Black Feminism in Wakanda

What is Black Feminism?

• A school of thought that sexism, class oppression, gender identity and racism are all connected.
• The way that all of those concepts relate is called intersectionality.
• This term was created by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989
• Basically, it means that different parts of your identity do not exist separately from each other. They are connected.
• For example, a black woman experiences oppression differently than a white woman. She lives her life as a black person, might face those prejudices, and as a woman, whereas a white woman still lives in this world as a white person, and receives those privileges.
• Another example, black person in a wheelchair faces more discrimination and/or hardships than a black person would who is not in a wheelchair.
• Black feminists understand that Black women are discriminated against in ways that do not just fit under sexism and racism.
• Black feminism/womanism is about advocating for the agency and power of black women.

Turn and Talk with your neighbor:

What are some of the things that Black women go through in our society that other people do not go through?

Important Black Feminists

• Pauli Murray----She was a Civil Rights Era lawyer, and she wrote a book States’ Laws on
• Race and Color. She advocated for Black women in her practice.
• Audre Lorde----She was a queer black woman, mother, activist and poet. She dedicated her life to fighting against racism, sexism and homophobia.
• bell hooks ----- She is a scholar who writes about patriarchy or the idea that men are superior to women. She wrote, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism.
• Alice Walker----She is an important writer. She wrote The Color Purple, and she created the term womanism, as a way of creating a new term that included Black women, as she felt, as did many others, that the word feminism did not.

Let’s Talk About the Women of Wakanda!

• Do a quick jot: What were some of the roles the women in Wakanda had? Quickly jot them down, and we’ll discuss.

Wakandan Women Compared to Women In Our Society Discussion Questions

• Who can remind me of what black feminism is?
• Do you think that the women of Wakanda are Black feminists?
• Is their society Black feminist?
• Provide Evidence
• Is our own society?
• Provide Evidence

Exit Ticket

Write a paragraph response to this question:

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What lessons can we learn, if any, from the women of Wakanda, and the ways that they were treated and their role in society?