Week 1 post

From Brown to Higginbotham:

Ms. Higginbotham,
You discuss the problem that twenty-first century black women scholars continue to emphasize the inseparable unity of race and gender in their thoughts and dismiss efforts to bifurcate the identity of black women into a discrete category. Althoug I agree with your belief that it is important to recognize the diversity of women's (between black, white, asian, etc...) expierence, I believe you fail to recognize that too much attention to difference disrupts the relatively successful struggle to integrate women's history within the context of the entire human narrative. While I understand your concern that gender conflict within the black communities has tended to be devalued and discouraged, you overlook the fact that the events you seek to illuminate did not occur in isolation, but rather in dialogue with a myriad of other poeple and events. As historians we try to isolate one sub-section of the human population to explore, but the trick is to reintegrate that story within the greater dialogue of human history. Highlighting the difference between black women and black men or between black women and white women is not enough. In fact, such actions may only reaffirm the very traditional views on women's history that we seek to overcome. Ultimately, I believe that if we address the issues of black women's identity within context of the events of other groups at the same time, we can best promote the ideals that you want recognized.

-Elsa Barkley Brown