A Reflection on Patricia Hill Collins’ “Defining Black Feminist Thought”

“Rather than raising consciousness, Black feminist thought affirms and rearticulates a consciousness that already exists.”

Patricia Hill Collins’ “Defining Black Feminist Thought” sees Black feminist thought as the product of Black women’s standpoint, developed out of an Afrocentric worldview and a long history of resistance against white supremacy, rearticulated through the work of Black feminist intellectuals. She locates value and knowledge in the experience of being black without resorting to essentialism. She liberates knowledge by her valuation of black women’s standpoint as a privileged access point for the development of Black feminist thought. For her, working class black women have knowledge, experience and insight that is useful in the development of a resistant feminist politics. She does not see knowledge production as the privilege of an elite few. Neither does she believe that being black, in and of itself, guarantees Black feminist thought. Rather, she synthesizes the knowledge available from a black woman’s standpoint with the theory of black feminist intellectuals. The contributions of working class women are just an important to this knowledge production as that of the intellectuals.

Hill Collins illustrates her point in the way she presents her ideas. She includes quotes from a sixth grade girl, an elderly domestic worker and a woman who worked at a mill washing toilets in the same way that she includes quotes from intellectuals and published writers. She values the unique contributions to knowledge production that each of these women (and girl) provides and she shows this by presenting their ideas on equal footing. She furthers her valuation of different types of knowledge through her use of quotes from novels. Novels, not considered ‘fact’, are still useful for gaining insight. Her use of various sources of knowledge not only gives her credibility by showing that she practices what she preaches, it also makes the text function as an invitation. Instead of being alienating as many academic texts can be, this text suggests that everyone’s insight is important, that black women have a particular and valuable standpoint, and that everyone, including working class black women, can take part in the project of knowledge production. This makes her text activist because it opens the door way for many other black women to take part in the project of developing Black feminist thought.

There is a strong link between Black feminist thought and action. Hill Collins notes that there is often a dualism between thought and action. For Black feminism, thought and action are deeply linked. This emphasis on the gaining of knowledge and the development of theory through action reminds me of the Combahee River Collective’s “A Black Feminist Statement”. The statement was very action oriented and listed actions the Collective had taken, analyzed them and showed how theory came from them. This idea that action can create theory (instead of the other way around) seems to be a connection between Patricia Hill Collins and the Combahee River Collective. Black feminist thought values action as productive of knowledge. Theory and action are in dialogue.

I see this text as an incredibly ground-breaking and useful text. It not only sets out a definition for Black feminist thought, it sets up the necessary conditions for the continuance and flourishing of that thought. By using accessible language and by valuing the ideas and experiences of every day black women, Hill Collins makes feminist theory and intellectual theorizing a real option for many black women. Equally important, by acknowledging the importance of black women’s standpoint she opens up the possibility for feminist theory to be enriched by the ideas and experiences of women who have traditionally been excluded from the production of feminist theory.