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But Some Of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women's Studies

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This compliation of essays lays down the curricular and research agenda for the establishment of a Black Women's Studies program in the academy. It weaves personal narrative, literary criticism, and empirical analysis which cogently argues that Black Studies and Women's Studies in academia do not adequately address the multiple consciousness of Black women through discourses on racism, sexism, classism, and sexuality. The authors of the various articles articulate the need to look at Black women's lives as multi-faceted and complex, neither wholly positive or negative. I am not sure if the authors decided to change the name of the book to make it more marketable but the original title is "All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men,But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies." I tend to prefer the original title because it brilliantly captures the dilemmas that Black women face in higher education and the wider - negation of their experiences as Black people and as women. The book delivers an historical examination of the Black Women's Studies movement that began in the early 1970's with the formation of the Combahee River Collective, a black feminist organization and the National Black Feminist Organization. It also pushes for the development of a Black Women's Studies program that reaches out beyond the halls of academe and situates its curricular and research agenda in political and economic organizing on behalf of Black women of all educational and economic classes.

This is a seminal novel in the field of Black Women's Studies, and although it was written about a decade ago it is still relevant. If you are a reader who is new to the field, and is striving to better understand Black Women's Studies and its founding principles, as well as the factors that lead to its development, then this book is for you.