Knowing Your History: The Foundation of Activist Movements

This week, we read an interview of Barbara Smith, a leader in the Black feminist movement. She discusses the challenges that she encountered throughout years of activism in times that were more oppressive than today. We see how her identity as a Black lesbian woman affects her life in separate contexts as well as a combined context. She had to navigate multiple different activist spaces with groups that shared some of her goals but didn’t see eye to eye with her based on their differing identities and communities. It’s important for modern activists to be aware of all the compromises that had to be made and the struggles that foundational figures in different movements went through to foster intersectionality and cohesion that allowed them to progress in their efforts. A quote from Smith speaks to this, as she says, “During a time when gay people can get married, and Beyoncé says she’s a feminist, it’s difficult to explain what we were up against in the late 1970s.”

Smith’s words are important because she reminds us that a lot of work had to be put in to create the environment in which we exist today, and there is still so much that needs to be done. For that reason, activists must continue to work together to reach common goals, even if some of their other views do not align. In our plights, we must be willing to navigate new environments and learn how to establish communities that are safer for people of differing identities while also realizing that there are short-term and long-term goals that need to be considered. Trans rights activists realize that many other movements do not understand some of the experiences or complexities of transgender identities, but that doesn’t mean they need to work with people that dehumanize/disrespect them. Understanding is important for cohesion as a movement, but first and foremost, respect must be present in a movement to establish intersectionality.