Black womanhood (black female identity) and morality (ethical logic and moral reasoning) are concepts constructed by cultural and religious ideologies. Ideologies are ideas that shape and form our world, or reality as we know it. However, ideas about black women, who they are, their motivations, their moral choices are often misconstrued by Western society. Instead, a caricature, one that is often unrecognizable to black women themselves, is presented as the reality of black womanhood. black women’s socio historical status and moral situation in the West has often left them silenced, erased and oppressed such that their voices and choices are obscured, misunderstood as a lack of morality. Black women, however demonstrate a great deal of moral agency in the ways they navigate the tripartite oppressions of race gender and class. This class will offer insight into the particularities of black women’s historical and contemporary moral situation, as well as offer an introduction into the sources, methodologies and teloi of womanist Ethics as a practice of survival.
- Teacher: Bryant Courtney