Critical Social Inquiry 0357 - Black and Asian American Feminist Solidarities

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic that laid bare the inequalities of our society and the recent murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans, alliances between communities of color have never been so critically important. This course examines the history of Black and Asian American feminist solidarities and activisms in their fight against racism, sexism, capitalism, and imperialism. The course will begin with the history of Anti-Asian violence in the United States that dates back to1850s when the Chinese people arrived on the West Coast during the Gold Rush, and focus on the height of Asian American and Black feminist activism in the long 1960s. The emergence of the U.S. Third World Feminist Left during the 1960s and 1970s saw ending imperialism and colonialism as a necessary part of their fight and drew inspiration from Third World feminism and decolonization activities. The images of revolutionary Third World women engaged in anti-colonial struggles in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, especially during the Vietnam War era, inspired U.S.-based feminists of color and helped them embrace leftist Third World solidarity politics. Organizations such as the Third World Women's Alliance (TWWA) in New York city, which grew out of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), brought together Black, Puerto Rican, and Asian American women in the socialist fight to end imperialism, sexism, capitalism, and racism. Utilizing the rich archival sources found in the Sophia Smith Collection (TWWA records, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie papers, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum papers) as well as the Triple Jeopardy newspapers found in the Marshall I. Bloom papers at the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, students will have an opportunity to work together to produce a substantial research project. Keywords: history, Asian American, Feminism, Race, social movements

Time and Narrative This course is fully remote.