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This autobiographical article presents a narrative of a young woman who joined the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, balancing the impact of the Black Panthers on the Oakland community and the sexism in the leadership of the organization. It highlights the dedication and the hard work that men and women of the Party endured in order to break the grips of racism that influenced Black people. By using the theory of Africana womanism, she argues that even though issues of race precede issues of gender, the latter concern can not be underplayed.
In Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, Clenora Hudson-Weems creates an eighteen step theoretical frame that explains Black female behavior worldwide. The theory of Africans womanism differs from Feminist theory because Africans Womanism emerges out of the African woman's historical and cultural experience. Feminism is a theoretical paradigm that addresses the observations of middle-class White women, a group whose main target is sexism. Hudson-Weems argues that unlike the feminist, the Africans womanist ... realizes the critical need to prioritize the antagonistic forces as racism, classism, and sexism, respectively. In the final analysis, Africans womanism is connected to the tradition of being self-reliant and autonomous, working toward participation in 'africana liberation ("Cultural and Agenda Conflicts in Academia" 187).
When I reflect on why I joined the Black Panther Party, issues of race, not gender, surface most prominently. I saw racism as the number one assault on Black people. Although the Panthers had a predominantly male membership, I felt not the least excluded. For one, Kathleen Neal Cleaver was promoted as Communications Secretary of the Party, and her image appeared in posters along with those of Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. As Hudson-Weems puts it, slavery had equalized oppression for Black men and women (47). Hence, I had always witnessed men and women working together throughout my community and I carried this understanding into this largely male organization. Personally, I had been cruelly victimized by racism, and I had witnessed the police violate the humanity of Black men and women. So, when I stood up for my rights back in the late 1960s, I stood up for my entire race, not solely for myself as a woman. When I fought sexism in the...