The Role of Women in Politics and Power Creation - Assignment Example

Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g. mammy, the matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bull dagger), let alone cataloging the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, Indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western hemisphere. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters, and our community, which allows us to continue our struggle and work.

This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression. In the case of Black women, this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movements that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves.

We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough. ( Williams, Mary, & Emerson 2008)