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

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

an 11 percent drop between 2016 and 2017 in the support of Black women for the Democratic Party. The poll also reported that the percentage of Black women who feel that neither party supports them had jumped from 13 percent to 21 percent in the same time period.

The year 2017 marked the fortieth anniversary of the Combahee River Collective Statement, which introduced to the world terms such as “interlocking oppression” and “identity politics.” The Combahee River Collective (CRC) was a radical Black feminist organization formed in 1974 and named after Harriet Tubman’s 1853 raid on the Combahee River in South Carolina that freed 750 enslaved people.

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.

In her introduction to Sisterhood is Powerful Robin Morgan writes: “I haven’t the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white heterosexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary- vested-interest-power.”

Audre was a key figure in the creation of the mobilizing of Black feminism as a political theory and practice. If you are familiar with her books, I particularly think of Sister Outsider, her book of essays. You will see that she was definitely making significant contributions as well as of course in her poetry, to what do we think of—what do we mean when we say we’re Black feminists? What are Black feminist concerns? As I said, she played a pivotal role in the building of Black feminism in the United States.

But however the right wing got ahold of identity politics and began using it as their whipping boy and their whipping girl, what we meant by identity politics when we originated the terminology was wholly different. What we were saying is that we have a right as people who are not just female, who are not solely Black, who are not just lesbians, who are not just working class, or workers—that we are people who embody all of these identities, and we have a right to build and define political theory and practice based upon that reality. That was all we were trying to say. That’s what we meant by identity politics. We didn’t mean that if you’re not the same as us, you’re nothing.

But as I have explained, the reason we used the term “identity politics” is that we were asserting at a time when Black women had no voice. At a time when Black women were being told to walk seven steps behind and have babies for the nation. At a time when Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture said—when asked what is the position of the Black woman in the Black struggle, and his response was that Black women’s position was to be prone. He actually meant supine.

And so here I am in this class, and I’m watching this documentary about Margaret Sanger. And I’m thinking, “She’s a racist.” Women’s lives are complicated because of the ways that we have to navigate patriarchy. She had this vision for women to have access to choice basically about how and when and where you wanted to start a family. And she marries this man, who was actively a part of the eugenics movement and rich. And basically gets him to fund the development of the birth control pill. But then she gets involved in this movement. And these two things start to align where, well, the reason that we need this isn’t just about individual choice and self-determination, it’s actually about population control and controlling “undesirable” and “deplorable” people, essentially.

If we take to heart the spirit and politics of the Combahee River Collective Statement, what we go away with is this: (1) never be afraid to speak truth to power, and (2) in the face of racist, misogynist threats of violence and attacks, when you have the impulse to either fight or flight, what do you do? Fight! And, (3) always ally yourself with those on the bottom, on the margins, and at the periphery of the centers of power. And in doing so, you will land yourself at the very center of some of the most important struggles of our society and our history.

never hesitate to love your people, and the people who struggle alongside you, but also never be afraid to critique and struggle with those you love.