Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism

In this chapter, hooks turns her attention to the 1960s women’s liberation movement. She explores how white male patriarchy created the framework for Black male patriarchy, along with how Black male patriarchy informed the civil rights and Black Power movements. hooks explains that the mainstream focus on Black male violence is a conscious effort of white hegemony to draw attention away from white male violence. However, a failure to fully examine Black male patriarchy ignores the ways it oppresses and endangers Black women—and is a form of self-oppression among men: “There can be no freedom for patriarchal men of all races as long as they advocate subjugation of women. Absolute power for patriarchs is not freeing” (117).

The women’s liberation movement, which was organized and operated mostly by middle-class white women, did not emphasize patriarchal power among Black men or how patriarchy infuses all class levels. hooks asserts that Black male sexists were able to escape notice due to the attention placed upon white male sexists. She argues that Black men and women have difficulty acknowledging sexism in their lives when racism has impacted them so deeply. However, hooks proposes that Black male sexism occurred before and was affirmed by slavery. Although both Black men and women were enslaved in the American South, the division of labor revealed that Black men still experienced an elevated status in comparison to Black women.

According to hooks, Black men in the civil rights and Black Power movements emphasized their position within a patriarchal future. Black women remained mostly silent while Black men outlined visions of the future in which they could assume their rightful leadership roles within the home and society. The projection of patriarchal values allied white men with Black patriarchal rhetoric, uniting them in a patriarchal hatred of women. Even though Black women often assumed provider roles, the service jobs they acquired were not considered “real” work or economically important. Many Black women also supported patriarchal values and were critical of their husbands, whom they felt were not living up to the masculine ideal.

hooks cites specific figures like Malcolm X and Amiri Baraka, who projected a future of Black male dominance within the home. While white men grappled with the emergence of white feminism, Black men asserted themselves as figures of total masculinity. hooks explains that figures like Baraka offered age-old stereotypes of Black men as primitive and muscular in the enticing package of Black male power. When Black men asserted their power and dominance over women, white men included Black men in more assertive societal positions, such as in the police force or as military leaders. Patriarchal structures in the home reinforced gender-based roles and a hatred of women as objects for exploitation.

hooks examines and rejects narratives that perpetuate the idea that Black women emasculate Black men by assuming breadwinner roles. Where white men enact their patriarchal power through institutional dominance, Black men exhibit patriarchal power over their wives, children, and one another. Both white and Black men target Black women as outlets for aggression: “In an imperialist racist patriarchal society that supports and condones oppression, it is not surprising that men and women judge their worth, their personal power, by their ability to oppress others” (104). hooks argues that the Black Power movement perpetuated the stereotype of Black women as “fallen” and inherently sinful, continuing the devaluation of Black womanhood.