A Black Feminist’s Dilemma

Abstract

Me, Myself as a Black Feminist My politics are rooted in anti-racism and black feminism. Pragna Patel articulates and emphasises the origins and use of the political term 'black' to represent the solidarity amongst Asian and African Caribbean people and other minorities in resisting race and gender oppression in the UK (Patel, 1997). Heidi Mirza points out that, as British black women 'we as racialized, gendered subjects can collectively mark our presence in a world where black women have for so long been denied the privilege to speak' (Mirza, 1997). I am considered to be a member of the Indian Sikh diaspora within Britain, the country of my birth. I have never identified solely as a Sikh woman as I have never analysed my oppression entirely on my faith. Although I identify a Sikh heritage in conjunction with my ethnicity and diasporic experiences of my family, my perceptions of my experiences of prejudice and discrimination have always been as a result of any one or a combination of my race, class, age and gender. I therefore identify as a black feminist. Within this article I refer to Sikh, Black and Asian as appropriate to give meaning and context to the social locations and not as mere interchangeable labels where meaning is irrelevant or 'ethnic neutral'.