Womanism
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The word womanism was adapted from Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alice Walker. In her book In Search of Our Mother’s Garden: Womanist Prose, Walker used the word to describe the perspective and experiences of "women of color". Although most Womanist scholarship centers on the African American woman's experience, other non-white theorists identify themselves with this term.
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[edit] How Womanism developed
The roots of theological womanism grew out of the theology of Jacquelyn Grant, Delores Williams, and James Hal Cone[citation needed][original research?].
In Cones' book A Black Theology of Liberation, Cone argued that “God is black” in an effort to demonstrate that God identifies with oppressed people.
Grant argued that Cone did not attend to the fullness of black experience — specifically that of black women. She argued that the oppression of black women is different from that of black men. She believes that Jesus is a “divine co-sufferer” who suffered in his time like black women today.
Delores Williams took the work of theologians such as Cone and Grant and expanded upon them[citation needed]. In her book Sisters in the Wilderness, she defines womanism in the following way:
“Womanist theology is a prophetic voice concerned about the well-being of the entire African American community, male and female, adults and children. Womanist theology attempts to help black women see, affirm, and have confidence in the importance of their experience and faith for determining the character of the Christian religion in the African American community. Womanist theology challenges all oppressive forces impeding black women's struggle for survival and for the development of a positive, productive quality of life conducive to women’s and the family’s freedom and well-being. Womanist theology opposes all oppression based on race, sex, class, sexual preference, physical ability, and caste” (67).
Womanism did not truly get its start by books, but through lived experience. A number of black women were raped at Union Theological School and subsequently committed suicide. As the body bags began to leave the campus, the response of black men and white women was largely indifferent. Womanism became a movement, not just a term, in this context. Womanism was needed for the survival of black women in academia.[citation needed]
[edit] Womanism in education
Some examples of educational institutions that incorporate womanism in their graduate coursework are Eden Theological Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri, Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee and Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee.[citation needed]
[edit] Womanism and feminism
Womanism is a term most commonly used in the context of academic theological studies. Some authors use womanism and black feminism almost interchangeably, as they have much overlap and share heros and foremothers. Other experts make a distinction based on the prioritization of men. Both black and white feminists are primarily concerned with women, in contrast to our androcentric society. Womanists are black women who are, in a traditional communal sense, concerned very much with both black women and black men. Men are a higher priority to womanists than to feminists. Some feminists consider this a subversion of the feminist critique of androcentrism and corrective/constructive focus on women.
"White" feminism (as it is sometimes referred to by Womanists) is also called to remember that black women (and all women of minority race/ethnicity and/or low socio-economic status) were ignored and silenced by "white" feminism through its second wave. This is ironic given feminism's huge debt to black activists and public figures.
[edit] External links
- Womanist Theology
- Alice Walker Poetry (archive link, was dead)
- Barack Obama Wins the Sojourner Truth Vote
- Womanist Musings - womanist blog
