Not Just Race, Not Just Gender - Black Feminist Readings (Paperback)

From the 19th-century articulations of Sojourner Truth to such contemporary thinkers as Patricia J. Williams, black feminists have always recognized the mutual dependence of race and gender. In this text, Valerie Smith explores the myriad ways race and gender shape lives and social practices. Smith identifies black feminist theorizing as a strategy of reading rather than as something located in a particular subjective experience. Her intent is not to deny the validity of black women's lived experience, but rather to resist deploying a uniform model of black women's lives. Whether reading race or gender in the Central Park jogger case or in contemporary media, like "Livin' Large," Smith dispalys critical rigour that promises to change the way we think about race and gender.