THEORIES AND THEORIZING Integrative Frameworks for Understandi ng Black Feminist Thought Knowledge Knowledge Consciousness and theConsciousness Politics of Afrocentric Empowerment Epistemology Empowerment Dialogue Empathy THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE The formula for social change 1 Changed consciousness of individuals 2 Social transformation of political and economic institutions THE REQUIREMENTS Must be validated by ordinary African American women Scholars must be personal advocates for their material be accountable have lived experienced Scholars must be willing to engage in dialogues with ordinary everyday people Afrocentric feminist thought within academia must be prepared to confront Eurocentric masculinist political and epistemological Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women s emerging power as agents of knowledge Language Barrie You cannot translate instances of Stand English preoccupied with abstraction or with nothing nobody evidently alive into Black English Feminism may be for everyone but Black feminist thought may not be understood by everyone it may be fruitless to try to translate ideas from an Afrocentric feminist epistemology into a Eurocentric masculinist framework Why is this Language is one of the tools that we use to give meaning to thoughts and events If two languages are fundamentally different many things will get lost in translation The solution Rearticulate a Black woman s standpoint to refashion the concrete and reveal the more universal Genealogies of Community Home and Nation Chandra Talpade Mohanty Key Words o Globalization o Monoculturalism o Multiculturalism o Belonging o Claim o Racialization o Context What are the challenges for feminists of various genealogies working together Today s challenges are different than those faced before A key factor in this is globalization Or the unfettered mobility of capital and the accompanying erosion and reconstitution of local and national economic and political resources and of democratic processes the postcold war U S imperialist state On the Topics of Belonging and Home Belonging Home What is belonging Is home a The manner in which geographical space a the way an individual historical an emotional identifies correlates to sensory space the way a community nation state ethnic Home has different group etc and its meaning for different institution categorize people the individual Belonging coordinates to our identities how one understands and defines home is profoundly political Geographical location greatly affects one s sense of belonging and understanding of home The Big Idea There is no clear or obvious fit between geography race and politics for someone like me I am always called on to define and redefine these relationships race Asianness and brownness are not embedded in me whereas the histories of colonialism racism sexism and nationalism as well as of privilege class and status are involved in my relation to white people Mohanty states that she defines what it means to be South Asian by educating herself and reflecting and understanding the histories and experiences of other North American women In this way she was able to have a genealogy that is always relational and fluid as well as urgent and necessary DO MUSLIM WOMEN REALLY NEED SAVING Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others Key Terms Rhetoric Imperialism Colonialism Colonial Appropriation Cultural Relativity Agency What are the ethics of the War on Terrorism a war that justifies itself by purporting to liberate or save Afghan women Post 9 11 Salvation Rhetoric Cultural Explanations the Mobilization of Women o After the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 there was an urgent search for knowledge about Afghani Muslim women o Instead of focusing on political and historical explanations the media and experts sought cultural explanations o Language used us Westerners vs them Muslims Think about this why are women used as excuses for about the culture of Why was knowing the region particularly its religious beliefs starting maintaining war s and treatment of women more urgent than exploring the history of the development of repressive regimes in the region and the Politics of the Veil Saving Muslim women Projects of saving other women depend on and reinforce a sense of superiority by Westerners a form of arrogance that deserves to be challenged Something to think about Can we only free Afghan women o be like us or might we have to recognize that even after liberation they might want diff erent things than what we would want for them Big Question Why must liberation equate to Westernization VEILING ITSELF MUST NOT BE CONFUSED WITH OR MADE TO S TA N D F O R L AC K O F AG E N CY T h e re a re m a n y f o rm s o f covering which h a v e d i ff e re n t meanings in the communities in w h i ch t h e y a re used