Angela Y. Davis
Women, Race & Class
London: Penguin, 2019

We turn to oppressions. Davis writes,

‘The mystifying powers of racism often emanate from its irrational, topsy-turvy logic. According to the prevailing ideology, Black people were allegedly incapable of intellectual advancement. After all, they had been chattel, naturally inferior as compared to the white epitomes of humankind. But if they really were biologically inferior, they would have manifested neither the desire nor the capability to acquire knowledge. Ergo, no prohibition of learning would have been necessary. In reality, of course, Black people had always exhibited a furious impatience as regards the acquisition of education.’

— Women, Race & Class, p. 89.

Schedule

The group met to discuss reading this book from September through December 2021
Page numbers in this schedule refer to the 2019 Penguin edition.

29 September:  The Legacy of Slavery: Standards for a New Womanhood, pp. 1–26; The Anti-Slavery Movement and the Birth of Women’s Rights, pp. 26–39.

13 October: Class and Race in the Early Women’s Rights Campaign, pp. 40–60; Racism in the Woman Suffrage Movement, pp. 61–75.

27 October: The Meaning of Emancipation According to Black Women, pp. 76–86; Education and Liberation: Black Women’s Perspective, pp. 87–96.

10 November: Woman Suffrage at the Turn of the Century: The Rising Influence of Racism, pp. 97–112; Black Women and the Club Movement, pp. 113–122.

24 November: Working Women, Black Women and the History of the Suffrage Movement, pp. 123–133; Communist Women, pp. 134–154.

8 December: Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist, pp. 155–181; Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights, pp. 182–199.

22 December: The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective, pp. 200–21.

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