feminism in co ali tion Feminism in Coa lit ion liza taylor Feminism in Coa lit ion Thinking with US Women of Color Feminism duke university press Durham and London 2022 © 2022 duke university press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by A. Mattson Gallagher Typeset in Chaparral Pro by Westchester Publishing Services Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data Names: Taylor, Liza, [date] author. Title: Feminism in coalition : thinking with US women of color feminism / Liza Taylor. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022020478 (print) LCCN 2022020479 (ebook) ISBN 9781478016519 (hardcover) ISBN 9781478019152 (paperback) ISBN 9781478023784 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Womanism. | Womanism—United States. | Feminism—United States. | African American feminists. | Feminist theory—United States. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Black Studies (Global) Classification: LCC HQ1197 .T395 2022 (print) | LCC HQ1197 (ebook) | DDC 305.420973—dc23/eng/20220705 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020478 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020479 Cover art: Darius Quarles, Coalition, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 30 × 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist. To the students who took Feminism in Co alit ion at lmu (spring 2016 and spring 2018) and Elon (spring 2020). This is for you. Contents Acknowl edgments ix Introduction 1 1. From Rosa Luxemburg to the Combahee River Collective: 33 Spontaneous Co ali tion as a Precursor to Intersectional Marxism and Politico- Ethical Co ali tion Politics 2. Women of Color Feminism and Politico-E thical Coa li tion 67 Politics: Recentering the Politics of Co ali tion with Reagon, Smith, Combahee, and Lorde 3. Co ali tion from the Inside Out: Struggling toward Coa li tional 106 Identity and Developing a Co ali tional Consciousness with Lorde, Anzaldúa, Sandoval, and Pratt 4. Writing Feminist Theory, D oing Feminist Politics: Rethinking 150 Collective Feminist Authorship with This Bridge Called My Back 5. The W omen’s March on Washington and Politico-E thical 189 Co ali tional Opportunities in the Age of Trump Conclusion: Lessons for Con temporary and Future 225 Feminist Activists Notes 249 References 259 Index 277 This page intentionally left blank Acknowl edgments Thank you to the Women of Color feminist authors of the texts referenced throughout this book. I’m deeply indebted to all of you for your willing- ness to share your lived experiences and for your brilliant conceptual and po liti cal formulations. Writing a “po liti cal theory” doctoral dissertation that aimed to center the concepts and theories of US Women of Color feminism was no small feat. I could not have completed it without the help of several people. Thank you to Geoffrey Whitehall and Lori Marso for helping to put back together the pieces of my work when I encountered intense re sis- tance. Thank you to my dissertation committee (Carole Pateman, Joshua Dienstag, Juliet Williams, and Ray Rocco) for passing an unconventional po liti cal theory dissertation, with a special thanks to Juliet for encouraging me to name t hese authors and texts as primary. Thank you to the W omen of Color feminism fellow travelers who sustained me and this proj ect be- yond the University of California at Los Angeles. Without you, this book never would have come to fruition. A special thanks to Zein Murib. Upon discovering our shared interest in co ali tion politics and Women of Color feminism at a 2014 Western Po liti cal Science Association panel, we set out to find other po liti cal science scholars working in this area. A year l ater, our first “Feminism in Co ali tion” panel was born. Thank you to Juliet Hooker,