University of Gondar Faculty of Social Science & Humanities Department of Sociology Post-graduate Program

Learning from the Outsider Within: The sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought (By Patricia Hill-Collins) Reviewed by Wubshet Tadele

For the Partial Fulfillment of the Course: Gender, Culture & Society

Submitted to: Admassu (Dr)

July 2011

Patricia Hill-Collins, in her feminist stand point theoretical approach, asserted the unique experience of black women which has been overlooked by the predominant white-male sociologists. Collins argued that the experiential uniqueness of some groups, potentially, can enable sociology to develop a creative insight in intra-disciplinary framework. Black feminists thought consists of ideas produced by black women that clarify a stand point of and for black women. This definition assumes the association of thoughts with the life conditions of the thinkers; the common perception of their experiences by black women as a group; black women differed in their reflections of their experience due to the diversity in terms of class, region, age, & sexual orientation; and black women are tacitly aware of their experience that alerts the need to clarify it by intellectuals of their group.

Theoretical background
The concept of stranger: Simmel (1921) identified the benefits of the stranger: 1) Objectivity is the result of the alternate views of nearness & remoteness 2) People believe strangers more than normative members of the group 3) Strangers are able to see patterns what might not been recognized by group members Schutz, on the other hand, describes the stranger as the man who question everything that seems to be unquestionable to the members of the approached group (Schutz, 1994: 502).

Besides, both Mannheim (1936) and Lee (1973) acknowledges the creative tendency of strange intellectuals. Sociological paradigms: A Paradigm has two elements: the thought itself & its producers and practitioners (Collins). In the thought element the partiality of knowledge & the mutual interdependence of theories & observations are fundamental with respect to our topic. Producers & practitioners, on the other hand, can be viewed in terms of insiders world views, the way the insider is created through socialization, and maintaining this status quo.

The dilemma: insider versus outsider status

Theres a dominated intellectual dilemma among black feminists; feminists passed through sociological experience of intellectual life which is in paradox with their unique real life experience which seemed to be unaddressed in sociology. In this dilemma, black women have the insider status with their academic career in sociology, in one hand, and the outsider status with respect to their unique stand against the dominance of white males in sociology, on the other hand. The content of black feminists idea consists of three major themes: the meaning of selfdefinition & self-evaluation, the interlocking nature of oppression, and the importance of redefining culture (Collins). Black feminists react against two aspects of the white male scholars adherence of the black womens experience: omission & distortion. The real experience of women & their contribution

in the society has been overlooked by white male scholars; and, their experience has been interpreted in a wrong & unrealistic ways. There are two fundamental questions raised by black feminists which direct the incorporation of black womens live in sociological theorizing. One, which sect of the society should be the major point of analysis; two, how the concepts in sociology interpreted should be revisited. Although non-academic black women know the omission & distortion of their experience, they couldnt challenge it due to their limited involvement in disciplinary discourses. Likewise, the conventional professionals of sociology are not experientially fit to identify the gaps. Thus, black female scholars are in a better position to identify the gaps through their experience & know how it should be theorized in a paradigmatic sociology. Black female scholars, try to resolve this dilemma either through leaving the discipline of sociology (remain an outsider) or repressing their live experience in favor of sociological paradigm (become an insider). Nonetheless, there is a better alternative out of the dilemma, i.e. outsider within status. Institutional reinforcement of outsider within status, will enables black feminists, as well as, others with similar positions to play a creative role in viewing realities which couldnt be done by insiders. This condition will be maintained through mutual interdependence of live experiences & sociological paradigmatic experiences; the live experiences will be interpreted in a systematically advanced way of sociology, and, in return, sociology will be fulfilled through new live experiences.

Concluding remarks

White men essentialism seemed to be acknowledged in this writing The writing focuses on analytical level; failed to describe the specific live experiences of women which have been overlooked by sociology. Describing the real unaddressed (or properly unaddressed) black women experiences should come prior to its explanation.