Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice (Contradictions of Modernity) [Paperback]

Patricia Hill Collins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In her first book, Black Feminist Thought (Routledge, 1990), Collins (sociology, Univ. of Cincinnati) looked at the role of African American women in the feminist movement. Here she focuses on the prejudices they face. Collins discusses the culture of silence in which African American women are seen but not heard, making them outsiders within their own race. She notes that their accomplishments are often ignored, especially when the women transcend expectations. She points to Mary McLeod Bethune, whose role in FDR's administration is often overlooked, and Angela Davis, who found that her Civil Rights work boiled down to her Afro hairdo. Collins discusses the need for African American women to avoid being segmented into areas the present culture finds acceptable. This is a difficult book but well worth the read. For academic libraries, especially those with African American and women's studies collections.?Danna C. Bell-Russel, Natl. Equal Justice Lib., American Univ., Washington, DC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1 edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816623775
• ISBN-13: 978-0816623778
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Activism
  • #13 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Philosophy
  • #96 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Feminist Theory

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Continuation of Black Feminist Thought, May 15, 2001

By 

"nuclearmse" (Oxford, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice (Contradictions of Modernity) (Paperback)

Patricia Hill Collins builds off of her equally enlightening and well-written Black Feminist Thought to create fighting words. She proposes a "critical social theory" to combine both theory and action for black feminism, stressing that thought is useless without these actions. She analyzes the need for such a theory as well as the reasons for black feminism's unique ability to serve as that theory. Using sociology, postmodernism, and Afrocentrism as her examples, Collins examines the history of black women within the areas and how her critical social theory could impact them. The overall point of such critical social theory is to achieve empowerment for black women, and Collins ties everything together into her vision of how that is possible. An excellent book, though anyone who wants a complete picture should also read her Black Feminist Thought.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book...., April 20, 2008

By 

D. Donnelly (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice (Contradictions of Modernity) (Paperback)

In Fighting Words, Hill Collins uses the initial theorizing of her first book to further investigate several issues that emerged in Black Feminist Thought. In examining Black women's search for justice in the U.S., she looks at their status of `outsiders within': privy to the thoughts of white folks in general and white feminists in particular, as well as to those of black men--yet never seen as the focal point of either the women's movement or the civil rights movement; erased from White history, women's history, and Afro-American history; and denied the privileges that Black men experience from being male and White women experience from being White, Black women are in a unique (and largely invisible) position in our society. Because they have been so invisible in our various histories, they know things about the Whites they worked for, the Black men in whose congregations they served, and the integrated groups that they were "allowed" to join, that few others in this society are aware of. In this book, Hill Collins moves beyond Black Feminist Thought to examine the unique contributions of Black women, and to theorize the similarities faced by all oppressed people--whether these are based on nation, race, class, gender, age, sexuality or ability. Honest and informative, this book should be required reading for those who call themselves Africanists, womanists, or feminists.