Feminism in Coalition: Thinking with US Women of Color Feminism

305 Pages·2022·5.477 MB·English

by  Liza Taylor

feminism in co ali tion
Feminism in Coa lit ion
liza taylor
Feminism in Coa lit ion
Thinking with US Women of Color Feminism
duke university press
Durham and London
2022
© 2022 duke university press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞
Designed by A. Mattson Gallagher
Typeset in Chaparral Pro by Westchester Publishing Services
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Names: Taylor, Liza, [date] author.
Title: Feminism in coalition : thinking with US women of color
feminism / Liza Taylor.
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022020478 (print)
LCCN 2022020479 (ebook)
ISBN 9781478016519 (hardcover)
ISBN 9781478019152 (paperback)
ISBN 9781478023784 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Womanism. | Womanism—United States. |
Feminism—United States. | African American feminists. | Feminist
theory—United States. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism &
Feminist Theory | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Black Studies (Global)
Classification: LCC HQ1197 .T395 2022 (print) |
LCC HQ1197 (ebook) | DDC 305.420973—dc23/eng/20220705
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020478
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020479
Cover art: Darius Quarles, Coalition, 2022. Acrylic on canvas,
30 × 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
To the students who took Feminism in
Co alit ion at lmu (spring 2016 and spring 2018)
and Elon (spring 2020). This is for you.
Contents
Acknowl edgments ix
Introduction 1
1. From Rosa Luxemburg to the Combahee River Collective: 33
Spontaneous Co ali tion as a Precursor to Intersectional
Marxism and Politico- Ethical Co ali tion Politics
2. Women of Color Feminism and Politico-E thical Coa li tion 67
Politics: Recentering the Politics of Co ali tion with Reagon,
Smith, Combahee, and Lorde
3. Co ali tion from the Inside Out: Struggling toward Coa li tional 106
Identity and Developing a Co ali tional Consciousness with
Lorde, Anzaldúa, Sandoval, and Pratt
4. Writing Feminist Theory, D oing Feminist Politics: Rethinking 150
Collective Feminist Authorship with This Bridge Called My Back
5. The W omen’s March on Washington and Politico-E thical 189
Co ali tional Opportunities in the Age of Trump
Conclusion: Lessons for Con temporary and Future 225
Feminist Activists
Notes 249
References 259
Index 277
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowl edgments
Thank you to the Women of Color feminist authors of the texts referenced
throughout this book. I’m deeply indebted to all of you for your willing-
ness to share your lived experiences and for your brilliant conceptual and
po liti cal formulations. Writing a “po liti cal theory” doctoral dissertation that
aimed to center the concepts and theories of US Women of Color feminism
was no small feat. I could not have completed it without the help of several
people. Thank you to Geoffrey Whitehall and Lori Marso for helping to put
back together the pieces of my work when I encountered intense re sis-
tance. Thank you to my dissertation committee (Carole Pateman, Joshua
Dienstag, Juliet Williams, and Ray Rocco) for passing an unconventional
po liti cal theory dissertation, with a special thanks to Juliet for encouraging
me to name t hese authors and texts as primary. Thank you to the W omen
of Color feminism fellow travelers who sustained me and this proj ect be-
yond the University of California at Los Angeles. Without you, this book
never would have come to fruition. A special thanks to Zein Murib. Upon
discovering our shared interest in co ali tion politics and Women of Color
feminism at a 2014 Western Po liti cal Science Association panel, we set out
to find other po liti cal science scholars working in this area. A year l ater, our
first “Feminism in Co ali tion” panel was born. Thank you to Juliet Hooker,