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

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

So what we did, which I think is a tremendous contribution to politics in general, is that we really worked and struggled to develop a political analysis that took into account the multifaceted aspects of our identities and of our conditions. And I think the reason I say that it was such a contribution in general is because when I think about the approaches toward certain oppressions or whatever you want to call them—for example, if someone’s a socialist, it’s only about economics. It’s only about work. It’s only about material conditions. It’s only about capitalism. And it’s often only about men. And so that is to some extent—as important as all those things are, that’s kind of a flat slice, when you think of it. Or a thin slice, because as difficult as all those things I laid out are, for us, there’s even more going on than that. Because, yes, the workplace, we deal with many, many things that are characteristic of what happens with workers who are oppressed. You know, low wages, unsafe working conditions, et cetera. But we also deal with low wages because we’re female. And we deal with conditions of employment that include sexual harassment in a way that men do not and have not experienced, particularly before a certain point.