La Tonya Jordan’s Reviews > Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism > Status Update

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Transplanted African women soon realized that they were seen as "surrogate" men by white male slavers.

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From the onset of my involvement with the women's movement I was disturbed by the white women's liberationists' insistence that race and sex were two separate issues.

Since the slavery regarded the black woman as a marketable cook, wet nurse, housekeeper, it was crucial that she be so thoroughly terrorized that she would submit passively to the will of white master, mistress, and their children.

Black woman were sexual exploited during slavery because being females without any protection. Also, Black females did more work than the Black male. The Black female worked in the house, field, nurse children, maid, household chores. She could not get the job as overseer or driver as a Black male. Black female slaves were rapped on the slave trips. Enduring much abuse.

Just as the 19th century conflict over black male suffrage versus woman suffrage had placed black women in a difficult position, contemporary black women felt they were asked to choose between a black movement that primarily served the interests of black male patriarchs and a women's movement which primarily served the interests of racist white women.

A very good start...... There is information in the first 15 pages I did not know.

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Racist, sexist socialization had conditioned us to devalue our femaleness and to regard race as the only relevant label of identification.