Theories and Theorizing:Slide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Integrative Frameworks for UnderstandingTHEORIES AND THEORIZING:Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of EmpowermentKnowledge Consciousness Afrocentric Epistemology Empowerment Dialogue Empathy Truth“Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women’s emerging power as agents of knowledge.”THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE: The formula for social change:1. Changed consciousness of individuals2. Social transformation of political and economic institutionsTHE 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 requirementsLanguage Barriers“‘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 translationThe solution: Rearticulate a Black woman’s standpoint [to] refashion the concrete and reveal the more universal human dimensionsGenealogies of Community, Home and NationChandra Talpade MohantyKey WordsoGlobalizationoMonoculturalismoMulticulturalismoBelongingoClaimoRacializationoContext“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 post-cold war U.S. imperialist state…”On the Topics of Belonging and HomeBelonging HomeWhat is belonging? The manner in which the way an individual identifies correlates to the way a community (nation-state, ethnic group, etc.) and its institution categorize the individual.“Is home a geographical space, a historical, an emotional sensory space?”“Home” has different meaning for different people. 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 othersKey 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?”oAfter the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, there was an “urgent search for knowledge” about (Afghani) Muslim womenoInstead of focusing on political and historical explanations, the media and “experts” sought cultural explanationsoLanguage used: “us” (Westerners) vs. “them” (Muslims)Think about this: why are women used asexcuses for starting/maintaining war(s)?Post-9/11 Salvation Rhetoric, Cultural Explanations & the Mobilization of Women“[Why] was knowing about the culture of the region, particularly its religious beliefs and treatment of women, more urgent than exploring the history of the development of repressive regimes in the region and the U.S. role in this history[?]”“VEILI N G ITSELF MU S T NOT BE CONFUSE D W I TH, OR M A D E TO STAND FOR, L AC K OF AG E NCY.”“There are m a ny fo rms o f covering, w hi ch …have diff erent meanin g s in t he communiti es in which they a re used”“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 different things than what we would want for them?”Big Question: Why must liberation equate to Westernization? Politics of the