Black Women Radicals

Black Women Radicals often highlight Black women who are leaders for the advancement of not only the Black community, but more specifically Black women.

Black Women Radicals (BWR) is a Black feminist advocacy organization that centers Black women's radical political activism. Rooted in intersectional, transnational feminism and Womanism, Black Women Radicals has a mission of empowering Black radical women, gender non-conforming, and non-binary activists. Founder and Executive Director Dr. Jaimee A. Swift created Black Women Radicals in "2018 when her graduate school coursework wasn’t enough."

Mission

The mission of Black Women Radicals takes on Angela Davis’ definition of radical which "simply means grasping at the root". A Black woman radical is defined as the intersection of transnational, gender-expansive, affirming, activism. BWR strives for revolutionary transformation in all aspects of life. Their politics focus on Black radical feminism that strives to dissemble heteronormative white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, policing, queerphobia, racism, sexism, and respectability politics. The BWR asserts that it is against any form of violent manifestation that is the antithesis Black feminist solidarity.

Structure and Organization

Kimberlé Crenshaw is a lawyer, author, civil rightsfeminist who coined the term "intersectionality." Intersectionality is a pillar of the BWR, as they seek to defy and dismantle homophobia, fatphobia, xenophobia, queerphobia, etc.

Black Women Radicals takes inspiration from Black feminists authors and activists such as bell hooks. Her work sets the foundations for the principles of BWR.

The Black Women Radicals organization puts a large of its focuses on challenging what is deemed normal within society. To be a Black Woman Radical, according to the organization, one must identify as a black woman, and understand the necessity for a complete alteration of every aspect of life towards one that is more loving and inclusive. To be brief, the organization uses the voices of past and present black women activists, like Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, and Kimberlé Crenshaw to state that their form of radicalism revolves around intersectional activist who "grasps the root" and takes it to the street. This idea and definition of radicalism is intricate to the organization and influences their behavior.

The Black Women Radicals follow and believe in a Womanist Liberation Model. Their values are also influenced by black visionaries and activists, like Bell Hooks, centering their organization and work around three things:

• Love
• Empowerment
• Resistance

These values revolve around the black experience, i.e. love for black people and empowerment of black people, but due to their idea of radicalism, the resistance they preach is against any oppressive heteronormative system towards black women, including but not limited to, racism, sexism, ableism, agism, capitalism, nationalism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, and fat-phobia.

Cultural Impacts and Current Initiatives

The organization aim's to "cultivate and use Black feminist's political education to create and build alternative strategies for liberation." These efforts consist of: open dialogue, research, and education about the role of Black women in the socio-political agents of radical change. Voices in Movement- a series of interviews and stories from around the world- highlights the power of Black women, while creating an open dialogue about activism and issues concerning Black women and gender expansive people.

Policies and cultural impacts include the BWR support to center Nigerian women's leadership and activism in the #ENDSARS movement, collaboration with the Third World Women's Alliance and the Afro feminism movement in France.

The Black Women Radicals Database

Pictured is Unita Blackwell, the first Black mayor of Mississippi. She is one of the many notable Black women highlighted within the Black Women Radicals Database.

Noel is a Black feminist and member of Black Women Radicals. She often discussed how to embrace Afro-feminism as a European, many of her discussions centering in France.

The Black Women Radicals Database (BWRD) contains archives of Black women's radical activism throughout history. The database contains transnational leaders and activists from Africa and the African Diaspora. Activists and leaders include Mbuya Nehanda, Alimenta Bishop, Unita Blackwell, and more. According to the BWR, the database is a constantly evolving resource for community-building, academic, research, and political purposes. The BWRD seeks to be a source of representation for Black women who consider themselves a part of the socio-political movement within Africa and the African Diaspora. The Database is currently free for educational use.

The Radical Black Woman Series

This is an ongoing event initiated in 2021 that Black Women Radicals conducted in collaboration with The Claudia Jones School for Political Education and The Paul Robeson House & Museum. The purpose of this series is to educate those in attendance about the work and contributions of "Black women leftist leaders" in history and all throughout the world. They discussed Black women who have been at the forefront of change, policy, and community organizing. Many of these women include "Charlotta Bass, Williana Burroughs, Angie Dickerson, Shirley Graham Dubois, Lorraine Hansberry, Claudia Jones, Una Marson, Charlene Mitchell, Louise Thompson Patterson, Eslanda Goode Robeson" and more information can be found about their contributions in the Black Women Radicals Database. The individual events of this web series was hosted by a variety of Black feminists, leading major discourses about Black feminism throughout history. Additionally, featured guest from The Claudia Jones School for Political Education and the The Paul Robeson House & Museum included speakers, authors, and activists such as Mariame Kaba, Ashley Farmer, and Erik S. McDuffie. One of the main goals of the Radical Black Woman web series was to examine the contributions of Black women leftist leaders through a political, social, and intersectional lens that is not always investigated by historians.

The School for Black Feminist Politics

The School for Black Feminist Politics (SBFP), is a Black feminist political academic program that uses community inclusive events, teachings from artists, activists, and educators whose intention is to expand intersectionality and highlight the academics of Black feminist histories, founded in 2020. According to the BWR the school prioritizes community amongst black women and their allies. The school's mission is to create a safe place where black women can teach, relate and support one another. Activities within this program include: community conversations and teach-ins. This program is intended to financially support black women, as well as provide a space for learning. Lectures provided in the program often include reading lists. Although it is a school, BWR states their focus revolves more around activism than academia. The school believes strongly in the idea that formal academic education is secondary to the movement, and therefore do not limit their education to the classroom and textbooks. The mission of the School for Black feminist Politics is to, "Empower Black Feminisms in Black Politics by expanding the field from transnational, intersectional, and multidisciplinary perspectives." The initiative attempts to explore global feminist politics while examining the past, present, and future of Black feminist thought and behavior. BWR is currently working on building a physical location for this initiative.

Teach-ins

The School's teach-ins are hour-long lectures are filmed and posted online for the public to see, and posted to their YouTube channel. These teach-ins discuss different parts of the world's perspective on black women and how it affects the way we view and express ourselves, and every teach is taught by a black woman. The school for Black Feminist Politics also live streams its monthly community conversations on social media, so that the public can have a say on what is happening in real-time, as well as hosting face to face sessions.

Community conversations

Community Conversations occur once a month under The School for Black Feminist Politics. These conversations tackle themes that take place within the non-binary, gender non-conforming, communities-with its focus on Black Women Community. Series include, but are not limited to " Caribbean Feminism" and " African Feminism" by Nana Brantuo and Dr. Andrea N. Baldwin.

The Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities Project

The Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities Project is a collaboration between Black Women Radicals and Asian American Feminist Collective working within the Asian American Writers Workshop (AAWW). The Asian American Writers Workshop is an alternative literary space that tackles the intersection of social justice and immigration. AAWW was founded in 1991 and has been publicly known for sharing the stories and history of Asian Americans. The collaboration between these organizations explores the definition of solidarity between minorities and feminist groups. Within this project scholars review Black and Asian American Feminist histories, frameworks and methodologies. According to BWR solidarity means: " We understand and commit to taking responsibility for one another". This mission is achieved by creating a sanctuary for stories to be told, sharing the histories of these minority groups and building an inclusive pipeline for generations afterwards.

References

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