How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

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.

During a time when gay people can get married, and Beyoncé says she’s a feminist, it’s difficult to explain what we were up against in the late 1970s.

have learned a tremendous amount from working with people whose specific identities I share, but I also would have lost a lot if I had never worked with people who are different from myself.

“Well, Boston was different.” Because we were here.

What appealed to me about Black feminism was it asserted that we deserve space. We deserve space. If you’re not dealing with these issues that we have on our backs all the time, you’re not getting free, period, dot. We’re not even having a conversation until we can start there.