She is born in January 4, 1952, a black feminist author, cultural critic, and best known for her 1979 book Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman.
Wallace graduated from New Lincoln high school in 1969 and enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and transferred to City College of New York in 1970.
She is currently a professor of English at the City College of New York and the graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Wallace’s writings on literature, art, film and popular culture have been widely published and have made her a leader of African- American intellectuals.
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During her college life, she and her mother founded Women students and Artists for Black Art Liberation(WSABAL), where she advocated for the inclusion of women of color’s voices in the art world.
Her inspiration was “you didn’t have to be black, you didn’t have to be a woman; and you could be a student.”
WSABAL challenged the exclusion of black women from white and male dominated art establishments while also responding to how black male artists disregarded black female artists.
During the period of 1970s, she contributed writing many articles, issues about black power and women in Ms. magazine and in 1974, she began writing for the publication on black feminism and expressed her position in the black middle-class educated superiority.
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Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman was published in 1978.
In this book she described how women remained marginalized by the system of society controlled by men of Black Power and the ways in which a genuine female subjectively was blocked by the traditional myths of black womanhood.
It criticizes sexism in the black community and black nationalism, and also reflects Civil rights movement .
She recognized black women as the lowest of the low in American society, argued that black women suffered specific injustices based on the intersection of their race and gender. They could not find complete solidarity with black men or white women.
Therefore, black women blamed for their persecution during slavery while white women were unable to understand their problems.
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Black Macho contributed to the released many other essays and articles such as “The Myth of black Macho:A Response to Angry Black Feminists”, “To be Black and Female” and more.
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Michelle Wallace’s Quotes-
“There has been a growing distrust, even hatred, between black men and black women. It has been nursed along not only by racism on the part of whites but also by an almost deliberate ignorance on the part of blacks about the sexual politics of their experiences in this country.”
“The imperative is clear: Either we will make history or remain the victims of it.”
"If a black female celebrity is pretty, or sexy, or is married to a white man, she is called a talentless whore. If she’s elegant or highbrow or intellectual, she’s pronounced funny-looking, uptight and in need of a good brutal fuck. If she happens to appeal to a white audience, she is despised. If she’s independent, physical, or aggressive, she’s called a dyke."
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Questions-
What are the factors responsible for Women empowerment?
How black feminism is different from white Feminism?