Black Feminist Theory in 21st-Century Art Education Research

Abstract

Minority discourses rarely inhabit the intellectual space of dominant theory (masculinist, Eurocentric, White, heteropatriarchical, able-ist, bourgeois); thus, Black women’s ability to be regarded as significant contributors to knowledge creation is negatively impacted. Art education is implicated in such oppression, as seen in the underrepresentation of Black women in art education research and in the field at large. This article presents Black Feminist Theory as an epistemological perspective to inform art education research methodologies in an effort to discontinue the historical and contemporary erasure of Black women’s standpoint knowledge and presence in the field.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to give a big up to my woes for providing the emotional support I needed to get through the writing and revising of this article. Amy K, Vanessa L., Karen H., and Dana C. K., you held me down and I am forever grateful for you women.

Notes

¹ Phrase taken from the quote that opens the article: Collins (2016, p. 134).

² This story does not include all of the details of the interaction. Certain details of the experience may inform the readers of the White man’s identity. It is not my intent to publicly shame any colleague in the field; therefore, the purpose of this story is only to share details that will help readers understand the behavior that I have categorized as academic hegemony.

³ “Senior” here refers to stage in career, not necessarily age. At the time of this encounter, I was considered a junior-level academic/researcher.

⁴ There is an overwhelming amount of critical events that happened between this large gap of time that were integral to the development, maintenance, and progression of BFT. In no way can this article articulate the breadth of BFT; therefore, the author emphasizes critical portions that she deems relevant to communicating the overarching goals of BFT.

⁵ Others include Third World Women’s Alliance (1968-1979), National Alliance of Black Feminists (1976-1980), and Black Women Organized for Action (1973-1980).

⁶ While some scholars use Black feminist theory and Black feminist thought interchangeably, this article will be specific in that my use of the acronym BFT will always refer to Black feminist theory, unless noted otherwise.

⁷ While “[intersectionality] has provided an intellectual political ‘homeplace’ for black feminists to organize and theorize” (Nash, 2011, p. 470), it should be viewed more as a product of BFT, as opposed to its sole lens. Essentially, intersectionality is but one methodological tool in a larger Black feminist theoretical arsenal. Black feminists have to consider under what conditions might intersectionality be most analytically useful. See Nash (2011) for additional critique on intersectionality and the problems with permanently coupling BFT and intersectionality.

⁸ Bey (2016) refers to Black feminist thought in his use of the acronym “BFT.”

⁹ “From the mammies, Jezebels, and breeder women of slavery to the smiling Aunt Jemimas on pancake mix boxes, ubiquitous Black prostitutes, and ever-present welfare mothers of contemporary popular culture, the nexus of negative stereotypical images applied to African-American women has been fundamental to Black women’s oppression” (Collins, 1991, p. 7).

¹⁰ These patterns would be considered as grammatical errors or as an “unworthy approximation of Standard English by the uneducated” (Barry, 2017, para. 6). www.aaihs.org/talking-black-in-america-a-new-film-on-african-american-english/

¹¹ I will not provide an exhaustive list, but will highlight research that thoroughly illustrates how BFT can be situated in art education research.

¹² I found essays, articles, and book chapters that detailed experiences of Black women in art education, and some of the authors might have explicitly claimed a BFT lens in the writing; however, this article speaks specifically to empirical research in which a researcher has established a guiding question; a population; phenomena; or behavior that is being studied; a methodology; and results/findings. This does not negate the work and ideas shared by the other authors, and I could argue that their work is research as well. However, for this article, attending to a call specific to methodology in the institutionalized understanding of research, I have narrowed my examples to represent this specificity.

¹³ Holt (2017) explained that, in some instances, White male voices downplayed Godfrey’s influence on the field at large, citing her as having “relatively little impact” (p. 237), and being “wonderful as an art supervisor working with teachers, probably African American teachers, and working with children…” (pp. 237–238). Critiquing his understanding of “impactful”, Holt’s research initiated questions such as: who defines what “impact” looks like? and impactful to whom? Specifically, how does this understanding of impact position people of color in the art education field if what primarily impacts them (Black people) is not adequate enough to be qualified as impactful to the field at large?

¹⁴ I must acknowledge that three (all Black women) of the five research articles described were found in the journal Visual Culture & Gender, which is described as “an annual international, peer-reviewed, freely accessed, multimedia online journal whose purpose is to encourage and promote understanding of how visual culture constructs gender in context with representations of race, age, sexuality, (dis)ability, and social class” (http://vcg.emitto.net/index.php/vcg/about). While peripherally so, the saturation of Black feminist research in this particular journal speaks to the venue in which Black women art educators feel they can disseminate their work. Is Black feminist research in art education relegated to topic-specific journals since the research speaks explicitly to, about, and with Black women? Does not a more “mainstream” venue see Black feminist research as relevant to the general field? This may not be the case, and perhaps all art education research publication venues welcome BFT-informed research; however, this still speaks volumes to what Black feminists assume as far as acceptance and what is a “homeplace” for their work. Black feminists did not come to this conclusion on their own, and maybe not even through the words of the journals, but maybe through the hidden curriculum and actions of the art education field at large.

¹⁵ Brushes with History: Imagination and Innovation in Art Education History was created “with the goal of providing a forum for presentation and discussion of ideas, issues, information, and research approaches utilized in the historical investigation of art education within local and global contexts. We will offer opportunities to engage with the rich resources in art education history at TC and beyond, explore more sophisticated approaches and methods of historical research, encourage interest in historical research, and extend the conversation on how meaning is produced in historical research trends and representations.” Retrieved from www.tc.columbia.edu/conferences/brushes-with-history/