist movement but admit that they make use of certain themes of mainstream feminism in the social sciences.18 Developed in the 1990s, critical race feminist theory is based in the tradition of Black feminist theory, critical legal studies, and critical race theory. People of color, White women, and others were initially attracted to critical legal studies because this approach challenged laws related to oppression based on race and gender.19 Those credited with developing critical race theory reported disillusionment with critical legal studies’ exclusion of the personal and intellectual viewpoints of scholars of color and of White women scholars. Accordingly, critical race theory places more focus on the role of racism and a racist and classist society in the construction of realities among people of color. Although the new discipline was seen as a move toward the inclusion of the experiences of all people in the analysis of social interaction and social justice, many women of color continued to feel that gender was not often introduced as a concern within critical race theory discourse, and, consequently, critical race feminist theory was born. According to Adrien K. Wing, critical race feminist theory, like Black feminist theory, is grounded in “antiessentialism” and intersectionality.20 Antiessentialism asserts that women do not speak with one essential voice.21
Although there is increased acceptance of a variety of feminist theories, hooks has continued to question whether contemporary White women understand that their perspectives may not be indicative of all women’s realities and that their views may still be racist and classist.22 In referring to the issues raised regarding Anita Hill’s reports of sexual harassment during the U.S. Senate hearings before Clarence Thomas’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, Nellie Y. McKay wrote that White women feminists “forgot that for Black women, issues of gender are always connected to race.… Black women cannot choose between their commitment to feminism and the struggle with their men for racial justice.”23 Crenshaw echoed this sentiment by maintaining that modern discussions of feminism and antiracism have disregarded how racism and sexism are interwoven and that, “because of their intersectional identity as both women and people of color within discourses that are shaped to respond to one or the other, the interests and experiences of women of color are frequently marginalized within both.”24 Collins’s theoretical approach can be applied to the way in which investigations into the lives of battered Black