Patricia Hill Collins Analysis

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Patricia Hill Collins, a contemporary American sociologist, is known for her work surrounding feminism and gender within the African-American community. Her work has roots in earlier theorists thought, such as Kimberlé Crenshaw and W. E. B. Du Bois, who both focused on the complexities of multiple identities, and exposing the intersections of race and gender in American society. Collins most famous work, Black Feminist Thought, focused on black women’s experience due to their intersectional identities, and how sociohistorical aspects of American culture, such as slavery, come into play during the modern day that shape the lives of black women. Collins’ work is immensely important in the field of race and gender relations in America. Collins works closely with the theory of intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Intersectionality refers to how different areas of oppressions intersect each other, such as race, ethnicity, nation, social class, gender, sexuality, and age, to shape the ways that one is marginalized (Crenshaw, 1991, p.1244). Collins expands on this idea with…show more content…
Many of the stereotypes associated with black women have a history with slavery, such as the idea of them being mammies, or the notion of the bad black woman. This is connected to W. E. B. Du Bois’ idea of the double consciousness. The term describes the internal conflict that members of subordinate groups have while in an society that still oppresses them. It is the idea that a person looks at themselves through the eyes of the racist society that they are in (Du Bois, 1903). Thus, the controlled images not only effect how people outside the subordinated group see black women, but also how black women see
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