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A review by 11corvus11
A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry
5.0
The authors of this book really did a great job at balancing the horrific trauma Black women have endured over the centuries with stories of empowerment, effective action, and just every day life much of the time. This is what I found lacking in the indigenous peoples hotus which contained important info but was just an onslaught of trauma without many stories outside of that. (Also, some indigenous communities accuse the author of being a pretendian and have also questioned the historical accuracy of some of her claims.)
The authors also covered many varieties of Black women's history and culture, being inclusive of LGBQ, transgender, gender non-conforming, mixed heritage and race women, religious women, feminist/womanist women, imperfect women, women who chose a wide variety of resistance tactics, and so on. They talked about struggles and infighting in movements between these groups as well as times of great unity.
Also highlighted were many mainstream movements and actions that many people know about from our histories, but had no idea how many and much Black women were involved. They discuss intersecting struggles that Black women uniquely face both from the greater population as well as at home and in activist circles from Black men. One thing that floored me was how the Nation of Islam initially called for only Black men to join the Million Man March on Washington, and asked all Black women to stay home and take care of the children. Not only did Black women activists fight against this, they also had their own Million Woman March that focused on Black women's issues but was inclusive of men. I have never heard of the latter, and that disturbed me quite a bit. There were multiple instances of things like this where I had no idea how little I knew about Black women's role and often designing and completely holding together these movements and actions.
Another thing making this book stand out is how they draw the reader into the intimate experiences of Black women throughout the book. Often times we just hear dry facts such as X terrible thing happened, now let's move on to the next terrible thing. But, these authors manage to draw you into a greater understanding of what these women experience, felt, saw, struggled through, and survived over and over.
The authors didn't do a very good job with disability, but the intention is there. They use the term "differently abled" (which an abled person coined also with good intentions but which erases and stigmatizes disability) and also failed to cover and capture disabled experiences accurately and fully the way they masterfully described many other struggles. That said, I assume they tried to find the right terminology and got it from the wrong source. So, I hope they'll do better in the future.
Despite this flaw, this book is still so good and so well done that it's still a 5 star book for me.
The authors also covered many varieties of Black women's history and culture, being inclusive of LGBQ, transgender, gender non-conforming, mixed heritage and race women, religious women, feminist/womanist women, imperfect women, women who chose a wide variety of resistance tactics, and so on. They talked about struggles and infighting in movements between these groups as well as times of great unity.
Also highlighted were many mainstream movements and actions that many people know about from our histories, but had no idea how many and much Black women were involved. They discuss intersecting struggles that Black women uniquely face both from the greater population as well as at home and in activist circles from Black men. One thing that floored me was how the Nation of Islam initially called for only Black men to join the Million Man March on Washington, and asked all Black women to stay home and take care of the children. Not only did Black women activists fight against this, they also had their own Million Woman March that focused on Black women's issues but was inclusive of men. I have never heard of the latter, and that disturbed me quite a bit. There were multiple instances of things like this where I had no idea how little I knew about Black women's role and often designing and completely holding together these movements and actions.
Another thing making this book stand out is how they draw the reader into the intimate experiences of Black women throughout the book. Often times we just hear dry facts such as X terrible thing happened, now let's move on to the next terrible thing. But, these authors manage to draw you into a greater understanding of what these women experience, felt, saw, struggled through, and survived over and over.
The authors didn't do a very good job with disability, but the intention is there. They use the term "differently abled" (which an abled person coined also with good intentions but which erases and stigmatizes disability) and also failed to cover and capture disabled experiences accurately and fully the way they masterfully described many other struggles. That said, I assume they tried to find the right terminology and got it from the wrong source. So, I hope they'll do better in the future.
Despite this flaw, this book is still so good and so well done that it's still a 5 star book for me.