Talking back to white Italy: unpacking the knot of racism, colonialism and feminism from the perspective of Black asylum-seeking and refugee women

Abstract

The relationship between feminist movements and racialised migrant women in Europe remains marred by the continued marginalisation of migrant women’s political claims in feminist struggles, despite the circulation of intersectional discourses within academic and activist circles. This article documents important spaces of experimentation which Black activists are creating within the Italian feminist movement to give voice to racialised migrant women without the mediating intervention of white feminists. Rooted in an understanding of the margins as a site of resistance, such efforts engage in practices of refusal and talking back to reclaim a Black epistemic identity which powerfully interpellates Italian institutions and feminist activists. Black migrant women demand the recognition not only of their inherent capacity to speak, act, decide, but also of their ability to articulate a political analysis and a political project to challenge the intersectional discrimination and violence they face. Their struggle centres work as a site of compounding gendered and racialised exploitation, thus carrying the potential to expand feminist thinking and action on reproductive labour, labour participation and equal pay.